Year: 1877

4


led his followers In person that "Ths
sword d the key Of heaven and Of hell;
drop Of blood shed in the cause Of GoD,
or night spent In srms Is of more avail
than two months Of fasting and prayer;
whoever falls IN battle, his sins are for
given him, and ss the day Of Judgment
the loss Of his limbs shall be supplied BY
the wings OF cherubim" If there be
one feature of the war now being waged
BY Turkey more prominent than
another it 10 her determination to ex.
hsust every resource before she allows
the cross to fost over the Crescent. She
has powerful navy and q respectable
army, old scores of insult to wipe of and
intense hatred Of the inadel dog of
Christian. Armies and navies are good
things in their way, and particularly use.
full ut such time as this, when the in
vsder' forces are afoot. But men do not
alone make an army any more than ships
ale ne make navy. There must be a
moving cause, an impellIng power within
every bosom which fires the man to
deeds of valor and Of desperation, and
makes the man soldier. That
army fights best and dies hardest whose
rank and Ale are inspired by the most
quickening idea. Commanders may have
brains and skill; but unless their men be
under the pressure of some lofty idea
the army is an unwieldy, inert mass, like
q locomotive without steam. In such
countries as Turkey and Russia, where
ignorance il the common inheritance,
the people know little and care less of
the tricks and treaties of premiers, the
notes, memoranda and diplomatic strate-
gems of governments. No considerable
number OF Russians or Turks could tell
to-day why they are in the field any
more than that the Gear has ordered the
attack and the Sultan has summoned
the faithful to the defense. On both
sides they 60 to "obey orders" with the
absolute certainty of "breskins owners"
on one side. There is an old-time and
we'll seasoned hatred between the two
countries which will insure some savage
fighting. But the Turk holds in reserve
a force which he can launch with dresd-
iul effect against his enemy, and he
threatens to apply it forthwith as an en-
CINE of war. The Sbeik ul Islam, head
ofthe highest tribunal in the land, re.
presenting the most powerful combination
of church and state possible even under
an absolute dsspotism, is about to pro-
claim the Jeha1 or holy war.
He is training this mons
trous poli.ico ecclesiastical gun on
Russia, and when be fres it of the report
will 60 booming through the mountains
and valleys of Asia and Europe with an
effect hardly appreciated at this distance.
The proclamation of the holy war will
appeal TO the loftiest sentiment that can
inspire any man-the religious convic-
ton Of right-it will be received by the
Turks as the express command OF ALLAH
to gird up their loins and smite the un-
believer 10 the death. Firm in the bellei
that they are under special Divine p'o-
lection, and that the more Christians
they kill the more honor and
distinction will await them in paradise,
they will wage war to the knife
with every man, woman and child not
OF the kingdom of Islam. A war for
religions sake will supply the Turks
with great idea which will drive them
on, with whlrlwlnd violence, to all the
deviltry of which ignorant religious
fanatics are capable. 1t is part OF the
NJ Moslem creed that the Sultan. as the
vicar of Mshomet csnnet be wrong,
and that the ministers of his will can.
no. 20 astray. In this belief the Turks
will be armed for deeds which will sppsl
sad would amaze chrntendom if the
deviItries were new. Religious wars
have been the most hesrtless, cruel and
unrelenting in history; bsside them all
the purely political wars seem but childs
play.