First: That devotion to Christ is not lessened but increased. Many
people think the spirit of unbelief and indifferentism has spread
so widely that in this nineteenth century people will no longer
die for Christ. But out of 100,000 Armenians massacred, 90,000 were
actually martyred because they would not deny Christ. In all lands,
Christians praise the old martyrs, the church fathers: let them know
that there are as noble church sons and daughters to-day in Armenia
as there were church fathers anywhere in the early centuries. Thus
these hideous scenes ought to awaken a true Christian spirit both in
this country and in Europe.
Second: That it was a religious persecution. Though the false and cruel
Sultan gave a political color to it, his universal order was to offer
the Armenians the choice of Mohammedanism or death. This is proved
by the fact that the leading gospel ministers were specially chosen
for martyrdom. And some of the Armenian priests, after having been
converted by force, to escape unbearable tortures, were led through
the streets, followed by great crowds, as a warning to the remaining
Armenians that they must follow the same road. When some of them did
it, the Turks forced them to take arms and kill their brothers and
sisters for refusing to accept Mohammedanism. To speak of the massacres
as political affairs is doing injustice to the cause of Christ.
Third: That whatever a man sows, he shall reap the same. The Sultan
and the Turks are sowing,--they are killing, and thousands of the
Christians are converted by force to Mohammedanism; but the time is
coming when more Mohammedans will be killed than Armenians have been,
and thousands, and even millions of the Mohammedans will be converted
to Christianity, and the blood of the Armenian martyrs will be the
means of their salvation through Jesus Christ. The time is coming
when out of this great persecution a great and happy freedom will
proceed. Out of this great darkness a very bright light shall shine.
Fourth: Some of the Turks helped and saved the Armenians. Certainly
these were secret converts to Christianity, but their lives being
in danger, they cannot confess Christ publicly. All they can do
for the present is to help the needy Christians and save them
from murder. Another class of Turks who helped is those who were
themselves getting a living out of the Armenians. The Armenians gave
them employment, and if their employers were killed, how could they
get a living? Still another class protected the Armenians, because if
the Armenian houses were burned, their houses also would be burned;
and they asked and got money from the Armenians as a reward for having
saved them. It is a mistake to think that there are good Mohammedans,
who, from a good Mohammedan motive helped the Armenians. There cannot
be a good Mohammedan motive towards a Christian; if there is a good
motive, it is not a Mohammedan motive.
Fifth: That the time has come when American and European Christians
should trust no longer in the promises of the Sultan and the European
governments, but as Christian people must use something more than
"moral principle" before all the Armenians and American missionaries
are killed. Moral influence is very good as far as it goes; being a
Christian minister, I also believe in it. But as far as the Turks
are concerned it can do nothing, because they do not know what
morals are, or what moral character is. All the Turks are morally
corrupt. They know only two things; one is the sword, the other is
moral corruption. They came and captured that country by the sword,
and they must go by the sword; there is no other way. Europe tried the
experiment century after century, but could find no other way. Moral
advice, wise counsel have never moved the Turks, and will never move
them hereafter. Europe and a part of Armenia were taken from them by
the sword, and the only way Armenia and the Armenians can be saved
is by using the sword. When Christ comes again He will never yield;
He will never be crucified, but he will judge and condemn. The time
has come when Christians have suffered enough; they must unite and
remove that great curse, the Mohammedan power, and make free that
happy and beautiful Bible Land, Armenia and Palestine.
Reader, you cannot go and visit to-day the places where man was
created, where Noah's ark rested. You cannot go in safety to visit
the places where Christ was born and walked. Why? Simply because a
corrupt Mohammedan power wills there, and will not permit you. Is
it not a shame to mighty Christian nations and powers that this is
so? Will not the Christian nations be aroused with great indignation
and give the last blow to such a cruel Mohammedan tyranny?
Sixth: That Turkey is a mere barbarism; it is not to be considered or
treated as a nation, for it is not one in any sense. International
law cannot be applied to Turkey. The Sultan must be considered as a
brigand, a mere lawless oppressor, and the Turks as mere murderers, and
dealt with accordingly. The powers must give up the farce of treating
the Sultan as a national sovereign, who speaks for his people, and may
govern, therefore, much as he pleases. As Mr. W. W. Howard says, "The
blackest spot in the round world is the heart of the Sultan of Turkey."
A Farewell Letter from a Prominent Armenian. March 24, 1896.
"We are evidently a doomed people. A hundred thousand of us have
been butchered, and more than a million of us are in extreme
suffering from hunger, and cold, and nakedness. Multitudes beyond
the reach of foreign aid must inevitably perish before spring. As
to the rest of us, our supplies of food and money are rapidly
diminishing. We can prosecute no business, we are not at liberty
to earn our daily bread, and for even the most fortunate, the
future has only the prospect of starvation a little later than
our poor brethren.
"We hear the announcement that order and peace are being restored,
but to us these are empty words. The terrible and wholesale
massacre at Oorfa and Birijik occurred long subsequent to the
most solemn and emphatic assurances that nothing more of the
kind was to be apprehended,--long after the commission sent out
from Constantinople to carry the message of peace and reform to
Armenia had reached its field of labor.
"Massacres are not now so frequent as they were a few months
ago, but the attitude of relentless hostility on the part of
the government towards us, the ferocious aspect of our Moslem
neighbors, has not a whit improved. They seem to be eagerly
watching for an opportune moment in which to finish their bloody
work, and rid themselves forever of this troublesome demand
for reform.
"May we not then rightfully offer our farewell message to our
fellow men?
"First--To our Moslem fellow countrymen:
"We desire to express our deepest gratitude to those of you who
have sympathized with and helped us in these days of calamity
and bloodshed. Towards those who have robbed and massacred us,
and plundered and burned our houses, we have chiefly feelings of
compassion. You have perhaps done these terrible things in what
has seemed to you the service of your religion and government.
"Second--To our Sultan--most dread and potent sovereign:
"Apparently you have been persuaded that we are a rebellious people
deserving only utter and speedy extermination. For such as you,
this work of destruction is no doubt an easy one, the more so as
we have had neither the means nor the disposition to resist it.
"Third--To the European powers:
"We have not been an importunate nor a turbulent people. We did not
incite the Crimean War, nor any of the subsequent wars which have
stricken this empire. It is not of our will that we were begotten
to a new political life by the treaty of 1856. Our complaints
and appeals have been based solely on the sentiment of humanity
and the common rights of man. It was you who arranged the "scheme
of reforms," and urged it upon our Sultan till he was irritated
to the extent that he seems to have adopted the plan of ridding
himself finally of this annoyance by exterminating us as a people;
and now, while he is relentlessly carrying out this plan, you
are standing by as spectators and witnesses of this bloody work.
"We wonder if sympathy and the brotherhood of man and chivalry
are wholly things of the past, or are the material and political
interests dividing you so great that the massacre of the whole
people is a secondary thing? In either case "We who are about to
die salute you."
"Fourth--To the Christians of America:
"Although we have cherished strong prejudice against your mission
work among us, recent events have proved that our Protestant
brethren are one with us, and have shared fully our anxieties
and our perils. You have labored through them to promote among us
the peace and prosperity of the gospel. It is not your fault that
one result of their teaching and example has been to excite our
masters against us. The Turkish government dreads and dislikes
nothing so much as the ideas of progress which you have sent us."