The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1894-11-30

Lucknow, India. The text chosen was:
Deuteronomy 20: 10: "When thou shalt
besiege a city long time in making
war against it to take it, thou shalt
not destroy the trees thereof by fore
ing an AK against them.
The awfulest thing in war is besiege-
ment, for 10 the work of deadly
weapons it adds hunger and starvation
and plague. Besiegement is sometimes
necessary, but my text commands
mercy even in that. The fruit trees
must be spared because they afford food
for man. Thou shalt not destroy
the trees thereof by forcing an AK
against them" But in my recent jour
ney round the world found at Luck
now, India, the remains of the most
merciless besiegement of the ages, and
/ proceed to tell you that story for
four great reasons: to show you what
horrid thing war is and to make you
all advocates for peace: to show you
what genuine Christian character is
under bombardment: TO put corona
ton on Christian courage: and to show
you how splendidly good people die.
As our train glided into the dimly
lighted station, l asked the guard, ''ls
this Lucknow" and he answered,
Lucknow" at the pronunciation of
which proper name strong emotions
rushed through body, mind and soul.
The word is synonym of suffering,
of cruelty, of heroism, of horror such
as is suggested by hardly any other
word We have for thirty-ive years
been reading of the agonies there en-
dured and the daring deeds there wit
messed. 1t was my great desire to
have some one who had witnessed the
scenes transacted in Lucknow in 1857
conduct us over the place. We found
just the man. lie was young soldier
at the time the greatest mutiny OF the
ages broke out, and he was put with
others inside the Residency, which
was cluster of buildings making a
fortress in which the representatives
of the English government lived, and
which was to be the scene of an endur-
ance and bombardment the story of
which, poetry, and painting, and his
tory, and secular and sacred eloquence
have been trying to depict. Our escort
not only had good memory of what
had happened, but had talent enough
to rehearse the tragedy.
In the early part of 1857 all over
India the natives were ready to break
out in rebellion against all foreigners,
and especially against the civil and
military representatives, of the English
government
A half dozen causes are mentioned
for the feeling of discomfort and in
surrection that was evidenced through
out India. The most of these causes
were mere preteXts. Creased cart
tridges were no doubt an eXaspera-
ton The grease ordered by the En-
glish government to be used on these
cartridges was taken from cows or
pigs, and grease to the Hindoos is un-
clean, and to bite these cartridges at
the loading of the guns would be an
offense to the Hindoos' religion. The
leaders of the Hindoos said that these
CREASED cartridges were only part of
an attempt by the English government
to make the natives give up their re-
ligion; hence unbounded indignation
was aroused.
Another cause of the mutiny was
that another large province of India
had been annexed to the British en-
pre-, and thousands of officials in the
employ of the king of that province
were thrown out of position, and they
were all ready for trouble making.
Another cause was said to be the
bad government exercised by some
English officials in India.
The simple fact was that the natives
of India are a conquered race, and the
English were the conquerors. For 100
years the English sceptre had been
waved over India, and the Indians
wanted TO break that sceptre. There
never had been any love or sympathy
between the natives of India and the
Europeans; there is none now.
Before the time of the great mutiny
the English government risked much
power in the hands of the natives. Too
many of them manned the forts. Too
many of them were in governmental
employ. And now the time had come
for wide outbreak. The natives had
persuaded themselves that they could
send the English government flying.
and TO accomplish it dagger, and
sword, and firearms, and mutilation,
and slaughter must do their worst.
1t was evident in Lucknow that the
natives were about to rise and put to
death all the Europeans they could
lay their hands on. and into the Resi-
dency the Christian population of
| Lucknow fastened for defense from
the tigers in human form which were
growing for their victims. The occu-
pants of the Residency or fort were
military and non-combatants, men,
women and children, in number about
1,6o9. / suggest in one sentence some
of the chief woes to which they were
subjected, when l say that these peo-
pie were in the Residency five months
without a single change of clothing,
some of the time the heat at 100 and
1870 degrees, the place black with flies
and all a-squirm with vermin, firing
of the enemy upon them ceasing
neither day nor night, tho hospital
crowded with the diving smallnox