The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1917-03-08
|lRM[A|lhs COMPARED
TO EARLY MARTYRS
BY vIscouNT BRYCE.

T.
Former British Ambassador to Y, s.
| LONDON, March S,--The slaugh-
tier OF between seven and eight hum
Idred thousand Armenians by the
Turks since the beginning of the
1 war reveals the Armenians quite as
much martyrs to christianity as any
or the early christians who died In
!, Nero's arena.
4 There are today more than mil
lion Armenians and Syrians starv-
ling to death in Asia Minor. Syria,
4 the Russian Caucasus. Persia and
Palestine. The relief work for them
lin America Is in charge of the Ameri-
can Committee for Armenian and
Syrian Relief in New York.
In The history of the early chris
!! tian church there are no figures SO
j glorious, none which have continued
Ito be SO much honored by the church
Iall through its later days as those
iof the martyrs. men and women who
ffrnn the time of Nero down to that
LOT Dioclestian sealed with their blood
1.-THE testimony to their faith with
standing very lure and every threat
| in order to preserve to their faith
land loyaIy to their Lord and Master
| Christ.
In cur own times we have seen
this example of fidelity repeated in
| the Turkish Empire and it is strange
that the christians OF Europe and
America should not have been more
moved by the examples OF courage
land heroic devotion which the Ar
menian christians have given. Of
/ the seven or eight hundred thousand
CT Armenians who have persisted In
the recent massaeres many thou
sands have died as martyrs, by which
/ mean they have died for their
christian faith. when they could have
saved their lives by renouncing it.
This has perhaps not been realized
even by those who in Europe or
America have read of and been hor-
rified By the wholesale slaughter and
hideous cruelties by which half OF
an ancient nation has been extermi
natsI. They can hardly understand
bow there should be religious perse
cutien III our time; 80 let me try to
explain the facts.
1t was not religious fanaticism
that led the present rulers Of Tur
key TO seek to root out christianity.
So far from being fanatics most OF
these men though Eominaily Mo-
hammedans have no religion what
ever. Their aim was political. They
wanted to make the whole Turkish
empire Mohammedan in order to
make 1t uniform with only one creed
aud no difference between one class
OF subjects and another They saw
that the christian part OF the popula
ton suffering under constant OPP
pressions and eruelties, continued to
turn it's eyes westward and hope for
some redress from the christian ma
tons: so they determined to elimi
nate christianity altogether.
During these recent maasacres
whenever any christian would turn
Mohammedan his life was spared,
II was only as a christian that he
was killed Many christian child
was torn from It's parents to be
brought up as a Mussulman. Thou
sands of Armenian christian girls
were sold in the market or distrih-
uted among Turkish Officers To be
Imprisoned for life in Turkish har-
ems and there forced into Moham-
mechanism. But many more thou
sands of Armenians, women as we'll
az men, were offered their choice
between Christ and Mohammed and
when the refused Mohammed were
shot or drowned forthwith. For days
and days together the bodies of
christian women who had thus per-
ished were seen floating down the
Euphrates.
Surely The remains Of this suffer-
ing natioi could make no stronger
appeal 70 pity and help 20 the chris
tians Of America than they make
through these martyr deaths. Only
ia remnant IS now left TO whom char
Iity can be extended. II is still a
soreiy afflicted remnant.
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CaRRaNxa CAVALRY