The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-28

Is the demand upon SIOFy-telleIS, pay
wrights and public speakers. The
present lesson fulfiIls the prescription;
it is a story of action" and more
crowded with sensations than a nickel
novel. Its scenes range from a kings
palace to a prison dungeon; and from
a CORY field of execution, where
saints head had rolled on the ground,
to sheltered prayer meeting in the
home of the mother of a since cele-
brated author. A king, an angel, Two
apostles. a group of devoted women
and some slain soldiers all figure in
the narrative.
of unusual peFtinency is this story
of an early martyrdom. James, one
of the favored three companions of
Jesus had been beheaded- Peter
broke Jail by a miracle. Other un-
named Christians had suffered. We
should do ILL., however, were we to
confine our thought to these incidents.
forgetting that within the past ten
months there have been million
martyrs for the Name sake in blood
soaked Armenia. The fate or those
first. Christians was simple and mercf-
full as compared with what has befal-
len wearers of the same name within
the memory of every Sunday school
child.
This is the day to recall the perse-
cutions of the Christians in Turkey.
Some have been imprisoned, but most
have been "deported," which means
sent away from home and livelihood
into desert wastes of starvation.
They who were killed by sword or
bullets were counted the most for
tunate; for as 1 heard one Armenian
say, ''Massacres are merciful as COM
! pared with this Starvation, cold,
WEAKNESS beyond words, shelterless.
soaked in rains or bitten by frost, the
| prey of wild animals and worse men,
| tortured so unspeakably that even
- 1afr Iar, Of a
| book, called THE Bible" presents no
analogy for their fate-the Chris
| tians of Armenia have touched the
| high-water mark of the Church's
martyrdoms All that the eleventh
| chapter of Hebrews says about the
than duplicated in the present case
of the Armenians. More than mil
| lion have died; a million more may
be saved if the Christian Church
awakens to, help.
So we may not become so engrossed
in these martyrdoms of two thousand
years ago, as to ignore the greater
ones of yesterday. Equally marvellous
have been the deliverances. Just as
James died and Peter lived, so a mil
lion Christians have persisted, and an
7 other million have come through alive.
Some have had deliverances that seem
miraculous. After the Moslem butch
| ers have left some comm unltleS OF
Christians, there have crawled out lit
orally from beneath the heaps of the
slain those who have escaped I'M
| touched. We have yet to hear the
| full story of the deliverances of the
| Christians under the Moslem attacks
| of the past year. When DR.. Clarence
usher, for instance, whose wife had
| died of typhus, and he himself had
been Smitten with the same disease,
which emaciated him to a mere skele-
4lston, was being carried cut of the city
of Van the bullets of the Turks an
| kurds penetrated the canopy over the
litter that carried him, but he himself
| was untouched. ~
1t is of first Importance that we
recall not only the dealings. of God
with His children in the long ago, but
that God deals in the same way with
His children in this year of our Lord,
1916.
When the Church Cared.
King Herod, a miserable politician,
wanted Jewish support, and so he ar
rested representative Christians. Pub
lie order did not require this nor his
own instructions or convictions. He
| was but an ancient prototype of the
class of officeholders who will sacri-
flee duty on the altar of personal
popularity or political expediency.
James, the dearly beloved of Jesus,
had fallen under the sword Peter lay
/ chained between two Roman soldiers.
A beautiful picture of the simplicity
and the solidarity of the early church
is contained in this story. The whole
brotherhood felt the blow at their
members. Peter in prison was the
object of continual supplication. AS
/ the Record runs Prayer was made
without ceasing Of the church unto
! God for him." That is the proof of
the reality of religion: the finest fruit
of Christian fellowship. AS says the
familiar hymn:
I'VE share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear,
And ever for each other flows
The sympathizfng tear.
Irrcsistibly the question arises to-
day-and it runs far deeper than may
at first sight appear-how many
churches are praying for Armenia at
the present time? Are special pray
er meetings, being held anywhere in
America for these members of the
Church of Christ? In the daily pray
ers of churches and families is Ar
menia borne to the Throne of Grace
How deeply are American Christians
anguished over the sufferings of the
victims of Moslem hate, and over the
plight of their fellow Christians in
Europe Is the Body of Christ so quick
and sensitive that it feels the hurt in
any member2 If the Church has for
gotten how to pray for every mem
/, | Der of the Church, then we have come
upon serious days indeed
When The Steel Snapped.
| Probably it was in the Tower of
/, Antonio the ruins of which are still
to be seen by the visitor to Jerusa-
lem, that Peter was incarcerated. Here
| tradition says that Christ was tried.
We know not what memories and
, musings filled the brain of Peter as
/ he lay handcuffed to his guards, but
this we are told. and the truth is a
precious one, that Peter slept peace
fully in his prison cell The Church
in the house of Mary might be awake
in anguished supplication for his de-
+ | Iiverance, but Peter slept in peace
sure that the Power which had stilled
the waves of Galilee was equal to any
need of his life.
While the prisoner slept the angel
I [ 90 a he st h.a1 r-r1ln-