Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-12-13

I is the nourisner, buy my frult. As you
! look out of the window you see the Moham-
meians. who are in large majority in the
/ city. at prayer. And il it were put to vote
who should be king Of all the earth, fifteen
t thous and in that city would say Christ, but
one hundred and thirty thousand would say
I Mohammed. Looking from the window, you
I see on the housetops and on the streets Mo-
( hammedaus at worship The muezzln, or the
B officers Of religion who announce the time of
/ worship, appear high up on the different
mnarets or tail towers, and walk around the
-minaret, inc.osed by a railing and cry in a
/ sat and mumbling way: "God Is great
bear witness that there is no God but God.
/ / bear witness that Mohammed is the
/ apostle of God. Come to prayersi Come to
! saiyationi God is great. There is no other
but God Prayers are better than sleep
| Five times DAY must the Mohammedan
engage in worship As he begins he turns
his face toward the city of Mecca. and I'M
rolls upon the ground rug which he almost
| always carries With his thumbs touching
the fobes of his ears and holding his face
between his hands, he cries: God is great"
Then folding his hands across his girdle, he
locks down aud says Holiness to Thee,O
God, and praise be to Thee. Great
ness, There is no deity but Thee"
Then the worshiper sits upon his heels, then
he touches his nose to the rug, and then his
forehead, these genufections accompanied
with the cry, Great is Cod Then, raising
the forefinger of his right hand toward
heaven he says Il testify there Is no deity
but God and | testify that Mohammed is
the servant of God, and the messenger of
God" The prayers close by the worshiper
holding his hands opened upward as if to
take the divine blessing. and then his hanfs
are rubbed over his face as if to convey the
blessing to his entire body
There are two or three conmendable
NVoI,n, &c hat
its disciples wash before every act OF prayer,
and that is five times day, and there is
a gospel in cleanliness. Another commend.
able thing is they don't care who is looking
AMI nothing can stop them in their prayer.
Another thing is that by the order of Mo
manned, and an order obeyed for
thirteen hundred years, no Moham-
medan touches strong drink. But the
polvgamy the many wifehood of Mohomme-
Danish, has made that religion the unutter-
able AID everlasting curse OF woman, and
when woman sinxs the cs sinks The
proposition recently made in high ecclesi-
astical places for the reformation of Moham-
mechanism instead of its obliteration is like
an attempt to improve plague or educate
leprosy There is only one thing that will
ever reform Mohanmedanisnl, and that is
its extirpation from the face OF the earth by
the power OF the Gospel OF the Son of God,
which makes not only man, but woman, free
for this life and free for the life to come.
The spirit of the horrible religion which
prevades the city of Damascus, along whose
streets we walk and out of whose baZars we
make purchases. and in whose mosques we
study the wood carvings and bedlzements
were demonstrated as late as 1859, wlan In
this city it put to death 5000 Christians In
forey-eight hours and put to the torch 1000
Christian homes AMI those streets we walk
to-day were red with the carnage, and the
shrie1s and groans Of the dying and dlshon-
.1ls.f Ninf.o hall
on earth. This went on until Moharlme-
dan, better than his religion Ab1-el-kader
by name, a great soldier, who in one
war had with $500 troops beaten $1,000
of the enemy, now protested against
this massacre and gathered the Chris:
tians of Damascus into castles and
private houses and filed his own home
with the affrighted sufferers. After a while
the mob came TO his d )or aud demanded the
christian dogs whom hs was shelteriTs.
And Abd-sl-Kaler mounted II horse and
drew his sword, and with few of his old
soldiers around him charged on the mob and
cried. "Wretchesl Is this the way you honor
the prophet? May his curses be upon you'll
Shame on you Shamel You will yet live
to repent. You think you may do as you
please with the Christians but the day of
retribution will come. The Franks will yet
turn your mosques into churches. Not
Christian will l give up. They are my
the order to fire."
Then by the might OF one great soul under
God the wave of assassination rolled back
Huzza for Abd-el-Kaderl Although now we
Americans and foreigners pass through the
streets of Damascus unhindered, there is in
many parts of the city the subdued hissingof
a hatred for Christianity that il it dared
would put to death every man, woman and
child in Damascus who does not declare al
legiance to Mohamsnet. But ! am glad to
say that wide, hard, splendid turnpike
road has within a few years been con-
strueted rom Beyrout, on the shore of the
Mediterranean, to this city of Damascus, and
if ever again the wholesale assassination is
attempted French troops and English troops
would, with cling bits and lightning
hoofs, dash up the hills and down this Da-
nascus pain and leave the Mohammedap /
murderers dead on the floor of their mosques
and seraglios. 1t is too late in the history of
the world for governments to allow such
things the modern massacre at Damascus.
For such mttrderous attacks on Christian /
missionaries and Christian disciples the Cos.
pei is not 50 appropriate as bullets or sabers !
arp and heavy enough to cut through with !
one stroKe tro1I crown of head - saddle.
But must say that this city g Damascus
as l see it now is moi as absorbing as the Da
mascus of olden times. l turn my back upon |
the bazars with rugs fascinating the mer=
chants from Bagdad and the Indian textile |
fabric of Incompatible make and the manu-
featured saddles and brides gay enough for |
princes of the orient to ride and pull, and |
baths where abution becomes inspiration, \
and the homes of those bar gain makers of |
to-day marbled and divaned and fountained |
and upholstered aud mo ,aiced and arabes-
qued and colonaGei until nothing can be |
added, and the sp.en lid remains of the great
mosque Of John, originally built with gates
SO heavy that it required five men to turn /
them. and columns of porphyry aud kueela
ing places framed in diamond and seventy 4
four sta ne glass windows and six hundred 1
lamps of pure gold. single prayer offered I
in this mosque a 4 to be worth thirty thou 4
sand prayers offered in any other place ! /
turn my bacG on all these and see Damascus !
as it was when this narrow street which the |
Bible calls Straight was great wide street, |
a New York Broadway or q Partisan Champs |
Elysees a great thoroughfare crossing the /
city from gate TO gate. along which tramped |
and rolled the pomp of all nations.
There goes Abraham, the father of all the /
faithful He has in this city been purchas !
ing celebrated slave. There goes Ben Ha
dad Of Bible times, leading thirty-two con-
quered nonarchs. There goes David, King.
warrior and sacred roet. There goes Tanner
lane the conqueror. There goes Haroun al
Raschid, once the commali Ter Il an army of |
ninety-fve thousand Persia us and Arabs
There comes warrior on his way to the bar
the word has forgotten how to make /
Damascus blade which the interlacings Of |
color changing at every new turn of the !
light many colors coming and going and in /
terjoinIng, the blade so keen it could cut in /
twain an object without making the lower |
part of the object tremble with an elasticity /
that could not be broken, though YOU brought 4
the point of the sword clear back to the (
hilt and having watere1 appearance /
which made the blade seem as though Just /
dipped in clear fountain. a triumph of cut
lery which a thou sarii moiern foun irymen !
AMI chemists have attempted in vain to imi- /
tate. On the side of this street Gamasks /
named after this city. figures of animals and
fruits and landscapes here being first wrought /
into silk-damasks. And specimens of das j
maskeening by which III this city steel aud /
iron were first gravel, and then the groves
filed with wire OF 20 diam :eeniny. But |
stand back or be run over. for here are at the 1
gates OF the city la zen caravans from Aleppo I
in one direction, an from Jerusalem in an
other direction, and caravans of all nations .
paying toll to the supremacy. Great is Da-
nlascuS
But what most stirs my soul is neither !
chariot nor caravan nor bazar nor palace,
but a blind man passing along the street, |
small OF stature and insignificant in personal
appearance. Oh, yes; we have seen him be-
fore. He was one of that cavalcade coming |
from Jerusalem to Damascus to kill Chris 1
tians and we saw him and his horse tumble /
up there on the road some distance out of the +
city, and he got up blind. YES, it is Saul Of /
Tarsus now gong ong this street called /