THE EUROPEAN SITUATION PROM AN AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 89, 13 April 1878, Page 4

THE EUROPEAN SITUATION PROM AN AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW.

On February 8, afc the week night service, the Eev. De . Witt Toltnage, after reviewing the principal events of the clay, is reported by the " New York Herald " to have closed his addres3 in the following manner : "The third event of the week is volcanic. Turkey crushed, Russia iriumphant, England aghast, the world confounded. What next ? you ask. That's what all the world asks. There has not been °such an intense moment in European politics during cur lifetime aB this moment. If England halt, she becomes a second-rate Power ; if she march, then all Europe is an Armageddon. May the God of Nations appear in this crisis. I am glad that the Turkish* Empire has perished. She was an old butcher, and the most cheerful poge of her history to me is her obituary. "Where shall hbr miserable old carcase be burierl ? Where are the spades long enough to dig a hole deep enough ?■ But I have no admiration for her conqueror, Russia. We have heard from that nation a good deal of snuffling cant about religion during the pas^ year. What does she care about true religion ? She has been one of I the world's most dreadful oppressors. ' Where is Poland ? Where are the myriads who have been strangled under the choking pressure of her hard heel ? I will not hide the fact that my deepest sympathies at this moment are for England-.. She has not always acted kindly to this nation, but what is the use of keeping old grudges good while the fact is certain that England and the United States stand side by sb'e to-day in the great, cause of civilisation and Christianity ? (Applause). When England is humiliated the church of God and the Cross of Christ are humiliated. Look at ;her churches, her Bible and missionary, societies, her universities ; look atiher throne, the purest in Europe if not in all the world. (Applause). The 'girl Victoria, kneeling with her ecclesiastical adviser ou the night before her coronation, made vows to God and promises to Eoglend, not one of which.she I has ever broken. (Applause). Her sorrows have been the world's sorrows; her bereavements the world's bereavements. Wherever there's a heart that knows how to admire pure, consecrated Christian womanhood there is an ; admirer of Queen Victoria. We unite with all the chapels and cathedrals of England and all the good people of the earth in praying, sinking, and shouting " God save the Queen J" (Applause). The fact is that the most we can do in this crisis of the world's history is to implore God to rise for the safety of His Church, for the deliverance of' the captives, for the downfall of despotism, for the ransom of all nations. Let sin perish and Christ reigrj. Though the ploughshare of battle cut through from St. George's Channel to the China Sea, Christ shall have all the dominion, and all the power and all the glory, world without end. Amen and amen."