SYMPATHY WITH EL MAHDI.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 5, 22 May 1885, Page 19

SYMPATHY WITH EL MAHDI.

In reading some of our exchanges, we are struck by the vehement expressions of sympathy for El Mahdi/ Very loyal Englishmen may pretend to' think that; British conquest in the East means' the spread of Christianity ; intelligent Englishmen, loyaVbr not, do "not pretend this; but they say justly, that British conquests in the East mean? the protection of Christianity wherever it 'exists." El Mabdi is a, fanatic. Missionaries and Sisters' are in his power; it is" not only against the English, but against Christianity,. shat, he. is arrayed. Although the^ Christian' writers of sotae of our exchanges cannot sympathise with the motives in English conquest, in the Ea3t, and the exaggerated sorrow expressed/ in : America for England's losses in the Soudan seems entirely/unnecessary, yet condolence with a. Mohammedan fanatic is inconsistent with Christian professions* Similarly,' lrish' sympathy with Bussia Is entirely v misplaced. \M England has her Ireland, Busaia-hasher Poland, in which penal lawr have never, been* 'repealed. Patriotism, even in print, ought to be tempered by reason.-— New York Freeman.