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GENERAL GORDON
[Illustration: C. G. Gordon
P.S. I am quite happy, thank God, & like Lawrence, I have "tried
to do my duty."
_Copied from the Original Engraving by permission of_
F. C. MCQUEEN & SONS, _sole Proprietors of the Copyright._]
GENERAL GORDON
A Christian Hero
by
LIEUT.-COLONEL SETON CHURCHILL
Author of "Stepping-Stones to Higher Things," Etc.
13th Edition
(_Completing 41,000 Copies_)
London
James Nisbet & Co., Limited
21 Berners Street
1907
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
_DEDICATED_
TO THE
YOUNG MEN OF ENGLAND
WITH THE EARNEST DESIRE THAT SOME OF THE NOBLE
GODLIKE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS
CHRISTIAN SOLDIER AND HERO
MAY BE REPRODUCED IN FUTURE GENERATIONS
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. EARLY LIFE AND CRIMEAN WAR 12
III. CHINESE WAR AND TAIPING REBELLION 25
IV. GORDON'S FIRST COMMAND 36
V. PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION 50
VI. END OF THE REBELLION 65
VII. AT GRAVESEND 80
VIII. GORDON'S SIMPLE FAITH 92
IX. HIS CATHOLICITY 114
X. GOVERNOR OF THE EQUATORIAL PROVINCE 135
XI. GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE SOUDAN 157
XII. ABYSSINIA, INDIA, AND CHINA 178
XIII. MAURITIUS, CAPE, AND PALESTINE 190
XIV. KHARTOUM 209
XV. THE SIEGE 230
XVI. THE FALL OF KHARTOUM 246
XVII. CONCLUSION 263
LIFE OF GORDON
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Lord Wolseley, on hearing an officer say that General Gordon was mad,
remarked, in language similar to that used by George II. to the Duke of
Newcastle about General Wolfe, that it was a great pity Gordon had not
bitten more Generals, so that they might have been infected with some
of his madness. Nor is there any reason why the motive power which
could make a man do such noble deeds and lead such a splendid life
should be confined to Generals. There are thousands of young men in
this country who may be helped to live better lives by the study of
such a Christian hero as Charles George Gordon undoubtedly was, and it
is with that end in view that I have endeavoured to write a popular
sketch of his life and character.
My object in adding to the number of biographies[1] already written of
General Gordon is to meet the demand for a popular book for young men
and others, which will focus the events of his life into one handy
volume, and which shall at the same time give a clear insight into the
religious life of this Christian hero. This I have attempted to combine
with a sketch of his military, political, and social life, setting
forth not only the deeds of the man, but the motive which prompted
them. The best writers on Gordon have taken up parts of his life only,
so that no one can get a view of it as a whole without wading through a
large number of volumes, some of them very ponderous. The best record
of his career in China is a work by Mr. Andrew Wilson called "The
Ever-Victorious Army." A smaller book by Mr. W. E. Lilley gives an
interesting account of Gordon's life at Gravesend. The first part of
his life in Africa is given in a larger volume by Dr. G. Birkbeck Hill,
called "Colonel Gordon in Central Africa." The late Prebendary Barnes
edited a small book, "Reflections in Palestine," and Mr. A. Egmont Hake
has published a complete account of the hero's career at Khartoum in
"The Journals of General Gordon," which were given to him in manuscript
to be edited. In addition to this valuable work, the same writer, who
is a distant cousin of Gordon's, has written two large volumes,
embracing the whole of his life, under the title "The Story of Chinese
Gordon."
[1] In certain points where I have differed from other writers, I
have relied on the opinion of a near relative of the late General
Gordon, as to the accuracy of the statements put forward.
The late Sir Henry Gordon has also written a biography; but though an
able man and very fond of his brother, it is not generally considered
that he did full justice to his memory. The brothers were widely
separated in age, there being fourteen years between them; and owing to
the younger one having spent so much of his life abroad, they had not
seen much of each other. Colonel Sir William F. Butler has written the
ablest and most interesting of all the biographies which embrace the
whole of Gordon's life, but as he is a Roman Catholic, it could not be
expected that he would enter largely into the religious views of his
hero. The remarks he does make on the subject are, however, excellent
and in good taste. Another capital sketch of Gordon has been produced
by the celebrated war correspondent Archibald Forbes, who not
unnaturally devotes most of his space to the military aspect of
Gordon's career, and says but little about his religious life. From the
religious standpoint the best information can be got from the "Letters
of General Gordon to his Sister," edited by Miss Gordon. There seems to
have been a special bond of sympathy between the brother and sister,
and she seems to have been made the recipient of all his confidences,
religious and otherwise.
In order to get a clear and accurate conception of Gordon's many-sided
character, I have made myself acquainted with all these authorities on
the subject. There is another little book to which I am indebted--"Letters
from Khartoum," written by the late Frank Power, correspondent of the
_Times_ at Khartoum during the siege. It gives a good insight into
Gordon's life in the beleaguered city. I have further had the advantage
of hearing many anecdotes and incidents that throw a light upon the
personality of one who undeniably ranks amongst the great men of the
century. Nevertheless I feel that to represent the religious and
professional life of a man like Gordon, who was so essentially original
and unlike other people, is a very difficult task, so I have, as far as
possible, quoted his own words in giving expression to his views.
The play of "Hamlet" without its leading character could not be more
deficient than a sketch of the life of General Gordon without a careful
setting-forth of his religious views. It would be impossible to point
to one in this nineteenth century who was a more complete living
embodiment of the truth contained in the text, "This is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith." He was a man of faith, a
man of prayer, a devout student of the Word of God; and though he was
_in_ the world, and took far more than his share of the ordinary duties
of life, he was not _of_ the world. Mr. Gladstone was right when he
said from his seat in the House of Commons, "Such examples are fruitful
in the future, and I trust that there will grow from the contemplation
of that character and those deeds other men who in future time may
emulate his noble and most Christian example." Gordon must ever remain
a mystery to those who have not got the key to his character, and my
desire is simply to place that key in the hands of young men, so that
they may study him for themselves, and may learn to turn to the same
source whence he derived his wisdom and his force of character.
Such noble examples are not often seen, for Christian heroes in this
world are all too few. It is, then, our bounden duty to take pains that
the example set by one who has been termed "the youngest of the saints"
shall not be lost on the young men who come after him, and who have not
had the privilege of seeing him and knowing him while alive.
"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time."
Goodness in the abstract we are all prepared to admire; but while we do
this, how often we are tempted to declare it an impossible thing to
live up to a high standard. God, recognising the weakness of human
nature, sent His only-begotten Son to reveal the Father, and show us a
life of goodness in human form. He has further descended to our
weakness by permitting us from time to time to see in our midst living
examples of how Christians can follow out the principles of Christ. The
Apostle Paul in one of his Epistles urges his readers to follow him
even as he followed Christ. Good men have their failings, and these we
are to avoid; but while doing so, we should aim at imitating that which
is good and noble and Christlike in their characters. It is a great
privilege to be permitted to come in contact with living men of the
type of Gordon, but that privilege is only for the few. As the great
majority of our fellow-creatures are denied it, the next best thing for
them is to be able to read about these heroes, and thus endeavour to
catch their spirit. Some are inclined to sneer at biographies, and to
say that, speaking generally, they set forward only the good part of
the character of their subjects, omitting all that is faulty. To a
certain extent this is undoubtedly true, owing to the very nature of
things; but, on the other hand, it must be remembered that it is only
the good that we are to follow, and therefore it is useless to direct
attention to a man's failings.
There have been few men who have attained to eminence whose inner life
could be closely investigated and betray so few faults as did Gordon's.
The late Sir Stafford Northcote (afterwards Lord Iddesleigh), leader of
the Conservative Opposition in the House of Commons at the time of
Gordon's death, only expressed the literal truth when he said: "General
Gordon was a hero, and permit me to say he was still more--he was a
hero among heroes. For there have been men who have obtained and
deserved the praise of heroism whose heroism was manifested on the
field of battle or in other conflicts, and who, when examined in the
tenor of their personal lives, were not altogether blameless; but if
you take the case of this man, pursue him into privacy, investigate his
heart and his mind, you will find that he proposed to himself not any
ideal of wealth and power, or even fame, but to do good was the object
he proposed to himself in his whole life, and on that one object it was
his one desire to spend his existence."
But though Gordon's inner life was so thoroughly open to investigation,
there was something about him that made him very human. He had his full
share of faults, and a quickness of temper which manifested itself
unmistakably on occasions. He had also that kind of hasty impatience to
which men are liable who are themselves quick at taking in ideas, or
seeing how a thing should be done, when they are brought into contact
with others of a slower temperament. He was painfully conscious of his
own defects, and judged them far more severely than other people would
do.
What made him so really great was the happy combination of so many
virtues with a corresponding absence of ordinary defects. There have
been Christians as earnest and devout as he; there have been soldiers
as brave and capable; there have been men as kind-hearted; but there
have been few who, while combining all of these good points and many
more, have exhibited so complete an absence of the numerous defects
which blemish the characters of most great men. The late Prebendary
Barnes, who was very intimate with him, remarks that "there are no
popular illusions to be dispelled" as one studies his inner life. Sir
John Lubbock in one of his lectures says of Napoleon, that he was a man
of genius, but not a hero. Now, while Gordon was essentially a genius,
he was even more essentially a hero. True heroism is inseparably
associated with self-sacrifice. A man may be as brave as a bulldog, yet
be entirely wanting in all that goes to make him a hero. The dictionary
definition by no means embraces all that the word implies. Lord
Wolseley in a magazine article remarked that he had met but two heroes
in his eventful life; one of them was that noble Christian officer
General Lee, who commanded the Southerners in the American War, and the
other was Gordon. It was his complete forgetfulness of self, his entire
willingness to sink his own individuality, his own comfort, his own
position, his good name, that made Gordon so Christlike, and lifted him
above the level of his fellows. We are accustomed to read of brave men,
of original thinkers, of great statesmen, of men of genius in different
departments of life, but we seldom read of one who was so entirely free
from what Milton calls the last infirmity of great men--the love of
fame--that he was willing to be nothing that the cause he had espoused
might triumph. When Columbus first saw the River Orinoco, some one
remarked to him that he must have discovered an island. His reply was,
"No such river as that flows from an island; that mighty torrent must
drain the waters of a continent;" and his prediction proved to be
correct. When we see the deep stream of true heroism flowing from the
heart of such a man as Gordon, we instinctively feel that no mere human
heart could produce such a torrent of good works, but that behind the
human being there must be something more. It has been my object in this
memoir to show that the stream that went forth from Gordon's heart to
cheer and bless all with whom he came in contact, sprang from no
isolated fountain, but had its origin in the great ocean of Divine
love, which has existed in all ages, but was revealed more distinctly
on Calvary.
* * *
This is a material, sceptical age, when many pride themselves on their
want of faith, quite forgetting that to believe too little is as
clearly an indication of mental weakness as to believe too much. God
suddenly raised up a man in our midst who was as strong in faith as he
was indifferent to the material things of this world. It was indeed his
faith in things eternal and unseen that made him so indifferent to
things temporal. Gordon might have lived and died amongst us without
being known beyond a limited circle, but that his Master placed him on
high so that men should be compelled to hear about his life. Sir
William Butler in his interesting book, "The Campaign of the
Cataracts," does not at all exaggerate when he says:--
"Who is this far-off figure looming so large between the rifts in
the dense leaguer which the Arab has drawn around Khartoum? We
cannot save him with all this host and all this piled-up treasure;
but, behold! our failure shall be his triumph; for God has raised a
colossal pedestal in the midst of this vast desert, and placing
upon it His noblest Christian knight, has lighted around the base
the torch of Moslem revolt, so that all men through coming time may
know the greatness of His soldier."
In spite, however, of the fact that many failed to appreciate him while
he was alive, we may be thankful to think that there is much good left
in Old England yet; for when the events of his noble career were made
public, there was a widespread feeling of regret that we had as a
nation failed to value adequately a man of so much true nobility.
In an interesting article in "The Young Man," Mr. William T. Stead hit
off the prominent characteristic of the hero's life when he said:
"General Gordon taught the world that it is possible to be good without
being goody-goody. That it is possible to live like a Christ and to die
like a Christ for your fellow-men, without going out of the world or
refusing to do your own fair share of the day's work of the world, is
one of those truths which need to be revealed anew to each successive
generation by the practical demonstration of an actual life." Gordon
was essentially a manly man, but with all his courage and bravery he
combined the tenderness of a woman. He could be "truest friend and
noblest foe." His courage and deeds of daring would have won him that
much-coveted distinction the Victoria Cross, had they been performed in
an English campaign; yet the sufferings of a child, or even of an
animal, caused him the greatest grief. He had a keen sense of humour,
and might have cultivated the mere pleasure-seeking part of his nature,
and become socially very popular. It has been well said that "Humanity
wants more than this; it craves to have its best and noblest powers
called into play, and exercised into action that will tend in some way
to promote the general good." It is for this reason that his example is
such a noble one to set before young men. Most young fellows who are
worthy of the name of men have within them a spirit which admires all
that is manly, noble, and chivalrous; and for such it is a grand thing
to have a high ideal, even if they do not attain to it. As it is true
of men that they cannot habitually think mean thoughts without becoming
mean, or set before themselves a low ideal without lowering themselves,
so is it true that men cannot adopt a high ideal without instinctively
cultivating noble and lofty aims.
Frederick Robertson of Brighton once said, "Hate hypocrisy, hate cant,
hate intolerance, hate oppression, hate injustice, hate pharisaism,
hate them as Christ hated them, with a deep, living, Godlike hatred."
It would be difficult to point to one who was more thoroughly
influenced by the teaching conveyed in this short sentence than was
Gordon. But negative virtues of this kind were not enough for him. One
of his most prominent characteristics was his love for that which is
good, and his incessant efforts to do good. His career was one long
effort to relieve the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, to inculcate
Divine truths, and in every way to make the world better. Few labourers
have been called to such a variety of work; but it was all one to him.
He worked for God in China when fighting to quell a civil war; he
served the same Master at Gravesend when he visited the sick and the
dying, and rescued little street arabs from lives of sin; and the same
motives prompted him when, later on, he devoted all his energies to
mitigating and attempting to abolish the horrors of the slave-trade. He
is dead, but his noble example still lives.
"Press on, press on! nor doubt, nor fear,
From age to age, this voice shall cheer;
Whate'er may die and be forgot,
Work done for God--it dieth not."