The Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Advertiser. — 1876-09-16 (Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England)

THE RECTOR UPON THE  'HORRORS IN BULGARIA..  Those who listened to the Rector of Virolver. • hampton, at the meeting last week, in the Agricultural Hall, felt that he was on fire with indignation at the foul deeds that he denounced, and that he was filled with pity for the outraged. Christians. To him and to others who spoke, the question was one that Christianity and humanity impelled to feel deeply and keenly upon, and it is not, therefore, surprising that he decided to hold a special service in St. Peter's Church, "to commemorate the martyrs in the Bulgarian massacre, and to express before God sympathy with the homeless and destitute survivors." There was a very large congregation, all evidently greatly interested in the object of the service. Never was the old fane put to use more fitting the great love of Him whose heart embraces all our race. Very opportunely the New Testament lesson consisted of that parable which teaches the Christian's practical duty to his suffering fellow-men, even though they be aliens to him and his—the story Of the Samaritan who poured oil and wine into the wounds the thieves had made in the man by the way-side. The lesson of this deed has come and will go on echoing through all time. The words of the anthem were appropriate, and especially so one of the hymns, the first verse of which was :  Oh, God of love 1 Oh, King of Peace! Make wars throughout the world to cease; The wrath of sinful men restrain, Give peace, oh, God ! give peace again.  The sermon was preached by the Rector (the Rev. J. H. Iles), who took for his text the Bth verse of the 10th chapter of St. Matthew. Having, in a few sentences, introduced his discourse by urging the duty of freely using the good gifts of God for the good of the bodies and souls of others, the preacher plunged into the subject of the evening. They were there that night to speak of those who had been sacrificed in other countries, who had given up their lives because of their religion. He had ventured to call them martyrs because it was their Christianity that made the difference between them and their murderers, that provoked against them the wrath of those who did not believe in Christ, but in the great prophet Mahomet. There could be no doubt that great atrocities had been committed, which were made more terrible by the fact that the evil deeds had not been committed only by tho wandering hordes of soldiers like the wild Cir-1:3881a11% but also by the Mahometan neighbours of the Christians. It was only too true that pictures rose before them of open graves and grave- ' less bodies, while around arose the cries of homeless orphans, the wails of mothers, the keen anguish of outraged women, and the wild despair of mutilated fathers. Most naturally they asked themselves what had England to do with all that? I No doubt their traditional policy for 40 years had been to preserve the integrity of Turkey. If they deemed the Crimean war to have been a mistake, they should be most careful at the present crisis not to provoke another war. England by her most determined non-intervention may have prevented the worst of all kind of ware a religious war. It had been stated, that if we had gone directly against the Turk,,