The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-01-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Turkish Excesses In Armenia viv-
idly Portrayed.
DR.. ralnage Tells Why He Did Not Go to
Armenia with the Relief Fund
Words of COmmendation
for Clara Barton.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage told the
| story of the Armenian massacres tc
his Washington congregation, predi
eating his remarks on the text:
11t! escaped into the land Of Armenia. II
Kings, xix, 37
In Biblical geography this is the first
time that Armenia appears, called
then by the same name as now. Ar,
menia is chiefly tableland, 1000 feet
above the level of the sea, and on one
of the peaks Noah's ark landed, with
its human family and fauna that were
to fill the earth. That region was the
birthplace of the rivers which ferti-
lized the Garden of Eden when Adam
and Eve lived there, their only roof
the crystal skies, and their carpet the
emerald of rich grass. Its inhabitants,
the ethnologists tell us, are a superior
type of the Caucasian race. Their re-
ligion is founded on the Bible. Their
Saviour IS our Christ. Their crime
Is that they will not become
followers of Mohammed, that Ju-
piter of sensuality To drive
them from the face of the earth is the
ambition of all Mohamme dams. To ac-
complish this, murder is no crime, and
wholesale massacre is a matter of en-
thusiastic appreciation and govern
mental reward. The prayer sanction ed
by highest Mohammedan authority and
recited every day throughout Turkey
and Egypt, while styling all those not
Mohammedans as infidels, is as fol-
lows: 20 Lord of an creatures! Al
lahi Destroy the infdels and Polythe-
lists, thine enemies, the enemies of the
religion! o Allahl Make their children
orphans and defile their bodies; cause
their feet to slip; give them and their
families, their households and their
women, and their relatives by mar
riage, their brothers and their friends,
their pe sessions and the race, their
wealth and their lands as booty to the
Moslems, o Lord of all creatures"
The life of an Armenian in the pres
ence of those who make that prayer is
of no more value than the life of a
summer insect. The sultan of Turkey
sits on a throne impersonating that
brigandage and assassination. At this
time all civilized nations are in horror
at the attempts of that Mohammedan
government to destroy all the Chris
tians of Armenia l hear somebody
talking as though some new thing
were happening, and that the Turkish
government had taken a new role of
tragedy on the stage of nations. No,
moi She is at the same old business.
Overlooking her diabolism of other
centuries, we come down to our
century to find that in 1922
the Turkish government slew 5O,-
600 anti-Moslems, and in 1850
she slew 10000, and in 1860 she
slew II, ,O0O and in 1876 she slew 10000.
Anything short of the slaughter of
thousands of human beings does not
put enough red wine into her cup of
abomination to make it worth quaffing.
Nor is this the only time she has prom
ised reform. In the presence of the
war ships at the mouth of the OAR
danelles, she has promised the civil
lied nations of the earth that she
would stop her butcheries, and the in
ternational and hemisphere farce has
been enacted of believing what she
says, when all the past ought to per-
suade us that she is only pausing in
her atrocities to put nations off the
track and then resume the work of
death.
In 1920 Turkey, In treaty with Russia,
promised to alleviate the condition of
Christians, but the promise was broken.
In 1889 the then sultan promised pro-
lection of life and property without
reference to religion, and the promise
was broken. In 1914, at the demand
of an English minister plenipotentiary
the sultan declared, after the public
execution of an Armenian at Constan-
tinople, that no such death penalty
should again be inflicted, and the prom
Use was broken. In 1850, at the demand
of foreign nations, the Turkish gov
ernment promised protection to Pro
testants, but to this day the Protes-
tants at Stamboul are not allowed to
build church, although they have
the funds ready, and the Greek
Protestants, who have a church,
are not permitted to worship in
it. In 1856, after the Crimean
war, Turkey promised that no one
should be hindered in the exercise of
the religion he professed, and that
promise has been broken. In 1878, at
the memorable treaty of Berlin, Tur-
key promised religious liberty to all
her subjects in every part of the Otto
man empire, and the promise was
broken. Not once in all the centuries
has the Turkish government kept her
promise of mercy. So far from any
improvement, the condition of the Ar
menians has become worse and worse
year by year, and all the promises the
Turkish government now makes are
only gaining of time by which she is
making preparation for the complete
determination of Christianity from her
borders.
Many of the chiefs of the massacres
were sent straight from Constantine
pie to do their work, and, having re-
turned, were decorated by the sultan.
To four of the worst murderers the
sultan sent silk banners, in delicate
appreciation of their services. Five
hundred thousand Armenians put to
death OF dying Of starvationI This
moment, while ! speak, all up and
down Armenia sit many people, freez-
ing in the ashes of their destroyed
homes, bereft of most of their house
holds, and awaiting the club OF assas-
sination to put them out Of their
misery. No wonder that the physi-
clans of that region declared that
among all the men and women
that were down with wounds
and sicIkness and under their
care not one wanted 70 get well. |
Remember that nearly sil the repoYta
that hsye come 70 us Of tbs TgFkssh