The Executive Committee to the Commissioners for Aiding Refugees Court of Appeals -Decision in the case of Bethel Lodge, No. 4, vs. D. 59, 60, 118, 119, 120, 175, 179, 180, 254, 255, 256, 314, 315, 316, 382, 383, 384 Temple Beth-El Facing p. 189 VOL. XI JULY, 1891 No. I WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DOING? TH HE persecution of millions of inoffensive people in the most barbarous manner, has now been proceeding for years, a persecution which has no parallel in history, and to which the incidents of fanatical outbursts in the Middle Ages disappear as insignificant, and which surpasses in refined cruelty the holocausts of the Crusades. No authoritative voice has been heard from the Christian Church as an organized body against practices which put to shame the profession of any religion. If a few hundred people are selected as victims by the King of Dahomey, the civilized world stand aghast, and one power or the other seems ready to send an army to repress this relic of barbarism, but Russia seems at liberty to issue ukase after ukase, which draws the thumbscrews upon the hapless victims of fanaticism and Pan-slavAutocrat with a word of protest or reproval. It is true Englishmen were courageous enough to meet at the Mansion House of London, and to send petitions to this modern Nero, which, however, he refused to receive. 1900 years after the declaration of the religion of love, after the peopling of the Western World with disciples and followers of the Nazarene teacher, the professions of humanity, of Christian charity, of Christian compassion, are as loud as they ever were. Millions are spent for the purpose of sending missionaries to all parts of the world, in order to convert the Pagan, the Moslem, the Hindoo, the followers of Confucius, into good Christians. What would these missionaries answer if these heathens would read to them the uncontradicted reports of the inhuman practices to which the Russian head of the Greek Church exposes millions of kinsmen of him he accepts as his God? What a beautiful illustration that record furnishes of the duties of the Christian religion of the divine character of its professions, of the elevated position which its teachers and representatives afford. Many of the priests, preachers and missionaries claim to be direct representatives of the divine government. Can they stand by and see Christianity thus burlesqued, disgraced and vilified, and will it not be accepted as tacit consent if the voice of the various churches remains hushed and silent? They, the representatives of God on earth as they claim to be, fear the power of a simple human being, of a man who is afraid of losing his life which he has forfeited a thousand times by the cruelties which he sanctions. Can they afford to keep silent longer, to look on with indifference, with equanimity, as thousands of human beings are crushed, life and spirit trailed in the dust, and for no other offense than being members of the most ancient race and of professing a faith which, they themselves acknowledge is not only of divine origin, but to which they look for the credentials of their own faith? We are confident that if the churches were animated by the true spirit of religiosity and of divine inspiration they would have spoken out long ago in thunders of indignation at the disgrace, the degradation, the humiliation to which the practices of the Russian autocrat have exposed the Christian Church. What is more surprising yet than even this incomprehensible silence of the teachers of the religion, is the reluctance manifested by citizens of various countries in receiving the unfortunate refugees of unparalleled tyranny, by evincing a disposition to thrust back the victim, who flies for his life, into the dungeon from which he has happily escaped, in refusing aid and support to the helpless babes, to the enfeebled women, to the terrorized father, the kindness, the encouragement-nay, the brotherly love due from one human being to another, and upon which the Old and New Testament rest, as the one solid foundatian of the religious faith that is in them. Is it possible that in civilized communities, the question should be discussed whether the helpless victims of persecution should be granted an asylum and should be |