The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-07
HYMNS IN WARLlKE TONE.
THEY ARE HARMLESS, YET FRIGH-
TENED THE TURKS.


TENED THE TURKS.
Good ola Gospel Songs Sung in Ar
menia-They We're Taken as Being
Calls to RebeIIiOn-A Strange story
Told by Minister From That Unt
happy Country.
From tho Detroit Free Press.
One Of the causes OF the Wholesale
massacre Of the Armenians by the Turks
proves to have been an innocent little vol
ume of Moody and Sankey hymns. II APP
pears that in the seclusion of the sultan's
palace the sacred songs that are so famil-
lar to the church-going public of America
we're pored over by the suspicious leader
of the faithful and his advisers until the
conviction became firmly established In
their minds that the hymns We're nothing
less than the sentiments of a band of
murderous rebels. This interesting story
is told by the Rev. George Fl. Fllian
once the Armenian pastor of the Evan
gelican church at Marsovan, Asia Minor
Banshed from the sultan's dominlons for
the crime Of preaching, Mr.. Fillan came
to the United States and Is now an Amer
lean citizen. He had previously been edu-
Gated I'm America, and had graduated
from the Chicago Theological Seminary
I'm 1852. He speaks English perfectly.
You can Judge Of the state of mind Of
Sultan Abdul Hamid," said AR. Filian TO
the writer, when / tell you that these
words from the Lords prayer chosen as a
text by a fellow preacher of mine In Arme-
mia threw the sublime porte into a rage
and nearly cost the preacher his life. The
three words We're. Thy Kingdom Conner
and the Turkish authorities construed this
to mean that the Armenians were kxton-
ing the glOries of some anti-Turkish ruler
Word speedily reached the sultan of the
preachers seditious utterances ana he
was seized. heavily ironed and thrown
THE preachers life was in great peril"
continued Mr.. Ftlian, but fortunately
the news of his arrest penetrated even
that deaf and dumb country to the OUT
side world, and eventually reached the
British prime minister. Through the lat
ters Intervention the life of the culprt
who preached the coming of the kingdom
of Christ was spared on conditions that
he leave the country never 10 return.
zone Of the hymns that first attracted
the attention of the Turks TO the sup
posed danger TO be feared from the mis-
sionaries was the famous old rallying
song of the church:
Onward. Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on beforei
Christ the royal master
Leads against the foe,
Forward into battle,
Let his banners co.
cit seems hard to believe the statement.
but it is a fact that after the verses had
been translated into the Turkish lam
guage they were interpreted by the Mo-
hammedans TO be a deliberate attempt on
the part of the Armenians to provoke
an uprising against the Turks. The war
like tenor of the song was declared to be
a call to arms, and the sultan probably
saw in his Imagination the armies of the
unbelievers besieging the gates Of his
palace in response to the call. The Turks
resentment was intensified by the fact
that at the same meeting in which the
hymn was sung a minister unfortunately
preached sermon from the texti Put on
the whole armOr of God, that We may be
able to stand against the wiles Of the
devil Further on in the same sermon
he referred to the words that follow those
of his text For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against prncipanties
darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places From the
perverted point of view of the sublime
porte these utterances seemed to be most
incendiary, and Sultan Abdul Hamid's
guilty conscience speedily convinced him
that he must be the particular ruler of
darkness against whom the minister in
Another of the sankey hymns that was
taken to be deliberate throwing Of the
Armenian gage Of battle IN the face OF
the Turks was the familiar old tune. ONLY
an armor-bearer, proudly l stand. Waifine
to follow at the kings command Sul
another old-timer added to the trouble
Hold the fort for ! am coming; this al
most proVokes smile when il Is sung in
public in this country but in the uneasy
state Of the sultan and his people even
this poor old tune was regarded as a note
of defiance. The sultan could apparently
imagine the holding of no. other forts
than those filed with hostile Armenians
threatening the very foundations OF MS
throne with their weapons.
But the words that probably did the
most to create the feeling that the Chris
tians were dangerous TeVolutionists were
those contained in Revelations, and rum
"7And I looked and beheld horse. and
his name that sat on him was DEATH and
hell followed after him. And power was
TO kill with sword and with hunger and
with death and with the pests of the
And the kings of the earth. ana the
great men and the rich men and the chief
captains and the mighty men and every
bond man and every free man hid them
selves in the tents and IN the rocks and
mountains, and said to the mountains and
the rocks, Fall on us and hide US from
the wrath Of him that Stitch on the
"Everything Of similar nature con-
tinued Mr.; Filian5 'or anything In the
to arms or battle, was taken as a threat
against the sacred person and authority
of the sultan. The Bible is so fun of these
passages anu the ittiuNb NSN4 Dy the mis-
sionaries are founded so generally on the
idea of soldiers fighting for a principle
that there was no loophole for escape
when the obstinate and laundering TURKS
had once made up their minds that an
onslaught on the empire Of the sultan
was intended.
There is no such thing as argument or
appeal In Turkey. When the sultan de-
clares that certain steps shall be taken
there is but one thing to do-submit and
consider yourself fortunate II Punishment
and not death be the fate decreed The
latest news that haye from Armenia Is