The Preaching Tours and Missionary Labours of George Müller (of Bristol)Müller, Susannah Grace Sanger
Religion
The Preaching Tours and Missionary Labours of George Müller (of Bristol)
Müller, Susannah Grace Sanger
Müller, George, 1805-1898
On April 18th we took a drive to "Sweet Waters"; on the 19th went by
steamer up the Bosphorus, to the entrance of the Black Sea, 20 miles
from Constantinople; and on the 20th visited the great Turkish Cemetery,
and the English Military Burying Ground at Scutari, in Asia Minor. The
former is an enormous grave yard, where many hundreds of thousands of
corpses lie interred. It contains numbers of cypress trees, under which
are the graves of the departed Mussulmans, marked by innumerable high,
narrow tombstones, standing upright, and huddled so closely and
indiscriminately together, that they formed a perfect labyrinth. Most of
the graves had each two upright stones, partially painted over with
bright colours--blue, green, red, or yellow, and bore Turkish epitaphs
in characters of gold inscribed upon them. On the top of many of these
tombstones, a carved Turkish fez cap and tassel also stood out in bold
relief. The Cemetery was not enclosed, and the vast number of graves it
contained, presented such a wretched, confused, disorderly appearance,
that no Christian passer-by would ever wish his last earthly
resting-place to be in a Mahometan Cemetery, amongst Mussulmans!
After leaving this burial ground, we passed the Barracks (used as an
English Hospital during the Crimean war, the scene of Miss Nightingale's
memorable labours), and then reached a spot from which there was a fine
view of the Sea of Marmora, Prince's Islands, and Stamboul (as the
ancient part of Constantinople is called), the Golden Horn, the town of
Chalcedon, etc. A short drive further brought us to the British Military
Cemetery--a beautiful enclosure, planted with trees and shrubs--which
was laid out with grass nicely mown, and neat gravel walks. A few
flowers also were in bloom, and the whole was kept in perfect order,
either by a gardener, or the lodge-keeper at the entrance. Part of the
ground sloped gradually towards the Sea of Marmora, the sun shone
brightly upon the Cemetery, and the whole enclosure looked so peaceful,
quiet, and even _hallowed_, compared with the Turkish burial-ground we
had just quitted, that the superiority of Christianity to Mahometanism
was vividly conspicuous. This Cemetery contains the graves of 8,000 of
the British officers, soldiers, and sailors, who died of wounds received
in the Crimean war; and the bodies of British residents in
Constantinople may likewise (by permission) be interred therein. Upon
the first monument that attracted our attention was the following
touching epitaph:--"In memory of Julian Henry Layard, Lieut. 37th N.
Hampshire Regiment, assistant military attaché to the British Embassy at
Constantinople, who died of typhoid fever while on duty with the Turkish
forces under Suleiman Pasha in the Shipka Pass. Born 15th May, 1850,
died Sept. 24th, 1877. This monument has been erected by his parents
Col. Frederick and Ida Layard, in testimony of their undying loss.
Pitifully behold the sorrows of our hearts, oh! Lord." Further on was a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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