Connecticut western news., 1890-12-10
CANAAN CONN. WEDNESDAY,

comes QulCe COiefaOle. TOT they Smg: "God is the nourisher, buy my bread;" "God is the nourisher, buy my milk" "God is the nourisher, b7y my fruit" As you look out of the window you see the Mohammedans, who are in large majority in the city, at prayer. And if it were put to vote who should be king of all the earth, fifteen thousand in that city would say Christ, but one hundred and thirty thousand would say Moham- med.
 Looking from the window you see on the housetops and on the streets Mohammedans at worship. The mu- ezzin, or the officers of religion, who announce the time of worship appear high up on the different minarets or tall towers and walk around the nina ret, inclosed by railing, and cry in a sad and mumbling way: "God is great. I bear witness that there Is no God but God. bear witness that Mohanmed is the apostle of God. Come to prayers! Come to salvation! God is great. There is no other but God. Prayers are better than sleep" Five times day must the Moham- medan engage in worship. As he be- gins he turns his face toward the city of Mecca and unrolls upon the ground a rug which he almost always carries. With his thumbs touching the lobes of his ears and holding his face between his hands he cries, "God is great"
 Then, folding his hands across his girdle. he looks down and says: "Holi- ness to thee, o God, and praise be to thee. Great is thy name. Great is thy greatness 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 genuflections accompanied with the cry, "Great is God" Then, raising the forefnger of his right hand toward heaven, he says: "I testify there is no deity but God, and testify that Mo hammed 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 hands are rubbed over his face as if to convey the bless ing to his entire body.
 WASHING BEFORE PRAYER.
 There are two or three commendable things about Mohsmmedanis1n. One is that it's disciples wash before every act of prayer, and that is five times a day, and there is a gospel of cleanli- ness Another commendable thing is, they don't care who is looking and nothing can stop them in their prayer. Another thing is that by the order ot Mohammed, and an order obeyed for thirteen hundred years, no Mohammed
 an touches strong drink. But the polygamy, the many wifehood of Mo hammedanism has made that religion the unutterable and everlasting curse of woman, and when woman sinks the race sinks The proposition recently made in high ecclesiastical places fol the reformation of Mohammedanisn instead of it's obliterarion is like an at tempt to improve a plague or educate leprosy. There is only one thing that will ever reform Mohammedan ism, and that is it's extirpation from the face of the earth by the power o1 the gospel of the Son of God, which l makes not only man but woman free for this life and free for the life te come.
 The spirit of the horrible religion ! which pervades the city of Damascus l along whose streets we walk and out o
 whose bazars we make purchases, and in whose mosques we study the wood carvings and bedizenments, was de ! monstrated as late as 1860, when i1 1 this city it put to death six thousand Christians in forty eight hours, and put l to the torch three thousand Christian homes, and those streets we walk today were red with the carnage, and the shrieks and groans of the dying and l dishonored men and women made this place hell on earth. This went oT l until Mohammedan, better than his l religion, Abd- -Kader by name, a great soldier, who in one war had with twen- l ty-five hundred troops beaten sixty | | against this massacre and gathered the l Christians of Damascus into castles and private houses and filled his own homo with the affrighted sufferers.
 l After a while the mob came to his door and demanded the Christian
 dogs'' whom he was sheltering. And Abd-el-Kader mounted horse and drew his sword, and with a few of his
 old soldiers around him charged or the mob and cried: ''Wretches! Is
 this the way you honor the prophet
 May his curses be upon you! Shame
 on you! Sha1ne You will yet live
 to repent. You think you may dc
 as you please with the Christians,
 but thu day of retribution vii
 come The Franks will yet turn you
 tian will I give up. They are m.
 brothers. Stand back or l will giv'
 my men the order to fire" Then b,
 the might of one great soul under Cox
 the wave of assassination rolled back
 Huzza for Abd-el-Kader! Althougl
 now we Americans and foreigners pas
 through the streets of Damascus un
 hindered, there is in many parts of tn
 city the subdued hissing of hatred flo
 Christianity that if it dared would pu
 to death every man, woman and chil'
 in Damascus who does not declare ale
 glance to Mohammed.
 But I am glad to say that wide
 hard, splendid turnpike road has withi
 a few years been constructed from Bey
 rout on the shore of the Mediterranea:
 to this city of Damascus, and, if eve
 again that wholesale assassination
 attempted, French troops and Englis