The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-02-15
MODERN PERSECUTION.
A Sermon by Rev. A. S. MOwbray, Pas
tor of ElktOn M. E. Church.

us III ASIA, that we were pressed out OF
measure, above strength, insomuch that
We despaired even of life.-II Cor |: 8.
The text gives us glimpse at some Of
the prosecutions endured by Paul, whether
any elsewhere narrated or not cannot be
certainly determined. 1t may have refer
ence to the stir of opposition raised by
Demetrious, or to the Jews lying in wait
to kill him, or to his fighting with beasts
at Ephesus which some take literally.
The language would seem to fit more
closely than any other event, his experience
at Lystra, where he was stoned and
carried out of the city for dead.
Whether to any of these or not ref
erence is made in the text, it is clear
that Paul was called upon to endure terri
BILE persecution while in some part Of Asia.
That his sufferings were so great as to be
beyond human endurance, and that but
for the merciful intervention of the Lord
he must have persisted
All this is familiar enough as ancient
history-so ancient as to cease to have any
effect upon our sympathes. We are apt
to think of ourselves as living in an
entirely different world where events of
this kind no longer happen. There are few
people who think OF men and women as
prosecuted for conscience sake and religion
in these days; and yet scenes as terrible
and as unreasonable as any Paul ever wit
messed are being daily enacted in the full
view of the boosted civilization of this
nineteenth century. Crueltes inconceiv-
able, barbarities unnamable are perpe-
trated upon "A quiet and defenseless people
simply because they are Christians. 80, 600
people have been robbed, insulted. out
ragged and murdered within few months:
$500 villages have been burnt to the
ground, leaving to the people not more
than 700 or 500 villages in those provinces.
More than half million of people at the
beginning of a severe winter are left with
out food or shelter, their cops and goods
carried off or destroyed, theiI homes burnt.
left frendless, defenseleSs and helpless, for
cold, hunger and disease to complete the
work so ruthlessy begun by the hand OF
the prosecutor.
In the language of the text, 81 would
not, brethren, have you ignorant of the
trouble which has come to us part of our
Christian brotherhood, and body of Christ
in Asia. A whole nation is there bein.
pressed out of measure, above strength.
insomuch that they despair even of life.
1t is not needful that | tell you that |
refer to the Armenian Christians Here is
to be found a remarkable people with
remarkable history. We read as far back
as the days of Sennacherib, king OF Nine.
web, that his two sons, after numbering
their father, fled into the land of Armenia.
This same land of Armenia was brought
under the influence of the Gospel by the
preaching of the apostle Bartholomew
and deacon Thaddeus. The real foun-
daton OF the church Of to day was
laid by Gregory the illumination A. ID.
BOZ. They have kept their even way in
the valleys at the foot Of Mt Ararat all
these years and are as little affected by the
surgng tides of social and political in
tlucnces as a nation could we'll be. They
are robust temperate, industrious and
and frugal people. They are exceedingly
chaste, and thus in most striking contrast
with their filthy, lecherous prosecutor, the
lustful, bloody and unspeakable Turk
The form of Christianity held by the
Armenians though ancient and ritualistc
is pure and spiritual. They are shedding
their blood not for hollow dogmas or
empty forms, but for the power of God
unto Salvation
Before undertaking to inform you what
these excellent Christian brothers OF ours
are suffering, let us see plainly that what
they suffer is for the sake of their religion
In the first place this is and always has
been the policy Of Islam. From the battle
of Badr, Mohammed's first victory. which
gave the keynote to the whole dismal
march OF blood and rapine; assassination,
treachery, murder OF prisoners who had
surrendered to him. have marked the
career of Islam. These qualities have been
especially prominent in stamping out
opposing religions. In destroying the
Jewish tribes in Arabia, strong pleas were
made to him to spare their lives. Under
pretense of fairness, Mohammed referred
the question to Saad, whom he knew to be
a Jew-hater. The decision was that the
men should be killed and the women and
children sold into slavery. Mohammed
shouted with delight at is a decision die
tated by God from the height of the seventh
heaven" The men were bound and placed
under guard. They spent the night recit
ing psalms and praying, while Mohammed
was having great graves dug. In the
morning the men were led forth to the
edge of the pit, their heads hewn off with
sabrts, and they were tumbed in. The
awful work went on all day and, by the
aid of t0rchight, far into the night.
Such was the beginning of loug
series Of religious massacres which
have been carried steadily forward since