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 \
 
 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON 
 
 A SKETCH 
 
 REGINALD H. BARNES 
 
 VICAR OF HEAVITREE 
 
 CHARLES E. BROWN 
 
 MAJOR R.A. 
 
 WITH FACSIMILE LETTER 
 
 Be not thou greatly moved " 
 
 |£01t*)0tt 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1SS5 
 
 96043
 
 LONDON : 
 POINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
 M * • ' 
 
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 ^efoicattb, bg ^tvmxssxovt, 
 
 TO HER MAJESTY 
 
 THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS.
 
 \
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ■ a* 
 
 I. Reminiscences . ... 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 II. Inward Life 
 
 • • .13 
 
 III. Outward Life . 
 
 . 49 
 
 IV. Khartoum .... 
 
 . - . 69 
 
 Appendix 
 
 . 97
 
 I. 
 
 REMINISCENCES.
 
 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 i. 
 
 Early in 1880, before the cold had left 
 the mountains around the Lake of Geneva, 
 I was residing with my family in the Hotel 
 # du Faucon at Lausanne. The party con- 
 sisted of eight persons, including five chil- 
 dren ; and the reader may easily picture 
 them seated near one of the sunnier win- 
 dows of the salle a manger. The children's 
 attention was soon attracted by a lad and 
 an English gentleman, who occupied a 
 corner of the room near the entrance door. 
 They seemed to know no one in the hotel, 
 but to be wholly wrapped up in each 
 other. The orentleman was of the middle 
 height, very strongly built ; his face was 
 
 B
 
 2 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 furrowed with deep lines ; and his fine 
 broad brow and most determined mouth 
 and chin indicated a remarkable power of 
 grave and practical thought. He ap- 
 peared to be as gentle as he was strong, 
 for there was a certain tenderness in the 
 tones of his rich, unworn voice and in the 
 glance of his delicately expressive blue 
 eyes. By-and-by he spoke to me, and, 
 because I was not in good health, offered 
 to take such a walk as might suit my 
 strength. We talked of the most serious 
 subjects, and I was greatly impressed by 
 the directness, simplicity, and earnestness 
 with which he discussed them. 
 
 For some days I did not know his name, 
 and even after I knew it, it did not occur to 
 me that he might be the famous " Chinese 
 Gordon," who had been for years ruling the 
 Soudan. The manner in which I learned 
 the truth about him was rather striking. 
 One day, after the midday table d'hote, 
 while he was smoking a cigarette, he 
 invited me to accompany him to his room.
 
 REMINISCENCES. 3 
 
 I did so, and at once noticed some strange 
 documents on the table. "You have 
 been in Palestine and know Arabic," he 
 said ; " look at those papers." I took 
 several of them in my hand and glanced 
 at them, but soon laid them down, re- 
 marking that I knew very little Arabic. 
 " They are Death Warrants," he said. I 
 was so startled that I exclaimed, " Death 
 Warrants ! why, who are you ?" " Don't 
 you know me ? " he answered ; "I have 
 been Governor-General of the Soudan, 
 and still nominally retain the position ; but 
 nothing now remains for me but to sign 
 these papers — that will end it." 
 
 Gordon had then just completed his 
 forty-sixth year. To all appearance he 
 had for ever relinquished his work in the 
 Soudan ; and he was occupied chiefly in 
 displaying most tender care for his 
 nephews, the children of his brother, 
 Enderby Gordon, who had lately died, 
 and during his illness had passed part of 
 his time at Lausanne. One of these 
 
 B 2
 
 4 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 children, Charles Gordon (who is now at 
 his own work in Canada), was the lad 
 whom we had observed as Gordon's 
 companion in the hotel. 
 
 During the remainder of the time when 
 we were together at Lausanne, we saw one 
 another constantly, and our friendship soon 
 became so close that I had some difficulty 
 in realising that I had only lately made 
 his acquaintance. I have never known any 
 one who had the same faculty of winning 
 the confidence, love, and reverence of those 
 who happened to be brought into relation 
 with him. He had a kind of spiritual 
 power, which exercised a singular fascina- 
 tion when one talked with him about the 
 subjects on which he most frequently and 
 most deeply meditated. 
 
 Our conversation related chiefly to reli- 
 gion, and it was impossible not to be struck 
 by the vividness of his apprehension of 
 spiritual truth. It was evident that he 
 was incapable of regarding the doctrines of 
 Christianity as merely a set of propositions
 
 REMINISCENCES. 5 
 
 to which the intellect ought to yield assent ; 
 they dominated his whole nature, and 
 appeared to him to represent the supreme 
 realities of existence. He was especially 
 emphatic in the utterance of his belief as 
 to the intimacy of the relation which ought 
 to subsist between God and man. On this 
 subject his modes of expression often had 
 a close resemblance to those of the great 
 medieval Mystics. As we have need of 
 God, he would say, so God has need of 
 us, and He created mankind in order that 
 He might have a dwelling-place in the 
 body — in the heart and conscience. All 
 spiritual insight, everything good, great, 
 and truly beautiful in human life he attri- 
 buted directly to this "indwelling;" and 
 hence, as he was never tired of reminding 
 himself, the necessity for complete self- 
 abnegation, since God can find in us a fit 
 home only in proportion as our will makes 
 way for the Divine Will. Gordon was a 
 man of strict — in some respects of austere 
 — morality ; but he never spoke in a
 
 6 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 cold or harsh tone about the lawful plea- 
 sures of the world. To such pleasures, 
 however, he himself was absolutely indif- 
 ferent. To him the only real joys seemed 
 to be those of the spiritual life ; and he had 
 an easier desire for the time when he would 
 possess them in their full splendour in 
 another state of being. He told me that 
 he could not remember a period when, 
 thinking of these things, he had not longed 
 for death. 
 
 The seriousness of Gordon's temper did 
 not prevent him from being a bright and 
 agreeable companion, especially when those 
 with whom he talked could join him in 
 smoking a cigarette. He had a keen 
 sense of humour, and on every matter 
 about which he cared to form an opinion 
 he spoke clearly and decisively. Although 
 he was quick to perceive the passing moods 
 of his friends, and to give them his sym- 
 pathy in their troubles, there was always a 
 tone of self-restraint in his ordinary con- 
 versation. Perhaps his manner may be
 
 REMINISCENCES. 
 
 most accurately described as that of^ju- 
 professed and accomplished diplomatist, 
 using the word "diplomatist" in its best 
 sense. His education as an engineer ; his 
 intercourse in later youth with men of 
 many races, first in the Crimea, afterwards 
 on the Asiatic and European confines of 
 Russia ; his study of the weight which 
 might be attached to each of his words in 
 China ; his long periods of unbroken silence 
 in the Soudan — all this had helped to 
 make him, not sententious, but habitually 
 impressive towards those whom he 
 addressed. 
 
 It may here be noted that in discharging 
 diplomatic duties Gordon always displayed 
 remarkable tact and firmness. On one 
 occasion Ismail Pasha sent him on a 
 mission to the King of Abyssinia ; and 
 when Gordon went to have an interview 
 with the King, he found that a chair had 
 been placed for him to the left of the 
 throne and at a great distance off. Before 
 utterine a word he took the chair and
 
 8 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 placed it near the King, on the right hand 
 side. Said the King, " You know I may 
 kill you for this ? " "I do not fear death," 
 answered Gordon. The interview was 
 completely successful, and afterwards the 
 King accompanied Gordon to the coast. 
 
 Gordon was much less at ease in talking 
 to women than in talking to men. While 
 conversing with women he seemed to 
 exercise even more than his usual self- 
 control in the expression of his thought 
 and feeling. His sympathy, geniality, and 
 attractiveness became, as it were, veiled ; 
 and he was " himself again " only when the 
 restraint was removed. He was seen at 
 his best in the society of young children, 
 his keen interest in whom had not been 
 dulled either by solitude or by the neces- 
 sity — which had often been imposed upon 
 him in other relations — for strictly guarded 
 intercourse. With children he was quite 
 at home, and they instinctively felt that in 
 him they had a friend who understood 
 them and whom they could trust and love.
 
 REMINISCENCES. 9 
 
 It always seemed to me that the faults 
 the farthest removed from Gordon's 
 character were those which the French 
 express by the words petit maitre. In all 
 his aims and methods he was simple, 
 sincere, disinterested ; and his predominant 
 impulses sprang from an ardent love 
 towards God and man. Of this he gave 
 unmistakable evidence at every stage of 
 his career, and no one who saw him from 
 day to day could doubt that his action was 
 governed by high motives in the small 
 incidents of ordinary life, not less than in 
 those great events which have secured for 
 him a foremost place among the most 
 illustrious of English heroes.
 
 II. 
 
 INWARD LIFE.
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 After Gordon's departure from Lausanne 
 I did not meet him again until shortly before 
 he started on his last journey to Egypt. 
 In the interval he had revisited China, 
 where he had written, as a parting gift, a 
 masterly state-paper; he had acted for 
 England at the Cape and other Colonies ; 
 and almost the whole of 1883 he had 
 spent in Palestine. During those years 
 we corresponded as frequently as our 
 respective duties permitted, and while 
 he was in the Holy Land I received 
 from him not less than 2000 pages of 
 manuscript in letters, some extracts from 
 which were included in the little book 
 lately published, his ' Reflections in Pales- 
 tine in 1883/ This volume was issued 
 at his own request, not because he had the 
 slightest wish for fame as a writer, but 
 because he hoped he might be able to help 
 some of his readers to a better apprecia-
 
 14 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 tion of the truths in which alone he himself 
 found strength and consolation. 
 
 Gordon's visit to Palestine was due in 
 part to a desire for rest after great exertions, 
 but he would in any case have wished 
 to spend some time among the scenes 
 associated with all that he held most 
 dear and most sacred. He found much 
 to interest him in the study of the topo- 
 graphy of the Holy Land, and the highest 
 authorities on the subject have accepted 
 some of the most important conclusions 
 to which he was led by his inquiries. In 
 his letters, however, there were occasional 
 indications that the work did not quite 
 satisfy him. " I have now a sense of very 
 great weariness," he wrote to me from 
 Jerusalem on the 9th of July, 1883, "not 
 discontent, but a desire to put off my 
 burden. I believe it is good to be here 
 for myself, else I would not be here, 
 and certainly God gives me comforting 
 thoughts, but one's body is tired of it — 
 and somehow it seems a selfish life, for I
 
 INWARD LIFE. 1 5 
 
 see no one for weeks sometimes. All 
 these researches are interesting. My faith 
 — which is God's gift — prevents me saying 
 it is a useless life. Dr. Wordsworth, 
 Bishop of Lincoln, would know more out 
 here than any explorer. He would catch 
 up all these places at once, for he is 
 imbued with the indwelling of God ; only 
 one fault — he is hard on the Roman 
 Catholics." 
 
 "A traveller," Gordon wrote, "should 
 first know Holy Scripture and then visit 
 Palestine." This condition he had himself 
 fulfilled. Few men can ever have sur- 
 passed his wonderful heart-apprehension of 
 the Bible. St. Paul wrote to Timothy : 
 " from a babe thou hast known the sacred 
 writings, which are able to make thee wise 
 unto salvation through faith which is in 
 Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy iii. 15). And 
 we know the names of those through 
 whose care St. Paul's disciple and friend 
 had been enabled, " from a babe," to know 
 the Old Testament. In early childhood
 
 1 6 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Gordon had obtained similar deep instruc- 
 tion from some who survive him, and in later 
 life he continued to " search the Scriptures " 
 with constantly growing ardour. Every- 
 where in this great volume of law, of 
 poetry, of history, of correspondence, he 
 listened with humble and contrite spirit, 
 but with the full exercise of his reason, for 
 the voice of God. He never attempted, 
 as some Mystics have done, to read into 
 the books of the Sacred Canon a forced 
 interpretation, such as a calm and diligent 
 student would not find there. Never- 
 theless, he often appropriated particular 
 passages as messages from One who 
 guided him and as definite answers to 
 prayer. In his last letter to me, dated 
 Khartoum, the 6th of March, 1884, he 
 wrote : — 
 
 "Two passages, 2 Chron. xiv. 11, and 
 2 Chron. xx. 1 2 are helpful to me this day 
 under my present difficulties." 
 
 These passages are (1), " And Asa 
 cried unto the Lord his God, and said,
 
 INWARD LIFE. I 7 
 
 Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, 
 whether with many or with them that have 
 no power : help us, O Lord our God ; for 
 we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we 
 go against this multitude. O Lord, Thou 
 art our God : let not mortal man prevail 
 against Thee." 
 
 (2) " O our God, wilt Thou not judge 
 them ? for we have no mio-ht against this 
 great company that cometh against us ; 
 neither know we what to do : but our 
 eyes are upon Thee." 
 
 As another example, take that which 
 was known among his more intimate 
 friends as his watchword: " Be not moved," 
 or "Be not thou greatly moved." 
 
 Gordon did not, however, content him- 
 self with the inspiration he derived from 
 individual passages of the Bible. He 
 sought to penetrate to its meaning as a 
 whole, and to read all its parts in the light 
 of the central truth, that " God dwells in 
 us." To Gordon this seemed the deepest 
 and most far-reaching of Christian doc- 
 
 c
 
 1 8 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 trines ; and he attached vast importance 
 to the effect which, as he believed, it 
 produced on the minds of intelligent 
 Mahometans. " They have nothing in 
 their religion," he wrote, "which in the 
 least answers to this great truth." He 
 regarded it as the master-key for unlocking 
 the inspired writings, and while he was in 
 Palestine he applied it in a way peculiarly 
 his own to the earlier chapters of Genesis. 
 It was especially prominent in his thoughts 
 when he contrasted the Divine command 
 to Adam and Eve : " Thou shalt not 
 eat," with the words of the Lord Jesus, 
 " Take, eat." What can be more tender 
 to the ignorant, more attractive to any 
 person who sincerely desires to obey 
 Christ's word, than the manner in which 
 Gordon discloses the significance of this 
 contrast ? " Man," he says, " ate in 
 utter ignorance of the sequel, in the case 
 of the forbidden fruit, for death was not 
 then known ; so man may eat in utter 
 ignorance of the sequel, in the case of
 
 INWARD LIFE. 1 9 
 
 sacramental bread. In the first case he 
 ate in trust in self, distrust in God, and 
 communion with Satan. In the second 
 case he eats in trust in God, distrust in 
 self, and communion with God. To the 
 world both eatings are foolishness, yet they 
 are the wisdom of God." 
 
 In this quotation from his ' Reflections 
 in Palestine' we have a specimen of 
 Gordon's practical application of the Bible, 
 and of his abrupt style. The ' Reflections ' 
 consist of passages from his correspondence 
 with his brother, with his sister, and with 
 myself. The proof-sheets were sent to 
 him at Khartoum, and he expressed full 
 approval of the selections which had been 
 made ; but the book had not the advan- 
 tage of his own revision, and in his absence 
 it was impossible to add a single note 
 or explanation. It is fair, therefore, to 
 plead for him that much which now seems 
 rugged, and hardly capable of defence, if 
 pressed by the strictest rules of grammar 
 or lo^ic, as for instance the final sentence 
 
 c 2
 
 20 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 in the above quotation, is yet quite true 
 in the homely and direct manner in which 
 he employed the words. 
 
 The ' Reflections in Palestine ' evidently 
 took many critics by surprise. They were 
 not prepared for a work of so purely 
 spiritual a character, and some of them 
 expressed the belief that Gordon knew 
 little of any book except his Bible. This 
 is a serious error. He may not have read 
 a very large number of books — the circum- 
 stances of his life made it almost impossible 
 that he should have done so — but those 
 which he attempted to master he mastered 
 thoroughly, and they were by no means 
 all of one kind. Of the devotional books 
 which he knew almost by heart, the English 
 Book of Common Prayer and the ' Imita- 
 tion of Christ' by Thomas a Kempis 
 (Hutching's translation), may stand as 
 specimens. He made constant use, too, 
 of ' Daily Prayer,' by E. N. Dumbleton, 
 and of Dr. Samuel Clarke's ' Scripture 
 Promises,' a work of which, before
 
 INWARD LIFE. 2 1 
 
 leaving England for Khartoum, he pre- 
 sented a copy to each member_of the 
 Cabinet.* Among books of a different 
 class, well known to him in 1883, and 
 before that year, were the works of 
 Josephus, Bishop Pearson on the Creed, 
 and Bishop Harold Browne on the Thirty- 
 nine Articles, of which latter treatise he 
 wrote expressly that it was of much use 
 to him. All of the voluminous researches 
 in Palestine, both those of older date and 
 the treatises written by his comrades and 
 friends, Sir Charles Warren, Sir Charles 
 Wilson, and Captain Conder, with the 
 works of Bishop Wordsworth of Lincoln, 
 and some papers by the Rev. W. F. Birch 
 of Manchester, had been exhaustively ex- 
 amined ; and he did not fail to take with 
 him to Palestine such recent books as 
 Bagster's translation of the Septuagint. 
 He had acquired a considerable amount of 
 knowledge in Patristic Literature, but I 
 
 * He liked for his own use the edition published by 
 T. Nelson and Sons, 1863, and marked the Promises on 
 pp. 125 to 130.
 
 2 2 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 am unable to say how far he had at any 
 time studied these authors in the languages 
 in which they wrote. For the great ethical 
 writers of Paean times he had a cordial ad- 
 miration, and several of them he read 
 frequently. The writings of Epictetus he 
 knew intimately ; and any one who looks 
 into his well-worn copy of the ' Thoughts ' 
 of Marcus Aurelius (Long's translation) 
 will see how diligently the book must 
 have been studied. There was no secular 
 writer of any period whom he held in 
 higher esteem than Marcus Aurelius, and 
 at different times he gave away many 
 copies of the ' Thoughts ' as presents to 
 his friends. 
 
 Although, however, it is a mistake to 
 say that Gordon refused " to know any 
 book but one, and that one the Bible," it 
 is true that to the study of the Bible he 
 subordinated all other studies. And in 
 the ' Reflections ' were embodied some of 
 the most characteristic results of his inves- 
 tigations. If in that work he passed by 
 many modern controversies as if he had
 
 INWARD LIFE. 23 
 
 never heard of them, perhaps he may be 
 justified by the old Roman proverb that 
 " the eagle does not eat flies " (Aquila 
 no7i vorat muscas). His mind had been 
 in contact with the minds of many men in 
 many lands, and the Arab, the Chinaman, 
 the Armenian, the Egyptian were equally 
 well known to him. May we not say that 
 he sought in his Bible and in the deep 
 symmetry of its many books for that 
 which might help or influence men, women, 
 children everywhere, and not merely for 
 doctrines corresponding to the common ex- 
 pressions of his English fellow Christians ? 
 It is said in Holy Scripture that " Isaac 
 digged again the wells of water, which they 
 had digged in the days of Abraham his 
 father." (Genesis xxvi. 18.) These wells 
 had been filled in by others, and in 
 Southern Palestine a man can do no 
 greater injury to an enemy than by the 
 destruction of wells, the discovery and 
 excavation of which cost much care and 
 labour ; but Isaac patiently renewed his
 
 24 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 father's work, and freely forgave the men 
 who had ruined it, so far as they could. 
 There was something in Gordon's use of 
 Holy Scripture which exactly accorded with 
 this diligent labour, and with this patience 
 towards others. Some wells of spiritual 
 truth which seemed to him to have been 
 choked he sought to clear ; but he never 
 undertook the task in the spirit of a fault- 
 finder. His aim in the study of the in- 
 spired Word was to beckon others forward, 
 that they might come with him. He had 
 no desire to parade something rare and 
 precious because discovered by himself; 
 he wished to address all " whose hearts 
 the Lord had opened'' (Acts xvi. 14), to 
 see with him if these things were so. 
 
 It has often been said that Gordon was 
 a fatalist, and there is a sense in which he 
 would not have repudiated the name. Of 
 the death of his friend Craigie in the 
 Crimea he wrote : " The shell burst above 
 him, and, by what is called chance, struck 
 him in the back, killing him at once.
 
 INWARD LIFE. 25 
 
 " It is a delightful thing to be a fatalist, 
 not as that word is generally employed, but 
 to accept that, when things happen, and 
 not before, God has for some wise reason 
 so ordained them to happen — all things, 
 not only the great things, but all the cir- 
 cumstances of life. 
 
 " We have nothing further to do, when 
 the scroll of events is unrolled, than to 
 accept them as being for the best. Before 
 it is unrolled, it is another matter ; and you 
 could not say, ' I sat still and let things 
 happen,' with this belief. 
 
 " I cannot separate the existence of a 
 God from His pre-ordination and direction 
 of all things, good and evil ; the latter He 
 permits, but still controls." 
 
 If this was fatalism, it was a kind of 
 fatalism which gave Gordon both peace 
 and energy, for he continued : — 
 
 " All I can say is that, amidst troubles 
 and worries, no one can have peace till he 
 thus stays upon his God. It gives a man 
 superhuman strength. If we could take
 
 26 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 all things as ordained and for the best, 
 we should indeed be the conquerors of the 
 world. Everything - that happens to-day, 
 good or evil, is settled and fixed, and it is 
 no use fretting over it. The quiet, peaceful 
 life of our Lord was solely due to his sub- 
 mission to God's will." 
 
 Gordon had not only a clear perception 
 of the evil in the world, but strong convic- 
 tions as to the source from which it 
 originally sprang. Of the tree of know- 
 ledge of good and evil he says in the 
 ' Reflections ' : — 
 
 " By eating of this tree man became 
 as God, for God said, ' Behold man is 
 become as one of us, to know good and 
 evil.' This would imply that though 
 man was made in the likeness and image of 
 God, the faculty of the knowledge of evil, 
 though it must have been present was 
 not developed in him before eating. Satan 
 works in the children of disobedience, and 
 he began to work in man, when man dis- 
 obeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit.
 
 INWARD LIFE. 1*] 
 
 " Had Eve never eaten what was for- 
 bidden, she never could have been worked 
 in by the Spirit of disobedience." 
 
 As to the consequences of eating the 
 forbidden fruit, he does not show very 
 distinctly in the ' Reflections ' whether he 
 believed the ruin of man to have been 
 complete or only partial. He held that in 
 Eve were all mankind, and that when she 
 ate the fruit not only her own body but 
 those of all her children were poisoned. 
 Of the soul, however, he says that it " was 
 breathed into man, and was therefore 
 divine." This leaves us in some uncer- 
 tainty, as the body is generally spoken of 
 in the Scriptures as simply the "tabernacle" 
 of the soul. His views are more plainly 
 set forth in a private unpublished letter, 
 written in Jerusalem : — 
 
 " I do not care for the praise of the 
 world. If one truly has been given the 
 sense of God's indwelling in us, and of 
 our natural depravity, it is quite impossible 
 to relish even the slightest taste of man's
 
 28 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 praise. For if analyzed, man's praise of 
 another is the denial of God. For this is 
 implied, that man can be good separate 
 from God." 
 
 I have already quoted from the ' Re- 
 flections ' a passage in which Gordon 
 contrasts the eating of the forbidden 
 fruit with the eating of sacramental bread. 
 He recognised a deep significance in the 
 use of the same outward means for the 
 trial in which our first parents fell, and for 
 the sacrament in which Christ gives Him- 
 self to all who will by faith receive Him, 
 Gordon, however, exhibited extreme sim- 
 plicity of faith when he came to the 
 practical part of this doctrine. " Do not," 
 he says, "let us fence the Tree of Life. 
 God gives us the way to it in Christ. 
 All that is needed is, ' I am ill ; I wish 
 I were well ; / hate and ablwr myself ; 
 I have faint hopes of deriving any benefit : 
 but I will trust Him, and do, in remem- 
 brance of Him, what he bade me do! 
 There is nothing superstitious about this.
 
 INWARD LIFE. 2 9 
 
 Here he ceases to reason ; he receives the 
 Scripture as a little child. 
 
 His conception of the remedy for man's 
 spiritual maladies he expressed in unmis- 
 takable terms in an unpublished letter, 
 dated from Jafa : — 
 
 " God the Son took man's nature and is 
 Man. What God the Son did is not de- 
 rogatory to God the Holy Ghost to do ; 
 and we have the Scripture to say that He 
 lives in our bodies. ' Know ye not that 
 your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ?' 
 Christ's sufferings are expiatory, our suffer- 
 ings are sequences of our sins and for our 
 discipline. Christ's sufferings are the full, 
 perfect, sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and 
 satisfaction for the sins of the world, once 
 and for ever on the Cross." 
 
 In other unpublished letters he wrote : — 
 
 " Christ as man felt all the sorrow and 
 grief as if He had really committed the 
 sins for which He suffered the exact full 
 punishment. Our Lord would remember 
 each sin from the suffering it caused. It 
 is this transcendent love which would
 
 30 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 break our hearts in the end, were we not 
 then to know that our offences were com- 
 mitted in ignorance, and that when en- 
 lightened we no longer took pleasure in 
 them." "It is very wonderful that we 
 should be so imbued with Himself that 
 our breath is drawn without that realiza- 
 tion. We subsist by virtue of His life in 
 us ; whether we are pagans or not, it is 
 His life." 
 
 Gordon had a full and happy sense of 
 Assurance, and he thus stated the grounds 
 on which it was based : " You believe in 
 your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, 
 then God dwells in your body, and if you 
 ask Him, 'O Lord ! I believe that Jesus is 
 the Son of God ; show me for His sake 
 that Thou livest in us,' He will make you 
 feel His presence in your heart. Many 
 believe sincerely that Jesus is the Son of 
 God, but they are not happy, because they 
 do not believe that which God tells them." 
 
 He did not profess to be a theologian 
 in the ordinary sense of the term ; but in 
 its deeper meaning it may be fairly applied
 
 INWARD LIFE. 3 I 
 
 to him, since it includes every one who 
 tries to think and speak rightly about 
 God. In the words of the Bishop of 
 Derry (Dr. Alexander) : " The General 
 is not a professional theologian ; but 
 he is something far higher and better ; 
 and I dare not criticize one so immeasur- 
 ably above me, even if I were not intellec- 
 tually convinced by all his arguments. He 
 is an example of faith in the living God." 
 When Gordon was in Palestine, Bishop 
 Wordsworth of Lincoln wrote to me of 
 him : "I should be greatly obliged to you, 
 if you could express to him my deep 
 interest in his investigations and thoughts. 
 I am glad to know that the very interest- 
 ing subject [Biblical investigation] has 
 the benefit of an enquirer like General 
 Gordon, who sees Divine things, and pla- 
 ces, not with the natural organ only, but 
 with the eye of faith. I wish I could now 
 give the time to such Biblical studies as 
 those which General Gordon is pursuing 
 with so much ardour and success."
 
 32 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 To this message General Gordon 
 answered : "I shall probably never see 
 your Lordship, so I may say how blessed 
 you have been in your Commentary. You 
 held the key that Christ and His members 
 are one and indivisible ; if ever spiritual 
 men arise who will look on our redemption 
 like this, what treasures we will have in 
 the Scriptures." 
 
 In another letter to me, the venerable 
 Bishop of Lincoln wrote : " Anything 
 that can be done, ought to be done to 
 strengthen and comfort a man who has 
 the faults of a saint and the courage of a 
 hero." 
 
 On the 14th May, 1884, the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury wrote from Lambeth : — 
 
 My Dear Prebendary, — 
 
 Accept my best thanks for your 
 kindness in sending me General Gordon's 
 ' Reflections in Palestine,' and for your most 
 kind letter. The former is a wonderful 
 expression of a devout soul with deep
 
 INWARD LIFE. 33 
 
 resources, and full of faithful life towards 
 God. The deep interest of his position, 
 and painful eager sympathy with the man, 
 are surely drawing out myriads of prayers 
 for him, and intercessions, especially in the 
 Communions which are so dear to himself. 
 As to the latter point, — you ask about 
 prayers for General Gordon in our public 
 service. It is quite natural that some 
 clergy should do what, I believe, many 
 are now doing, viz. using the provided 
 way for praying for all in danger or 
 anxiety, with mention of his name person- 
 ally before the Prayer for all conditions of 
 men, or before the Litany. Those who 
 consider him to be already in danger, or 
 likely soon to be so, as well as those who 
 take the darkest view of his peril, are 
 all enabled by our very rubrics to pray 
 for him in Church. Doubtless he is sure 
 that hearts are thus being poured out for 
 him. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Edward Cantuar. 
 d
 
 34 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 But to return to the position assumed 
 by Gordon himself in his researches. 
 Some extracts from his correspondence 
 will show that he regarded himself rather 
 as a student than as a teacher of Divine 
 Truths. On the 24th of October, 1883, 
 he wrote to me from Jafa : 
 
 " I have not heard from my family at 
 Heavitree for two mails. I have asked 
 my sister to send you what I wrote with 
 no delay, and not to hurry you. I do not 
 want you to read in dribblets, for some 
 things I write need frequent modification. 
 I am sending another paper this mail. 
 Have not the words, 'my Name shall 
 rest there,' reference to the title on the 
 cross : 
 
 On the 27th of the same month he 
 wrote : " Thanks for your letter, just re- 
 ceived. I have sent many papers to you. 
 They are crude, but they give me much 
 pleasure to write them. I am all right, 
 thank God. I do not know when I come 
 home. I shall not stay long in England.
 
 INWARD LIFE. 35 
 
 I go first to Brussels. I am glad to hear 
 of your lambs, dear little souls, but they 
 have a kind shepherd. Good-bye. In 
 the papers you read my thoughts, nothing 
 more. I am not bound to those views, so 
 when I say this is this and that is that, I 
 do it only because I want to join one 
 thought to another." 
 
 On the 20th of November, i S83, he wrote 
 again from Jafa : "I am glad you are 
 going to Sir Samuel Baker's ; he, for eight 
 or ten years, was constantly in my prayers. 
 Do not prevent my writing to yotc [in the 
 original underlined], for it is a pleasure to 
 do so — what is untrue reject, what you 
 accept, tell me" 
 
 On the 6th of December, 1883, he 
 wrote from Jerusalem : "I hope to leave 
 Jafa on the 15th instant. I assure you 
 your kind letters refresh me. One word 
 about fasting : I think after the spirit it is 
 most beneficial, but I do not practise it. 
 D.V. I will do so. D.V. I will give you 
 three days while in England. I have put 
 
 D 2
 
 36 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Harding's name down on the list.* I hope 
 ere this you will get all the papers. I 
 have been in the Abyss all November ; it 
 is a bad month with me always. Kindest 
 regards to you all. Mrs. Barnes will give 
 me ^1,000,000,000,000,000, a thousand 
 million millions, if she would pray I may 
 be emptied of self. Good-bye." 
 
 On the 1 6th of December, 1883, he wrote 
 from Mt. Carmel : " I left Jafa on the 12th 
 in a sailing vessel for Port Said. We got 
 just south of Gaza, and then got into a 
 storm, which drove us north, and after two 
 nights and days of cold, wet and misery, 
 put in here, where I found a steamer going 
 to Marseilles, which I shall, D.V., take. 
 During the voyage I realized that the 
 praise of the Lord is quite independent of 
 the sorrow of body, which was a gain. 
 Baker liked your visit." 
 
 On the 2nd of January, 1884, he wrote 
 from Brussels: " I was with you that night 
 
 * Mr. Harding is the clergyman in charge of one of the 
 Church Missionary stations on the Lower Congo.
 
 INWARD LIFE. 2)7 
 
 1 883-1 884, hoping for you to have much 
 closer union with the Lord, who rules all 
 things from His throne on the Rock." 
 To Gordon our incarnate Lord seemed 
 ever present, ordering and controlling all 
 things by His good Providence, and as 
 though His unseen Throne on high had 
 still its relation to the Rock on the site of 
 Solomon's Temple. His next words are : 
 " I yearn to talk to you of these great 
 truths. Do not egg on ambition in me, 
 — try and drown it. Our Lord works 
 with flies (Exodus viii. 21). He has no 
 need of man, — one of the hardest things to 
 believe is our own utter insignificance, and 
 any who egg on our self-conceit are ene- 
 mies of His, and deny His rule. D.V., I 
 will come and see you all. I hope to see 
 Bishop Temple when I come down, es- 
 pecially if he will talk about those things. 
 Kindest regards to you all and to Miss 
 Freeman. I am glad to say that through 
 the model of the Rock o-iven in hiodi 
 places [i.e. to persons of high rank], oppor- 
 
 9604.1
 
 38 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 tunity is given to speak of the Indwelling 
 of God in man. The union with our God 
 in Christ is our Force, — and only Force 
 or power, thence self must die ; and we 
 must never indulge the thought of one's 
 utility. It is only His utility in us. I try 
 to keep my mind as if it were situated 
 at the foot of His Throne. We can keep 
 a continual telegraphic communion with 
 Him ; that is our strength. The rush of 
 angelic Hosts to that centre must be im- 
 mensely great, for He intercedes and rules 
 as man in a definite place, — and there 
 is an ancient belief, from the history of 
 Abraham, that each act needs one angel ; 
 that an angel can only do one thing at the 
 time ; and with us any thought, or desire 
 for things to be otherwise {when they have 
 Jiappcned), is a harp out of tune with the 
 Heavenly hosts. Such desires imply that 
 Divine Wisdom does not rule. Thus for 
 Egypt He is working out His wonderful 
 embroidery of events ; those events are 
 nothing ; but the actions in men's hearts
 
 INWARD LIFE. 39 
 
 are everything. That which cometh forth 
 out of a man, that defileth the man. Alex- 
 ander, Titus, the Government, &c, what 
 signifies what they did, what they thought ; 
 their motives, these are eternal ! " 
 
 These extracts show how Gordon quieted 
 all earthly anxiety by "making every 
 request known unto God." In his en- 
 deavours after the Christian life he looked 
 far beyond that which has become in 
 England a usual but dangerous limit. He 
 never let himself rest short of the hope of 
 complete union with Christ. He did not 
 suppose that all that is required for a 
 man's salvation is a conviction that he is 
 unable to save himself, and an assured 
 consciousness that he has been saved by 
 Christ. No doubt this is a great part of 
 saving truth. All who acknowledge it 
 believe in the Sovereignty of God the 
 Father ; the Righteousness of Christ ; the 
 satisfaction made by Him for sin ; and the 
 renewing power of the Holy Ghost. But 
 these statements do not form the whole of
 
 4-0 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Christianity, — they must not be allowed 
 to displace all other truths. Gordon de- 
 sired progress, and found our sanctification 
 through union with God in Christ. Hence 
 he approached and understood the Sacra- 
 ments as a part of that which has been 
 ordained from the first, even before the 
 world began. He did not, indeed, regard 
 Holy Baptism, or Holy Communion, as 
 channels within which God's Free Grace 
 can be restrained ; but he ardently pro- 
 claimed their value as vital elements of 
 the economy of faith. The priesthood of 
 every Christian man, woman, and child, 
 was equally present to him with the ministry 
 of holy orders ; and in one of his letters 
 he spoke of the members of every con- 
 gregation as being marked before angelic 
 hosts by the living symbol of the Holy 
 Ghost's indwelling, the flame over each 
 head and heart burning more or less 
 brightly. 
 
 The depth and fervour of Gordon's 
 relisfious convictions are brought out with
 
 INWARD LIFE. 4 1 
 
 extraordinary distinctness in a passage 
 quoted by Mr. William Hurrell Mallock 
 in the 'Fortnightly Review' for July i, 
 1884 : " I like the following sort of prayer : 
 Thou hast moulded me out of dust, every 
 fibre ; therefore thou knowest every fibre. 
 Thou gavest me Thy own life. Thou 
 didst mould me in Thine exact Image and 
 Likeness (for none but Thou couldest make 
 me) by Thyself. Thou gavest me free 
 will to be altogether like Thyself. I have 
 abased and defiled Thy sacred image. 
 Though I was Thy chief work, yet so low 
 have I debased Thy image, that all crea- 
 tures turn with horror from me, and I am 
 a horror to myself. Though I had Thy 
 Life in me, though by Thy Life I exist ; 
 though Thou couldest have made myriads 
 with no trouble, yet didst Thou so love 
 me, that Thou earnest in my form, and did 
 so suffer every conceivable injury that I 
 could commit against Thee. Yet I hin- 
 dered Thee by every possible cruelty and 
 contempt. Thou didst set Thy face as a
 
 42 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 flint, and bore the imputation and the 
 punishment of every sin I ever committed 
 — sins which, even in my fellow-creatures, I 
 abhor and hate. Thou wast so pure as to 
 cause aneels to veil their faces before Thee. 
 Yet Thou bore the guilt as entirely Thine 
 ■ — as if Thou hadst done those sins. Surely 
 now Thou hast routed Thy enemies, Thou 
 wilt not permit them to trample and scoff 
 at Thee. Remember Thy sufferings, for 
 they were beyond conception. Are those 
 sufferings to go for naught, as they do, if 
 Thou permit these unconquered enemies 
 to prevail against me, Thy own flesh and 
 bone ? Thy member ? " 
 
 One other quotation may be given to 
 indicate more fully Gordon's estimate of 
 the present life and his conception of the 
 nature of the Christian's union with 
 Christ : " The world is a vast prison- 
 house under hard keepers. We are in 
 cells, solitary and lonely, looking for a 
 release. By the waters of earthly joy and 
 plenty to this world's inhabitants, to our
 
 INWARD LIFE. 43 
 
 flesh ; but by the waters of lively affliction 
 to our souls, we sit down and weep, when 
 we remember our home, from which death, 
 like a narrow stream, divides us. We hang 
 our harps upon the willows in the midst 
 thereof; for they that oppress require of 
 us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs 
 of home. How shall we sing the song of 
 the Lamb in a strange land ; in the, to us, 
 waste, howling wilderness, in the land of 
 strangers ? Oh ! for that home, where 
 the wicked will cease from troubling, and 
 the weary have rest ; where the good fight 
 will have been fought, the dusty labour 
 finished, and the crown of life given ; when 
 our eyes will behold the only One that ever 
 knew our sorrows and trials, and has borne 
 with us in them all, soothing and comfort- 
 ing our weary souls. No new Friend to 
 be made then, but an old Friend ! Are you 
 weary ? So was He. Are you sad ? So 
 was He. Are you despised and laughed 
 at ? So was He. Is your love repelled, 
 and does the world not care for you ?
 
 44 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Neither did it for Him. He has gra- 
 ciously taken a lower place than any of 
 His people. Unutterably weary, sad and 
 lonely was He on this earth. A Man of 
 sorrows, and acquainted with grief, strong- 
 crying and tears. And shall we repine at 
 our trials, which are but for a moment ? 
 We are nearing home day by day. No 
 dark river, but divided waters are before us, 
 and they let the world take its portion. 
 Dust it is, and dust we will leave it. ' I 
 heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, 
 Write, happy are the dead that die in the 
 Lord, even so saith the Spirit, for they 
 rest from their labours', — rest from their 
 troubles, — rest from works of weariness, 
 from sorrow, from tears, from hunger and 
 thirst, and sad sights of poor despairing 
 bodies, and sighing hearts, who find no 
 peace in their prisons, — from wars, and 
 strifes and words and judgments. It is a 
 long weary journey, but we are well on the 
 way of it. The yearly milestones quickly 
 slip by ; and, as our days, so will our
 
 INWARD LIFE. 45 
 
 strength be. Perhaps before another mile- 
 stone is reached the wayfarer may be in 
 that glorious Home, by the side of the 
 River of life, where there is no more care, or 
 sorrow, or crying, and rest for ever with 
 that kind and well-known Friend. 
 
 "The sand is flowing out of the glass, 
 day and night, night and day; shake it not. 
 You have a work here, to suffer even as he 
 suffered."
 
 III. 
 
 OUTWARD LIFE.
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 Gordon was a man of such perfect 
 simplicity of nature that he would have 
 been well content to pass his life in the 
 discharge of common and humble duties, 
 but he did not shrink from the great tasks 
 which were actually imposed upon him. 
 Nor did he ever falter in his loyalty to his 
 governing principles. From the beginning 
 to the end of his career his inward and his 
 outward life were in absolute accord. 
 
 Gordon's first experience of war was in 
 the Crimea, whither he went as an Engineer 
 officer when he was about twenty. An 
 incident which happened before Sebastopol 
 may suffice to indicate his spirit at this 
 early age. Some soldiers in a trench, who 
 were not under Gordon's command, had 
 suffered so severely that not even a non- 
 commissioned officer survived to command 
 them. Gordon, seeing the danger of the 
 men, sprang in among them, armed only 
 
 E
 
 50 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 with a stick — which may have suggested 
 the use of the " wand of victory " at a later 
 time in China. He at once raised his head 
 above the earthworks, thus freely exposing 
 himself to the fire of the enemy ; and he 
 did not quit the trench until he had enabled 
 the men to understand exactly what they 
 were to do. 
 
 The command in China he would never 
 have thought of soliciting. Owing to the 
 death of Ward, the dismissal of Burge- 
 vine, and the subsequent defeat under 
 the English Captain Holland, the Chinese 
 army happened to be urgently in want of 
 a leader. The Chinese Prime Minister 
 applied to the English Government, and 
 Gordon Ivas selected by General Stanley, 
 who knew him well. 
 
 This difficult position he accepted, as he 
 himself wrote at the time, simply because 
 he hoped that it might be in his power to 
 save China from the pillage, fire, and 
 famine with which it was threatened, and 
 to open the country to civilisation. His
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. 5 I 
 
 magnificent energy and resource in the 
 fulfilment of his mission soon made his 
 name famous. The " ever-victorious army " 
 was composed of only some five or six regi- 
 ments, armed with smooth-bore muskets, 
 and six batteries of artillery. The officers 
 were chiefly American, French, and Ger- 
 man adventurers, who, though brave and 
 sharp, were extremely quarrelsome, and 
 so much given to drink that, out of some 
 one hundred and forty officers, eleven died 
 of delirium tremens. This motley crew was 
 thoroughly drilled and provided with trans- 
 port by Gordon. They frequently mutinied, 
 it is true, but these were opportunities for 
 the display of the determination and deci- 
 sion of their commander. Mr. Hake, 
 Gordon's biographer, mentions two such 
 occasions. Once when the artillery refused 
 to "fall in," and threatened to shoot their 
 officers, Gordon called the non-commis- 
 sioned officers together and asked them 
 to give up the name of the writer of the 
 proclamation of the mutiny. On his 
 
 E 2
 
 52 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 request being refused, he told them with 
 quiet determination that one in every five 
 would be shot — an announcement which 
 was received with groans. Gordon dragged 
 out of the ranks, with his own hand, the 
 man who was making the greatest dis- 
 turbance, and had him shot by some 
 infantry, who were standing by. This 
 brought the men to their senses — the files 
 fell in, and the writer's name was given up. 
 He happened to be the man who had 
 been shot. 
 
 Again, at Quinsan (Hake, p. 232): " The 
 artillery refused to march from the parade- 
 ground to the boats, which were about 
 fifty yards off, and on which their baggage 
 had been already stowed. Gordon arriv- 
 ing at this juncture, unarmed, and as usual 
 exceedingly quiet and cool and undemon- 
 strative, ordered every man who had 
 refused to embark to step to the front. 
 One only advanced : Gordon presented a 
 pistol to his head and ordered him embark, 
 which he did, and the rest followed him. It
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. $3 
 
 was said by the officers that the success in 
 this instance was solely due to the awe 
 and respect in which General Gordon was 
 held by the men ; and that such was the 
 spirit of the troops at the time (who were 
 much demoralised by the excessive heat 
 of the weather, the ravages of cholera and 
 their consequent inaction), that, had any 
 other but he attempted what he did, the 
 company would have broken into open 
 mutiny, shot their officers and committed 
 the wildest exesses. In less than a week 
 the spirit of the troops was as excellent as 
 before." 
 
 Gordon's influence was of course mainly 
 due, as Mr. Hake says, first, to his mili- 
 tary genius, and second, to his moral 
 qualities, which were such as to cause all 
 brought in contact with him to have un- 
 bounded faith in his capacity. 
 
 It is well known that in battle Gordon 
 was always foremost, and never armed, 
 except with a cane, which his men called 
 the "wand of victory." We are told that
 
 54 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 the officers of his force would sometimes 
 hold back. " Gordon, in his mild way, 
 would take one or other of these by the 
 arm and lead them into the thick of the 
 fire. When he was once wounded in 
 battle, and his men wished to carry him 
 out of it, he would not allow it, but went 
 on leading them till he fainted from loss 
 of blood." 
 
 In return for his splendid services to 
 China, Gordon would accept only the dis- 
 tinctions of the "Yellow Jacket" and the 
 " Peacock's Feather," which correspond to 
 our own Orders of the Garter and the 
 Bath. Of these rewards he wrote to his 
 mother : "I do not care twopence about 
 these things, but know that you and my 
 father like them." The Chinese Govern- 
 ment twice offered him a fortune. On the 
 first occasion 10,000 taels were actually 
 brought into his room, but he drove out 
 the bearers of the treasure and would not 
 even look at it. On the second occasion 
 the sum was still larger, but this also he
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. 55 
 
 declined, and afterwards he wrote home : — 
 "I do not want anything, either money 
 or honours, from either the Chinese Go- 
 vernment or our own. As for the honours, 
 I do not value them at all. I know that I 
 am doing a great deal of good, and, liking 
 my profession, do not mind going on with my 
 work." " Do not think I am ill-tempered, 
 but I do not care one jot about my promo- 
 tion, or what people may say. I know I 
 shall leave China as poor as I entered it, 
 but with the knowledge that through my 
 weak instrumentality upwards of eighty to 
 one hundred thousand lives have been 
 spared." 
 
 Mr. Hake says that Gordon not only 
 refused two fortunes, but spent his pay of 
 ^1200 a year in comforts for his army 
 and in the relief of the victims of the in- 
 surgent troops, and that for these purposes 
 he even taxed his private means. Who 
 can wonder at the vast influence exerted 
 on the Chinese by one who displayed so 
 great a spirit ?
 
 56 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 It would be hard to find a counterpart 
 to Gordon among European soldiers who 
 have commanded native armies in the 
 East. Clive was a man of unsurpassed 
 energy and courage ; he never lost control 
 over himself in the presence of danger ; 
 and he exhibited high genius in organising 
 armies out of mere rabbles. His influence 
 over Oriental races was extraordinary, and 
 has never perhaps been excelled. But, 
 unlike Gordon, Clive did not scruple to 
 promote his interests by falsehood and 
 hypocrisy ; and instead of refusing two 
 fortunes, he accepted between two and 
 three hundred thousand pounds for his 
 services, and after his return to England 
 lived in the greatest luxury and splendour. 
 
 When Gordon came home, he refused 
 to be treated as a hero, and earnestly 
 requested that no record of his deeds 
 should be published. He even went so 
 far as to demand back his Journal of the 
 Taiping War, which a Minister of State 
 had borrowed and sent to the printers.
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. $? 
 
 So successful (as in other operations) was 
 Gordon in seeking to be forgotten that he 
 verv soon ceased to be even talked about. 
 His quiet life at Gravesend, as an 
 Engineer officer, was not, perhaps, less 
 remarkable than his career in China, 
 although in a very different way. There 
 he devoted himself to the service of the 
 poor. " His house," says Mr. Hake, 
 " was school, and hospital, and almshouse 
 in turn. The troubles of all interested 
 him alike. The poor, the sick, the unfor- 
 tunate were ever welcome, and never did 
 supplicant knock vainly at his door. Many 
 children he rescued from the gutter, 
 cleansed, clothed, and fed them, and for 
 their benefit established evening classes, 
 over which he himself presided. What a 
 livinsf likeness this seems to be of the life 
 of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 durinof his short residence on this earth ! 
 What sympathy and even love for his 
 poorer brethren ! How the Light — the 
 true Light — shines ! What a ' single eye !'
 
 $S CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 A lover of God, a despiser of Mammon. 
 In this he outshines Peter the Hermit, 
 Savonarola, and Havelock." 
 
 In 1876, Gordon was again brought 
 prominently before the world, as Governor- 
 General of the Soudan. This vast region 
 was entirely in the hands of slave-dealers, 
 with Zebehr at their head. Having formed 
 military posts, they were able to mono- 
 polise the trade in ivory, and, while 
 kidnapping human beings, to depopulate 
 and turn into deserts great districts which 
 had formerly been nourishing. The 
 Khedive Ismail, rather from jealousy than 
 from humane motives, requested Gordon 
 to crush Zebehr and his vile traffic. 
 Gordon accepted the appointment, and in 
 doing so displayed his usual generosity, for 
 he was offered a salary of ^10,000 a year 
 but declined to take more than ^2000 
 a year, that being the amount he had for 
 some time been receiving from the British 
 Government as Commissioner at Galatz. 
 The reason given by him for not taking
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. 59 
 
 the larger sum was that he knew it would 
 be " blood-money wrung from the wretches 
 under his rule." Afterwards he cut down 
 his pay one-half, to save the revenue to 
 that extent ; and ultimately he left the 
 Soudan, as he had left China, no richer 
 than when he entered it. "I am like 
 Moses," he wrote, "who despised the 
 riches of Egypt. We have a King mightier 
 than these, and more enduring riches and 
 power in Him than we can have in this 
 world." 
 
 Aided by only one European, the 
 gallant Italian Gessi, Gordon overcame 
 what seemed to be almost insurmountable 
 difficulties in the Soudan. On the eve of 
 resigning his Governor-Generalship he 
 wrote : " I do not profess to have been a 
 great ruler or a great financier ; but I can 
 say this, I have cut off the slave-dealers 
 in their strongholds, and I made the people 
 love me." And his success was not 
 surprising to those who knew on what 
 principles he carried on his work. " The
 
 60 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 main point," he wrote, " is to be just and 
 straightforward, to fear no one, or no one's 
 sayings ; to avoid all tergiversation or 
 twisting, even if you lose by it, and to be 
 hard on all if they do not obey you. All 
 this is not easy to do, but it must be my 
 aim to accomplish it." 
 
 By his courage, resolute will, and 
 humanity, Gordon gained as strong a hold 
 over the imagination and feelings of the 
 Soudanese as he had gained over those of 
 the Chinese. A remarkable proof of this 
 was afforded by the results of his now 
 famous ride to Dara, which Suleiman 
 (Zebehr's son) was on the point of attack- 
 ing. The rebel camp consisted of some 
 3000 trained warriors, similar to those who 
 fought so furiously at Teb and Tamanib 
 against the English under General Graham. 
 Gordon rode into this nest of slave-dealers 
 with only a very small escort of men, who 
 were so utterly worthless as troops that he 
 called them "sheep' 1 ' soldiers. He sent 
 for Suleiman, told him plainly that he knew
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. 6 I 
 
 what he was about, and warned him that 
 if he did not submit he and his tribes 
 would be disarmed and broken up. Strange 
 to say, Suleiman, who could easily have 
 captured Gordon, submitted uncondi- 
 tionally. " The people," wrote Gordon, 
 " were paralyzed when they saw a single, 
 dirty, red-faced man on a camel ride into 
 their camp." 
 
 He was equally fearless when, with only 
 ten men, he entered Walad-el-Michael's 
 camp of 7000 armed warriors and was 
 made a prisoner. The following letter 
 explains how he came to expose himself to 
 peril on this occasion : — . 
 
 " I do try and think, and try to put in 
 practice, that God is the Supreme Power 
 in the world, and that He is Almighty ; 
 and though ' use your judgment ' people 
 may say, You tempt your God in putting 
 yourself in positions like my present one, 
 yet I do not care. I do not do it to 
 tempt Him. I do it because I wish to 
 trust in His promises, and I feel sure,
 
 62 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 however trying it may be (and it is trying 
 to me in a great degree), that I gain in 
 strength and faith by it. If He wills me 
 to fail, so be it." 
 
 When marching in Darfour on Fasher, 
 with a body-guard consisting only of sub- 
 dued enemies, whom he had enlisted, he 
 prayed that the Chief whom he was about 
 to meet might be influenced by God. 
 *' Something," he wrote, " seems already to 
 have passed between us, when I meet a 
 Chief (for whom I have prayed) for the 
 first time. On this I base my hopes of a 
 triumphant entry into Fasher. I have 
 really no troops with me, but I have the 
 Shekinah, and I do like trusting to Him 
 and not to men. Remember unless He 
 gave me confidence and encouraged me 
 to trust Him, I could not have it ; and 
 so I have the earnest of success in this 
 confidence." 
 
 He was once defied by some 6000 Turks 
 and Bashi-Bazouks, whom he had employed 
 as his frontier-guards, but who would not
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. 63 
 
 carry out his orders to stop caravans of 
 slaves. He resolved to disband them, and 
 this was how he commented on his deter- 
 mination : " Let me ask who that hath not 
 the Almighty with him could do that ? 
 I have the Almighty with me, and I will 
 do it. Consider the effect of harsh mea- 
 sures among an essentially Mussulman 
 population, carried out brusquely by a 
 Nazarene ; measures which touch the 
 pocket of every one." 
 
 Hard as Gordon could be on occasions 
 which required him to be so, as when he 
 came across a slave-dealer carrying on his 
 nefarious trade, his soul revolted at the 
 sight of misery, and he was at times moved 
 to tears by the sufferings of even his 
 enemies. His hand on these occasions 
 acted in unison with his heart. He could 
 not bear to see wretchedness without if 
 possible trying to alleviate it. Mr. Hake 
 describes how Gordon, whilst travelling 
 in the Soudan, used so freely to distribute 
 grain to the hungry and give employment
 
 64 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 to the needy, that the poor negroes flocked 
 about him in great numbers. Here we 
 find him bringing, as he wrote to his sister, 
 " a poor old bag of bones " into his camp 
 and trying to restore life by feeding her 
 up. To another wretched woman, who is 
 struggling along the road and is such a 
 " wisp of bones that the wind threatens to 
 overthrow her," he sends some doora. 
 When he finds a baby in the grass, he does 
 not pass it by, or even direct that the 
 infant shall be looked after by others, but 
 he himself pours some brandy down her 
 throat, carries her in his arms to a hut and 
 has the mud washed out of her eyes. The 
 dullest natures were touched by the spec- 
 tacle of this inexhaustible pity, and it was 
 not strange that before he left the Soudan 
 he could write, " I have made the people 
 love me." 
 
 He once wrote from the Soudan : " I dare 
 say some of my letters have been boastful; 
 but I know that my conscience has remon- 
 strated whenever I have so written. Some
 
 OUTWARD LIFE. 6$ 
 
 of my letters have been written by one 
 nature ; others by another nature, and so 
 it will be to the end." No one else would 
 have thought of accusing him of boastful- 
 ness. His most astonishing achievements 
 he recorded as if honour were not in any 
 way due to himself. And the secret of his 
 modesty is to be found in his own words : — 
 
 " How often do the Scriptures claim for 
 Him all honour, power and might, and yet 
 all of us claim honour from our fellow 
 men." " As Solomon asked, I asked 
 wisdom to govern this great people, and 
 He not only will give me it, but all else 
 
 besides I feel my own weakness, 
 
 and look to Him." 
 
 In this constant and devout reference to 
 an unseen world Gordon was, perhaps, 
 more like Cromwell than any other great 
 figure in our history. Nor did the resem- 
 blance between them end here. They had 
 the same vigour, the same control over 
 a naturally fiery and masterful temper, the 
 same hatred of pretence, the same un- 
 
 F
 
 66 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 flinching determination, when the path of 
 duty seemed clear, in marching straight 
 to their goal. And both were equally 
 remarkable for their power of fascinating 
 and dominating other minds.
 
 IV. 
 KHARTOUM. 
 
 F 2
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 IV. 
 
 When Gordon left the Soudan, the old 
 system of oppression, by means of Cir- 
 cassians, Turks, and Bashi-Bazouks, was 
 restored, and all the results of his labour 
 seemed about to be swept away. He had 
 warned the Khedive that, if this were 
 done, Egypt would soon find herself in a 
 position of extreme difficulty. As he 
 afterwards said to Mr. Stead, " I had 
 taught the natives that they had a right 
 to exist. I had taught them something of 
 the meaning of liberty and justice, and 
 accustomed them to a higher ideal of 
 government than that with which they 
 had previously been acquainted." He 
 believed, therefore, that the Soudanese 
 would not again tamely submit to tyranny, 
 and events proved that he was right. 
 Under the Mahdi, whose religious claims 
 Gordon believed to have been in the first 
 instance merely a mask for political de-
 
 70 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 signs, a number of tribes revolted against 
 Egyptian rule ; and they had the enthu- 
 siastic support of the slave-dealers, whose 
 traffic Gordon had so earnestly striven to 
 destroy at its source. 
 
 The attention of British Ministers being 
 absorbed by their troubles in Egypt 
 Proper, they gave little heed to what was 
 going on in the Soudan ; and about six 
 months after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir 
 the Egyptian Government were allowed 
 to dispatch a force thither under Hicks 
 Pasha, a retired officer of the Bombay 
 army. Egypt being unable or unwilling 
 to send the large reinforcements which 
 Hicks Pasha frequently and urgently de- 
 manded, his troops were annihilated by 
 the Mahdi in November, 1883. After this 
 the Mahdi's power rapidly increased, and 
 Sinkat, Trinkitat, Tokar, and Souakim 
 were besieged by the "rebels." 
 
 Meanwhile, Gordon returned from Pa- 
 lestine, having been invited by the King 
 of the Belgians to succeed Mr. Stanley in
 
 KHARTOUM. 7 1 
 
 the government of the Upper Congo in its 
 equatorial regions. At Brussels he made 
 some arrangements with the Belgian King 
 as to his mission, and early in January, 
 1884, he arrived in England. He found 
 time to spend a night at Heavitree Vicar- 
 age, and on the morning of Friday, the 
 nth of January, he received Holy Com- 
 munion in the parish church. This, so far 
 as I can trace his course, was, with one 
 exception, his last communion. On the 
 same morning he visited Bishop Temple, 
 with whom, as we have seen from a letter 
 already quoted, he had wished to " talk 
 about those things " — the only things which 
 seemed to him to be of really vital interest 
 and importance. 
 
 Later in the day he went on to Sandford 
 Orleisfh. Sir Samuel Baker's house ; and 
 to those who accompanied him it was 
 pleasant to see the meeting between the 
 two ex-eovernors of the Soudan. While 
 we were driving from Newton Abbot 
 Station to Sandford Orleigh, Sir Samuel
 
 72 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Baker pressed on Gordon the expediency 
 of his again going to the Soudan as 
 Governor- General, if Her Majesty's Go- 
 vernment should require it. Gordon was 
 silent, but his eyes flashed, and an eager 
 expression passed over his face as he 
 looked at his host. Late at night, when 
 we had retired, he came to my room, and 
 said in a soft voice, " You saw me to- 
 day?" "You mean in the carriage?" 
 " Yes ; you saw me — that was myself- — the 
 self I want to get rid of." 
 
 The possibility of his going to the 
 Soudan was really being talked of, and on 
 the 1 2th of January a telegram from Lord 
 Wolseley, asking him to go to London, 
 was delivered at my house. This tele- 
 gram was forwarded to Gordon at South- 
 ampton after he left Sandford Orleigh, 
 and on the 15th he had an interview with 
 Lord Wolseley. Their conversation led 
 to no definite result, and next day Gordon 
 went to Brussels. On the forenoon of the 
 t 7th Lord Wolseley again summoned him
 
 KHARTOUM. J3 
 
 by telegraph to London ; and Gordon 
 spoke of the matter to the King of the 
 Belgians, who was greatly disappointed at 
 the prospect of even a temporary loss of 
 his services. Gordon started from Brussels 
 in the evening, and early next morning 
 (the 1 8 th) he was at Lord Wolseley's 
 office. Later in the day he saw Lord 
 Granville, Lord Hartington, Lord North- 
 brook, and Sir Charles Dilke ; and after a 
 brief consultation it was decided that he 
 should proceed to the Soudan as the re- 
 presentative of the British Government, 
 but in no way responsible to the Khedive. 
 His mission was to superintend the evacu- 
 ation of the Soudan. He was to withdraw 
 the Egyptian garrisons, the civil officials, 
 and as many of the inhabitants as might 
 wish to be taken away.* 
 
 Having spent much time in seeking for 
 Colonel Stewart, who was to go with him, 
 Gordon started for Khartoum the same 
 evening at eight o'clock. He was accom- 
 
 * See Appendix, B.
 
 74 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 panied to the station by H.R.H. the Duke 
 of Cambridge and by Lord Wolseley. 
 Lord Wolseley, it may be mentioned, was 
 Gordon's comrade at the Crimea, and he 
 declared some time a^o that Gordon was 
 one of the only two heroes whom he had 
 ever personally known ; the other being 
 Lee of the Southern army. 
 
 Gordon realised distinctly, as he alone 
 was in a position to do, all the perils which 
 might attend the fulfilment of the mission 
 undertaken on this memorable day. Yet 
 never, perhaps, had he experienced a 
 deeper feeling of inward serenity. In 
 the eveninor I received from him the fol- 
 lowing telegram, dispatched from the War 
 lOffice at 5 p.m. : " I go to the Soudan to- 
 jnight. I came from Brussels this morn- 
 Sine. If he* oroes with me, all must be 
 '"well." To those who read Gordon's cha- 
 racter aright, the whole story of his life will 
 seem to be written in these simple words. 
 
 * The word " He " has no capital letter in the telegram, 
 but no one who knew Gordon could doubt what was 
 meant.
 
 KHARTOUM. 75 
 
 At Cairo Gordon's functions were greatly 
 extended. He accepted from the Khedive 
 the office of Governor - General of the 
 Soudan, and in the firman conferring on 
 him this appointment he was instructed 
 not only to effect the evacuation of the 
 Soudan, but to " take the necessary steps 
 for establishing an organised government 
 in the different provinces of the Soudan, 
 for the maintenance of order and the ces- 
 sation of all disasters and incitement to 
 revolt." At that time it appeared to Gor- 
 don that the best course would be to re- 
 store the country to descendants of the 
 petty Sultans who had existed at the time 
 of Mehemet Ali's conquest, and to try to 
 form a confederation of the new rulers. 
 In this view the Egyptian Government 
 concurred ; and he received full discretion- 
 ary power to retain the troops until the 
 completion of such arrangements as would 
 enable the evacuation to be accomplished 
 " with the least possible risk to life and 
 property."
 
 76 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 In Gordon's camel-ride across the desert 
 he may be said to have been accompanied 
 in imagination by the whole civilised 
 world. Everywhere his heroic devotion 
 was spoken of with glowing admiration. 
 It seemed like a gleam of poetry in the 
 prose of the nineteenth century. 
 
 On the 19th of February I received 
 from him the following note, written on a 
 post-card on the 1st : — 
 
 " Arrived borders of Desert, am quite 
 well. Hosts with me through your kind 
 prayers. I do not believe in advance of 
 Mahdi, who is nephew to my old guide in 
 Darfour, who was a very good fellow. 
 The little letter your children gave me is 
 now before me. I shall have no eating 
 [Holy Communion] in Soudan. The 
 Roman Catholic priests have all left and 
 are at Assouan. Several will want copies 
 of the book. It must be all on the point 
 1 God in you.' I see 28th January Psalm 
 is ' Remember David and all his trouble,' 
 — how he sware he would find habitations
 
 KHARTOUM. J? 
 
 [tabernacles] for the Mighty God, who is 
 houseless if not in our hearts. Kindest 
 regards to you all, and to Mr. Maclelland, 
 to the Bishop and Mrs. Temple. I am 
 very hopeful, for men's hearts are in His 
 hand. — C. G. Gordon." 
 
 From Abou Hamed he wrote to me on 
 the 8th of February : — 
 
 " Thanks to all your kind prayers, we 
 arrived safely here yesterday. People are 
 quite quiet, and all seems hopeful. Evi- 
 dently the defeat of Hicks has been much 
 less thought of here than at Cairo, and 
 now it seems as if it would be more diffi- 
 cult to get the Egyptian element out of 
 Soudan than I expected, for they will not 
 go. They think that things will settle 
 down, and wish to stay. I hope (d.v.) 
 that in a month the country will be quiet 
 and the roads open. The cold was great 
 in desert at night, and heat ditto by day. 
 It is a terrible desert [between Korosko 
 and Abou Hamed], worse than any in the 
 Soudan I am glad to have come,
 
 78 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 for somehow I think God will bless my 
 mission, aided as I am by so many 
 prayers. His glory, the people's welfare, 
 my humiliation (i.e. an increased sense of 
 His indwelling in me, which is the se- 
 quence of a humble heart, to be nothing 
 in this world, the dust of His feet, for 
 who has caused Him greater pain, greater 
 shame than myself, who had so much 
 light ?) 
 
 " I saw two pleasant things at Cairo, 
 Baring's and Wood's chicks, and I heard 
 one pleasant thing — Mrs. Amos wanted 
 me to see her lambs. Good-bye, my 
 
 dear Mr. Barnes P.S. We are 
 
 now on Nile, the river of Egypt, the 
 strength of the Flesh, in which the Law 
 was nearly destroyed in Moses. It is 
 a mighty river with its Leviathan the 
 crocodile." 
 
 On the 1 8th of February he arrived at 
 Khartoum. He was received with the 
 greatest enthusiasm, and the city was 
 illuminated in his honour. " I come," he 
 
 1
 
 KHARTOUM. 79 
 
 said, "without soldiers, but with God on 
 my side, to redress the evils of the Soudan. 
 I will not fight with any weapons but 
 justice. There shall be no more Bashi- 
 Bazouks. I will hold the balance level." 
 He then held a levee, at which the poorest 
 might attend and pour out their grievances. 
 The people appeared in their thousands 
 to kiss his feet, styling him " The Sultan 
 of the Soudan." With the aid of Colonel 
 Stewart, he inquired into their grievances, 
 remitted public debts, publicly burnt instru- 
 ments of torture, and delivered prisoners 
 of all ages, old men and boys, who had 
 been unjustly imprisoned for years, many 
 of them without even the form of a trial. 
 " Backsheesh," without which it had been 
 impossible for suppliants to obtain a hear- 
 ing from their superiors, was abolished, 
 and in several places he set up boxes into 
 which petitions might be dropped. At 
 the same time he issued a proclamation 
 declaring the independence of the Soudan, 
 granting an amnesty, and repealing the
 
 80 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 laws against slavery. " Henceforth none 
 shall interfere with your property ; who- 
 soever has slaves shall have full right to 
 them." " Such is the influence of one 
 man," telegraphed the Khartoum corre- 
 spondent of the Times, "that there are no 
 longer any fears for the garrison or people 
 of Khartoum." 
 
 Gordon at once proceeded to send down 
 sick men, women, and children to Egypt ; 
 but it was impossible for him to remove 
 the earrisons and civil officials until he had 
 taken steps for the establishment of a 
 stable government. He was of opinion 
 that only about one-third of the population 
 were favourable to the Mahdi. If, however, 
 the whole machinery of administration had 
 been suddenly withdrawn, the remaining 
 two-thirds would have had no alternative 
 but to recognise the pretensions of the 
 False Prophet, whose supremacy would* 
 at least have been better than anarchy. 
 Gordon's proposal was that Zebehr should 
 be made ruler of Khartoum ; and there
 
 KHARTOUM. 8 1 
 
 can be little doubt that if this plan had 
 been adopted a tolerable settlement would 
 have been rendered possible. Whatever 
 may have been Zebehr's crimes as a slave- 
 dealer, he is a man of ability and energy ; 
 and, as Gordon urged again and again, 
 power might have been granted to him on 
 terms that would have provided for some 
 time an adequate guarantee for his good 
 behaviour. But the British Government 
 peremptorily refused to sanction Zebehr's 
 appointment ; and Gordon knew of no 
 other native of the Soudan who was com- 
 petent to gain the allegiance of those who 
 feared or disliked the Mahdi. 
 
 When Gordon became convinced that 
 Zebehr would not be sent to Khartoum, 
 he asked for the dispatch of troops both 
 from Cairo and from the Red Sea ; and, 
 after General Graham's victories in the 
 Eastern Soudan, it was the opinion of 
 the highest military authorities that the 
 opening of the route between Souakim and 
 Berber was not impracticable. Gordon 
 
 G
 
 82 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 felt so confident that he would receive the 
 aid he had declared to be necessary that 
 he " ordered messengers to be sent along 
 the road from Berber to ascertain whether 
 any English force was advancing." But 
 he was again to be cruelly disappointed. 
 The Government procrastinated, and 
 finally decided that his request should be 
 refused. 
 
 The inevitable consequence was that 
 the friendly and the neutral tribes began 
 to lose confidence in Gordon's professions. 
 Knowing- that the connection between the 
 Soudan and Egypt was to be severed, and 
 perceiving no sign that a new administra- 
 tive system was to be substituted for the 
 old, they naturally reflected that it might 
 be prudent to be on good terms with the 
 Mahdi, who alone seemed likely to have 
 permanent authority. At the same time, 
 the longer Gordon remained in Khartoum, 
 the more deeply he was pledged not to 
 desert the inhabitants. He had encouraged 
 them to hope that a Soudanese Govern-
 
 KHARTOUM. 83 
 
 ment would be formed ; he had called 
 upon them to make serious sacrifices ; by 
 the mere fact of his presence among them 
 he had prevented them from coming to 
 terms with the only rising power in their 
 country. Having done all this, he could 
 not honourably go away and leave them 
 exposed to the vengeance of their enemies. 
 How bitterly he resented the conduct of 
 the Government he showed in the famous 
 dispatch of the 16th of April — the last 
 received before the final severing of the 
 telegraph : " As far as I can understand, 
 the situation is this : you state your in- 
 tention of not sending any relief up here 
 or to Berber, and you refuse me Zebehr. 
 I consider myself free to act according to 
 circumstances. I shall hold on here as 
 long as I can, and if I can suppress the 
 rebellion I shall do so. If I cannot, I 
 shall retire to the Equator, and leave you 
 the indelible disgrace of abandoning the 
 garrisons of Senaar, Kassala, Berber, and 
 Dongola, with the certainty that you will 
 
 g 2
 
 84 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 eventually be forced to smash up the 
 Mahdi under great difficulties if you would 
 retain peace in Egypt." 
 
 Abandoned by the Government, Gordon 
 tried in desperation to obtain help by other 
 means. Before he was cut off from com- 
 munication with the outer world he tele- 
 graphed to his friend, Sir Samuel Baker, 
 to ask whether "an appeal to the million- 
 aires of America and England, for the 
 raising of ^200,000, would be of any 
 avail." "With this sum you might get 
 permission of the Sultan for the loan of 
 2000 or 3000 men, and send them up to 
 Berber. With these men we could not 
 only settle our affairs here, but also do for 
 the Mahdi, in whose collapse the Sultan 
 would be necessarily interested. I would 
 not send many Europeans with them, as 
 they cost too much, and I will put Zebehr 
 in command." 
 
 In the midst of his perplexities, Gordon 
 was able for some time to give his friends 
 an occasional glimpse of the thoughts and
 
 KHARTOUM. 85 
 
 aspirations which no external troubles 
 could quench. On the 24th of February- 
 he wrote: "An eventful day in 1870 for 
 all your circle. [The reference is to the 
 birthday of Angela Annie Barnes.] I 
 hope God will bless you all. I am all 
 right, but there is no 'eating' up here, 
 which I miss. Things look settling down 
 a little, but I have the weight on me at 
 times very heavily, and the natural in- 
 firmity of human nature brings me down. 
 It is as well it should be so, for the for- 
 bidden fruit is glorying in self, which one 
 is prone to do. Herod was eaten by 
 worms for not giving glory to God when 
 the people cheered him. I have no time. 
 C. G. Gordon." 
 
 The next letter he sent me was dated 
 the 3rd of March : — 
 
 "Thanks for your letter of 28th Janu- 
 ary, received to-day. Thanks for all the 
 pains you have taken about the Reflections. 
 As to the title, I am interested, for I hope 
 the book may tend to show forth God's
 
 86 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 dwelling in us. This is the sfreat secret. 
 I would sooner pay more than ^25 than 
 have any bother to you. About Congo, 
 there is no issue. I shall (d.v.) start for it 
 in September, 1884, when I hope to be at 
 Brussels. God made us, to have a house 
 to live in : without us He is houseless. He 
 needs us, and how much more do we need 
 Him ! I am comforted up here in my 
 weakness by the reflection — Our Lord 
 rules all things, and it is dire rebellion to 
 dislike or murmur against His rule. May 
 His name be glorified — these people 
 blessed and comforted, and may I be 
 deeply humbled, and thus have a greater 
 sense of His indwelling Spirit. This is 
 my earnest prayer. Kindest love to you 
 
 all, and to . Believe me, yours ever 
 
 sincerely, C. G. Gordon." 
 
 His last note to me, dated the 6th of 
 March, ended with the words : " Let no 
 news from hence move you. He over- 
 rules all for good." 
 
 The Arabs began to attack Khartoum
 
 KHARTOUM. 87 
 
 on the 1 2th of March, and from that time 
 until his death Gordon was engaged in 
 defending the city against its assailants. 
 The record of his achievements in this 
 memorable siegfe will form one of the most 
 heart-stirring pages in English history. 
 
 L 
 
 Khartoum is situated on the western 
 bank of the Blue Nile, and within about 
 three miles of that river's junction with 
 the White Nile. Both the rivers are from 
 600 to 800 yards in width at their lowest 
 point. The Blue Nile, though fordable 
 at its lowest season in many places above 
 the town, has very steep banks. The 
 White Nile is fordable only in one or two 
 places far up, and has a dyke on its right 
 bank. The ferry over this river can be 
 strongly defended, and adequate measures 
 were taken by Gordon for its defence. 
 
 Gordon had several Yarrow-built 
 steamers, which, with remarkable inge- 
 nuity, he made bullet-proof. He also 
 erected on them towers capable of de- 
 livering a powerful fire. He thus not
 
 88 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 only rendered himself perfectly secure 
 from the north and west, but was able to 
 make sorties and gather provisions for his 
 garrison. 
 
 Towards the south, about half a mile 
 from the town, Khartoum was defended 
 by earthworks with ditches, extending 
 from the White Nile to the Blue Nile, a 
 length of about three miles. Within this 
 exterior line, the outskirts of the town 
 formed a good second irregular line ; and 
 in Khartoum itself guns were mounted on 
 the public buildings, the Palace being, in 
 Gordon's words, "the great place for the 
 firing." It was his habit every morning, 
 shortly after sunrise, to scan the surround- 
 ing country from these dominating points, 
 and to note any change in the enemy's 
 situation. 
 
 The first battle was fought on the 16th 
 of March, and this engagement Gordon 
 himself described : 
 
 "At 8 a.m. on the 16th, two steamers 
 started for Halfaya. Bashi-Bazouks and
 
 KHARTOUM. 89 
 
 some regulars advanced across plain to- 
 wards rebels. At 10 a.m. the regulars 
 were in square opposite centre of rebels' 
 position, and Bashi-Bazouks were extended 
 in their line to their right. The gun with 
 regulars then opened fire. Very soon after 
 this a body of about sixty rebel horsemen 
 charged down a little to the right of centre 
 of Bashi-Bazouks' line. The latter fired a 
 volley, then turned and fled. The horse- 
 men galloped towards the square, which 
 they immediately broke. The whole force 
 then retreated slowly towards the fort with 
 their rifles shouldered. The horsemen 
 continued to ride along flanks cutting off 
 straeelers. The men made no effort to 
 stand, and the gun was abandoned with 
 63 rounds and 15 cases of reserve am- 
 munition. The rebels advanced, and the 
 retreat of our men was so rapid that 
 the Arabs on foot had no chance of at- 
 tacking Pursuit ceased about a mile 
 from stockade, and the men rallied. We 
 brought in the wounded. Nothing could be
 
 90 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 more dismal than seeing these horsemen, 
 and some men even on camels, pursuing 
 close to troops who, with arms shouldered, 
 plodded their way back." 
 
 Most commanders would have aban- 
 doned the hope of being able to do any- 
 thing with such troops. Not so General 
 Gordon. Two Pashas who had disgraced 
 themselves in. the battle were tried and 
 found guilty of cowardice, and by his 
 orders they were shot. His "sheep" he 
 made determined efforts to convert into 
 soldiers. 
 
 After this defeat there was continual 
 skirmishing with the Arabs. On one 
 occasion, when the river rose, they were 
 driven off in three or four engagements, 
 and their towns were burned. Gordon 
 sent up two expeditions to Senaar ; and in 
 a battle fought on the 25th of August his 
 troops took the Arab camp and killed the 
 Arab commander-in-chief. On the 4th of 
 September the Arabs gained a victory ; 
 but they derived from it no solid advan-
 
 KHARTOUM. 91 
 
 tage, and for some time afterwards there 
 was " comparative quiet." In a letter to 
 the officer commanding the royal navy at 
 Massowah, dated August 24th, Gordon 
 mentioned that his steamers had been 
 doing "splendid work." "You see," he 
 added with grim humour, "when you have 
 steam on, the men can't run away, and 
 must go into action." 
 
 During the whole course of the sie^e he 
 displayed his usual dauntless spirit and 
 inexhaustible resource. When the Arabs 
 captured two small steamers at Berber and 
 one on the Blue Nile, he caused two new 
 steamers to be built. His exterior lines 
 he defended by means of wire entangle- 
 ments, with live shells as mines ; and these 
 land-torpedoes (used for the first time) 
 " did great execution." They were ignited 
 with lucifer matches. On the nth of 
 November (the date of an important letter 
 to Lord Wolseley) his soldiers were only 
 half-a-month in arrears ; and he had 
 evidently succeeded in inspiring many of
 
 92 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 them with something of his own courage 
 and vigour. 
 
 He had never ceased to resent the 
 strange indifference of the authorities at 
 home to the events in which he was play- 
 ing so great a part. On the 9th of Sep- 
 tember he wrote to the Khedive, Nubar 
 Pasha, and Sir E. Baring: "How many 
 times have we written asking for reinforce- 
 ments, calling your serious attention to the 
 Soudan ? No answer at all has come to 
 us as to what has been decided in the 
 matter, and the hearts of men have become 
 weary of this delay. While you are eating, 
 drinking, and resting on good beds, we 
 and those with us, both soldiers and 
 servants, are watching by night and day, 
 endeavouring to quell the movement of 
 this false Mahdi. Of course you take no 
 interest for suppressing this rebellion, the 
 serious consequences of which are reverse 
 of victorious for you, and the neglect 
 thereof will not do." It was in order that 
 the English Government mi^ht learn the
 
 KHARTOUM. 93 
 
 whole truth about the state of the Soudan, 
 that Colonel Stewart and the French and 
 English Consuls started in September on 
 the journey which was to have so sad 
 a close. 
 
 Towards the end of 1884 there was 
 much hard fighting at Khartoum ; and, 
 notwithstanding Gordon's written mes- 
 sages, he had forebodings of coming 
 disaster. The runner who brought the 
 famous note of the 14th of December — 
 " Khartoum all right" — was instructed to 
 say, " Our troops in Khartoum are suffer- 
 ing from lack of provisions. Food we 
 still have is little ; some grain and biscuit. 
 We want you to come quickly. ... In 
 Khartoum there are no butter nor dates, 
 and little meat. All food is very dear." 
 On the very day on which he wrote that 
 Khartoum was "all right," he also wrote 
 to a friend in Cairo : " All is up. I expect 
 a catastrophe in ten days' time. It would 
 not have been so if our people had kept 
 me informed as to their intentions. My 
 adieux to all."
 
 94 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 On the 28th of January, 1885, soon 
 after the hard-won victory at Abou-Klea, 
 in which Sir Herbert Stewart received his 
 fatal wound, Sir Charles Wilson ap- 
 proached Khartoum with soldiers, food, 
 and ammunition. A heavy fire was 
 opened on his steamers, and he was un- 
 able to land. The town which had been 
 so grandly defended was in the hands of 
 the Mahdi. Two days before Sir Charles 
 Wilson's arrival the besiegers had been 
 admitted by traitors, and Gordon had 
 been killed. 
 
 So ended a career as romantic and as 
 noble as any that the modern world has 
 seen. When the terrible tidings were 
 made known, England mourned for 
 Gordon as she has seldom mourned even 
 for her heroes. His unworldly temper, 
 his ardent faith, his magnificent energy, 
 his sublime unselfishness — in all this there 
 was something that captivated the heart 
 of the nation ; and it needed but the 
 crowning glory of his death to evoke an
 
 KHARTOUM. 95 
 
 expression of love and reverence to which 
 there is hardly a parallel in our history. 
 They who knew him best knew that his 
 countrymen had obeyed a true instinct in 
 placing him, even while he lived, beside 
 those whose names are " on fame's eternal 
 bead-roll worthy to be filed." With regard 
 to Gordon's character there are no popular 
 illusions to be dispelled. The more closely 
 it is studied the deeper will be the admi- 
 ration excited by his strength, his tender- 
 ness, his purity, and his honour.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ii
 
 98 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 A. 
 
 Gordon's family is of Scottish origin. In 
 the service of Peter the Great there was 
 a General Gordon, who in a barbarous 
 and coarse society maintained his inte- 
 grity ; and it is worth noting that his 
 favourite author was Thomas a Kempis. 
 A distinguished officer who was one 
 of Gordon's immediate ancestors served 
 under Wolfe on the plains of Abraham. 
 
 Gordon's grandfather, Captain William 
 Augustus Gordon, R.A., lived in Exeter; 
 and in the present church of St. Thomas, 
 a suburb of Exeter, there are monuments 
 which, with the more recent monuments 
 in the cemetery at Southampton, give the 
 family history through a full century. 
 Over one of the vaults in the church of 
 St. Thomas, near Exeter, is the following 
 inscription :— " Anna Maria Gordon died 
 in Exeter, 25th February, 1796, aged 47, 
 after two days' illness, and her son on the
 
 APPENDIX. 99 
 
 8th March, 1796, by a fall from his horse 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, in the 
 19th year of his age." These were 
 Gordon's grandmother and uncle. Captain 
 Gordon, the bereaved husband and father, 
 died at Exeter, in June 1809, and his body 
 was buried in the same vault. 
 
 Gordon's father, the late Lieutenant- 
 General Henry W. Gordon, R.A., was 
 born in Devon, and always reckoned him- 
 self a Devonshire man. Both he and 
 Gordon's mother (whose maiden name 
 was Enderby) were alive at the time of 
 their son's successes in China. 
 
 The family is one of soldiers, and they 
 have served chiefly in the Royal Artillery.
 
 IOO CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 *d 
 
 B. 
 
 The following letters were written in 
 January, 1884, when Gordon was on the 
 way to Egypt : — 
 
 Mont Cenis, 19. 1. 84. 
 
 My dear Mr. Barnes, — 
 
 I left last night for Soudan to ar- 
 range for evacuation. I enclose cheque 
 for book ; if more is wanted up to ^10 
 I will send it, for it ought to be done well. 
 Colonel Sir C. Warren, R.E., Chatham, 
 would give a good plan of Jerusalem 
 without the debris. I hope you, Mrs. 
 Barnes and the six are well, also Miss 
 Freeman. Ministers said they were deter- 
 mined to evacuate. Would I go and 
 superintend it ? I said " Yes." Good 
 night. With kindest love to you. I
 
 LETTERS. IOI 
 
 expected Baker ere, but he may be at 
 Brindisi. 
 
 [No signature follows.] 
 
 At Sea, 22. i. 84. 
 
 My dear Mr. Barnes, — 
 
 Your letter written on Epiphany has 
 been read, but I have seen you since. 
 The repentant thief was on right side — 
 the side pierced — this is another point 
 which fixes the side pierced. On the left 
 was the unrepentant thief. 
 
 You must be told shortly what passed. 
 You know Wolseley sent a telegram to 
 me at your house, but I did not know it 
 until Sunday — he said, " Come up at once." 
 This telegram came when I was so bothered 
 that I said to my sister, " I will fly on 
 Wednesday, the 16th, to Brussels;" so I 
 said to Wolseley, " I will come up on 
 Tuesday the 15th and go to Brussels on
 
 102 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 1 6th." I reached London at 2 p.m., Tues- 
 day, stayed with Wolseley in Wolseley's 
 office from 2 till 5 p.m., while he talked to 
 Ministers. Nothing, however, came of it ; 
 so I said, " I will go to Brussels." I did 
 not see Ministers. I consequently went 
 to Brussels on Wednesday, and got 
 there Wednesday night. At noon on 
 Thursday I got telegram from Wolseley 
 saying, " Come over at once ;" so I saw the 
 King, who did not like my going, and left 
 Brussels at 8 p.m., Thursday, reaching 
 London at 6 a.m., Friday. I saw Wolseley 
 at 8 a.m. He said nothing was settled, 
 but Ministers would see me at 3.30 p.m. 
 No one knew I had come back. At noon 
 he, Wolseley, came for me, and took me 
 to Ministers. He went in and talked to 
 the Ministers, and came back and said : 
 " Her Majesty's Government want you to 
 understand this — Government are deter- 
 mined to evacuate Soudan, for they will 
 not Guarantee future government. Will 
 you go and do it ?" I said " Yes." He
 
 LETTERS. IO 
 
 J 
 
 said, " Go in." I went in and saw them. 
 They said, "Did Wolseley tell you our 
 orders?" I said "Yes." I said, "You 
 will not guarantee future government of 
 Soudan, and you wish me to go up to 
 evacuate now." They said " Yes," and it 
 was over, and I left at 8 p.m. for Calais. 
 Very little passed between us. The Duke 
 and Wolseley came to see me off, so that 
 is over. 
 
 The day after to-morrow I reach, D.V., 
 Port Said, and go through Canal on 
 to Suakim by H.M.S. ' Carysfort,' and 
 reach that, D.V., on my birthday. I am 
 quite restored to my peace, thank God ! 
 and in His hand He will hide me. You 
 and I are equally exposed to the attacks 
 of the enemy. Me not a bit more than 
 you are. Kindest love to you all. I am 
 sorry not to have time to write to you 
 graphic details. Lord Granville thanked 
 me for going very nicely. Government 
 are right, if they will not guarantee future 
 government of Soudan, to evacuate it.
 
 104 CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Good bye, kindest regards to the Temples, 
 Bowring, Blackmore, and you all. 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 My dear friend, 
 
 C. G. Gordon. 
 
 The Hosts are with me, " Mahanaim. 
 
 * 
 
 * Gordon frequently referred to the word " Mahanaim," 
 and he liked the full explanation of its meaning given 
 in Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible.' It means "the 
 two hosts," and is so used by the patriarchs in Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 It is necessary to add that these letters, although appa- 
 rently private and confidential in their character, were 
 not intended by the writer to be so regarded. They 
 belong to a series of which the first letter states that I am 
 to make them known as I may see fit, and whensoever 
 I may see fit. He called on me as a friend, to whom he 
 had said " that he should probably not see me again on 
 earth," both " to defend his character and to make known 
 his religious views ; " adding that I was to " act on my 
 sole discretion and responsibility." 
 
 LONDON! PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 w 
 
 ■ I
 
 MESSRS. MACMILLAN & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 BY THE LATE GENERAL GORDON. 
 
 REFLECTIONS IN PALESTINE, 1883. 
 
 By CHARLES GEORGE GORDON. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 3^.' 67. 
 
 "It must command the most respectful attention. '1 he earnest! 
 General Gordon is stamped on every line, while his strong and original vii 
 
 are expressed "with characteristic self-confidence He only knows one 
 
 book, and that is the Bible ; but of the Bible his knowledge is exhaustive 
 
 and profound But we have said enough to show that the ' Reflections ' 
 
 are a clue to the heroic character of the man, who has set before him id 
 impossible, indeed, of attainment, but towards which he is always striving to 
 elevate himself; who seeks to mortify self, like his model, Thomas a Kemj 
 and carries with him the profound conviction that, happen what will, his 
 prayers are being heard and his footsteps directed." — Times. 
 
 "It is a very distinct indication of how much the appreciation of historical 
 and sacramental Chiistianity is 'in the air.' It is evidence of the hold which 
 this Christianity has, even of those who may be most unconscious of its 
 presence, or who believe themselves inimical to its progress. Short of a miracle, 
 no soldier, however pious and heroic, of the last or the last but one generation, 
 
 could have written the book Whatever may be the secret of its incept 
 
 the phenomenal value of the book is incontestable." — Saturday Revieiv. 
 
 EGYPT, the NILE, and the SOUDAN. 
 
 Sir Sa muel W. Baker's Records of* his Journeyings, and 
 Exploring Expeditions in Abyssinia, The Valle? of the 
 NILE, and The SOUDAN, contain full and detailed accounts 
 ol these rarely travelled Districts. 
 Works by Sir Samuel White Baker, M.A., F.R.G.S., F.R.S. 
 
 ISMAILIA. A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the 
 ion of the Slave Trade, organised by Ismail, Khedive of Kgypt. With I\l 
 , and numerous lllu by Zweckek and Dukand. New and Che 
 
 Edition, with New Preface. Crown Svu. 6s. 
 
 THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OP ABYSSINIA, AND THE 
 
 SWORD HUNTERS OF THE JIAMRAM ARABS. With Maps and Illustrations. 
 New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 i his Work affords the most complete Account of THE SOUDAN and sun 
 ii.g distant portions of Egyptian territory. ——^—— — 
 
 THE ALBERT N'YANZA GREAT BASIN OF THE NILE, 
 AND EXPLORATION OF THE NILE SOURCES. New ai r Edition. 
 
 With Maps and Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION. lieing Letters to tne Tit 
 the Tall Mall Gazette. With Map. Demy 8vo. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
 
 I *
 
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