Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/146

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116
DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN

Exeter Hall, and in a very few days it amounted to several thousand pounds. But we were not able to make any use of it. The Nile has been closed to all attempts. When Khartoum was taken by Lord Kitchener we hoped that we might gain admission. We got permission from the Government to lease a site, but on the distinct condition that we were to do no evangelisation whatever. We have lately sent a memorandum to the Foreign Office, stating our whole position with regard to Upper Egypt and the Soudan; but we are still knocking at a closed door. From our point of view it appears a strangely inconsistent attitude which has been assumed by the Government of a Christian nation, that for fear of exciting the prejudice of a wild Moslem people, the religion of Jesus Christ cannot be offered to them, and they are to be left to die in their ignorance of the only Saviour of men.

“We believe that the fears entertained by the authorities are greatly exaggerated, that our policy is not one which the Arab himself either understands or respects, and that, as inconsistent with the will of our Lord, Who will have all men to be saved by coming to the knowledge of the truth, it is not a policy which can have the Divine favour. It is certainly not the policy adopted by the great statesmen and soldiers who added the Punjab to the British Empire. They had as fierce and fanatical Moslems to deal with as any in Egypt. They had but a