Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-12-08
reformation of Mohammedanisrn

the reformation of Mohammedanism
instead of its obliterarion is like an at
tempt to improve n plague or educate
lcprosy There is only one thing
that will ever reform Mohanmedan-
ism. 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 pervades 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 bedizenments, was de-
1nonstrated as lase as 1860, when in
this city it PIT to death six thousand
Christians in forty eight hours, and put
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
dishonored men and women made this
place a hell on earth. This went on
until a Mohammedan, better than his
religion, Add el-Kader by name, a great
soldier, who in one war had with TWEEN
ty-five hundred troops beaten sixty
thousand of the enemy, now protested
against this massacre and gathered the
Christians of Damascus into castles and
private houses and filled his own home
with the affrighted sufferers.
After while the mob came to his
door and demanded the christian
dogs whom he was sheltering. And
! Abd-el-Kader mounted d horse and
drew his sword, and with few of his
old soldiers around him charged on
the mob and cried: ''Wretches! Is
this the way you honor the prophet?
on you! Shame! You will yet live
to repent You think you may do
Us you please with the Christians,
but the day of retribution will
come. The Franks will yet turn your
mosques into churches. Not a Chris
tian will l give up. They are my
brothers. Stand back or l will give
my men the order to fire." Then by
| the might of one great soul under God
the wave of assassination rolled back.
Huzza for Abd-el-Kader! Although
now we Americans and foreigners pass
| through the streets of Damascus I'M
! hindered, there is in many parts of the
city the subdued kissing of a hatred for
| Christianity that if it dared would put
to death every man, woman and child
in Damascus who does not declare allie
| glance to MohaInmed.
But | am glad to say that a wide,
hard, splendid turnpike road has within
a few years been constructed from Bey
rout on the shore of the Mediterranean
| to this city of Damascus, and, if ever
again that wholesale assassination is
| attempted, French troops and English
troops would, with jingling bits and
| lightning hoofs, dash up the hills and
| down on this Damascus plain and leave
| the Mohanmedan murderers dead on
| the floor of their mosques and seragllOs.
| 1t is too late in the history of the world
| for governments to allow such things
| as the modern massacre at Damascus.
For such murderous attacks on Chris
tan disciples the gospel is not so APP
propriate as bullets or sabers sharp and
| heavy enough to cut through with one
stroke from crown of head to saddle
NOT THE OLD DAMASCUS
But l must say that this city of Da-
mascus as | see it now is not as absorb
ing as the Damascus of olden times. |
turn my back upon the bazars, with
rugs fascinating the merchants 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 ablutiOn becomes
| inspiration, and the homes of those bar
| gain makers of today, marbled and di-
| vaned and fountained and upholstered
and mosaiced and arabesqued and col
| onnaded until nothing can be added,
and the splendid 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
and kneeling places framed in diamond
and seventy-four stained glass windows
and six hundred lamps of pure gold, a
single prayer offered in this mosque
ers offered in any other place.
| turn my back on all these and see
| Damascus as it was when this narrow
| street, which the Bible calls Straight,
was u great wide street, New York
| Broadway or a Partisan Champs Ely
| sees, a great thOrOughfare crossing the
| city from gate to gate, along which
| tramped and rolled the pomp of all ma
| tons There goes Abraham, the father
| of all the faithful He has in this city
| been purchasing a celebrated slave
| There goes Ben Hadad of Bible times
| leading thirty-twO conquered mon
| archs. There goes David, king, war
| rior and sacred poet. There goes Tam
| erlane, the cOnqueror. There goes
| Haroun al Raschid, once the com
| mander of an army Of ninety-five thou
| sand Persians and Arabs. There comes
| a warrior on his way to the barracks,
carrying that kind of sword which the
world has forgotten how to make-a
| Damascus blade with the interlacings
| of color changing at every new turn of
| the light, many cOlOrs coming and go
| ing and interjoining, 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 the point of the sword clear
back to the hilt, and having watered
| appearance which made the blade seem
as though just dipped in a clear foun-
! tain. a triumph of cutlery which thou
sand modern foundrymen and chemists
| have attempted in vain to initiate. On
| the side of this street damasks, named
after this city, figures Of animals and
fruits and landscapes here being first
wrought into silk--damasks, and spec
linens of damaskeening, by which in
| this city steel and iron were first graved
and then the groves filled with wire of
| administering. But stand back
or be run over, for here are at the gates
of the city laden caravans from Aleppo
in one direction, and from Jerusalem
in another direction, and caravans of
all nations, paying toll to this suprem-
acy Great is Damascus