Widnes Examiner. — 1899-02-10 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

ABOUC 031DURNIAN."  Sir,—lt will doubtless be iii the recollection of your readers, that after the terrible carnage at Omdurman a Thanksgiving Service was held on the field of betties. Surrounded by thousands of awfully mangled and dead bodies of men and animals, and with their ears pierced with the agonising cries of the weunded, whose blood crimsoned the ground, three preachers of the Gospel were found fit and willing to " perform " the gruesome ceremony. I dare not dwell even for a little on this strange proceeding ;it ie. too revolting for anyone who has the humble,t conception of the merciful and gracious being whom we call God. But as one of the actors in the scene has appeared in the press as an apologist for the killing of the wounded dervishes which Newspaper Correspondents allege took place after the victory, I will devote a few remarks to his apology. In a letter under the above heading published in the "Methodist Times" and reproduced in the "Manchester Guardian "of the 3rd inst., Mr. 0.5. Watkine,Wesleyan Chaplain to the forces on the Nile says," With regard to the order issued (by the Sirdar I presume) previous to the halle, which I understand Mr. Bennett to say was a command te iill all wounded dervishes—l have not kept a copy of that order—bur, as my memory serves me,it was to the effect that all dingerous wounded were ta be at once killed." That is to say the poor halfarmed children of the desert who were not deprived of life by the Maxims,Gatlings and other approved weapons of Christendom, but were laid weltering in their blood on the burning sand, were to be finished off by the bayonet lest in their death struggle they should prove daneerous to the heroes of the d iy. Again, the Methodist MAO tin says, "At Omdurman I saw many wounded men killed," but excises the killing on the ground that the victims " were all showing fight," and indignimtly ask 3 "was it brutal to kill such men." But this is not all. With a fine gush of patriotiim the Methodist Chaplain Vames those who make chirps of cruelty againa the brave fellows who performed the wotk " in the waste Soudan for Queen and Country." I fear Mr. 0. S. Watkins, like many others has mistaken his calling : he shou'd be a Minister others, Sword and not of the Cross. The cruel, vindictive spirit which breathes through his letter is about as different to the spirit of Christ as hell ie to heaven. Jesus came not into the world "to destroy men's lives, but to save them" ; and to his followers he left such instructions as these, " I sty unto you, that ye resiet no; evil : but whosoever shall smite thre on thy right cheek, turn t ) him the other also." " Leve your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to tnetn that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you." And then, to erriona.sise this blessed and loving teaching He Himself prayed for Hie murderers when they were nailing Him to the Cross. In the light of all this how horrible must the war in the Soudae appear to minds not led astray by the maxims of the world. If JE sus is to be regarded as our exemplar it seems to me that under no circumstances whatever is it lawful forCbristian men t) imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow creatures. All the talk that one hears in the pulpit and elsewhere about just wars, self defence &c , is only another development of peer hum an nature.—Yours tru'y, lONA.