Omaha daily bee., 1917-03-27
M bAzM~
Pastor North Presbyterian church.
Will Jerusalem Fall?

1t begins to look now as though the British
forces which are invading Turkey in Asia from
the direction of the Tigris valley would compel
the evacuation of Jerusalem before the little army
from the Sinai peninsula can get there. Deserts
and mountains fight against the army in southern
Syria; but il General Maude once gets astride
of the line from Mosu to Aleppo-and thither he
is rapidly moving-the Turks must evacuate the
whole OF Syria And with this movement Jeru-
salem must fall without the PROCLAMATION of the
holy city by single bombshell. Nor can we
suppose that the Turks themselves would DAM
age the holy places in resentment, for in spite
of all their wars and expressions their veneration
for the shrnes of Jesus is only less profound
than that of the Christians.
Give the devil his due; the wardenship OF the
Turks in Jerusalem has not been essentially un-
worthy. Probably it has been better than that
which any single one of the Christian sects
would have supplied, at least in the times that
have passed. The Turkish soldier on his pedestal
in the Christian church, keeping with bayonet
and with ball cartridge his guard over the war;
ring Christian sects each ready at any moment
to strangle the other, is typical of the situation
in all the holy land. Greeks, Latins, Armenans,
Copts and representatives OF the rest of the forty
three Christian sects who are permitted to keep
each its separate light burning in the Church OF
the Holy Sepulcher, are always ready to fly at
one another's throats and have been restrained
only by the police power of the Turk. Edward
Lear, writing to Chichester Fortescue from Jeru-
salem, described the situation most graphically
when he spoke of the Christians in the holy city
as "scandalizing the whole community with their
monstrous quarrels; their consuls and bishops
regarding each other with hatred and each acting
to each other with open contempt and malignity,
while every portion Of their resident fellow-re-
igonists take one or the other side. And this
forsooth at place of example for Turks mad
Jews. II I wished to prevent Turk Hebrew or
heather from turning Christian, would send him
straight to Jerusalem. While Jerusalem is what
it is by and through the Christians dogma and
theology, so long must the religion of Christ be,
and mostly justly, the object of deep hatred and
disgust to the Mosem, or destestation and dersion
to the Jew" Matters have changed somewhat
since Lear wrote these words in 1858, but the
mutual hostility survives. We may well hope
that the British as standing quite outside the
great central rift of Christianity the division be-
tween the eastern and the western churches,
would be able to maintain Christian decorum
at Jerusalem; but what about the situation when
the French, the historic champions of the Latin
church in the east, to the authority in Pales
tine which the understanding among the entente
allies has allotted to them? There may be some
uneasiness on this head in the orthodox
countries
However, it is impossible not to share with Mr..
Ralph Adams Cram his enthusiasm over the pros
pective restoration OF the holy city to the banner
Of the cross after 673 years of dominance by the
Mohammedan Turks.