The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-03-16
SUFFERED SLAUGHTER BE-
CAUSE OF RELIGION
In the History Of the Christian Church
There Are No Figures So Glorious,
None Have Been So Much Honored
As Those Who Have Been Put to
Death at Hands Of Turks; Blood Is
Testimony Of Their Faith
kI!eo s.kepsLnul luoLI
VISCOUNT BRYCE.

London, March S.-The slaughter
of between seven and eight hundred
thousand Armenians by the Turks
since the beginning of the war reveals
the Armenians quite as much mar
.tyrS to Christianity as any of the
early Christians who died in Nero's
arena.
There are today more than mill
lion Armenians and Syrians starv-
ing to death in Asia Minor, Syria,
the Russian Caucasus, Persia and
Palestine. The relief work for them
in America is in charge of the Amer
lean committee for Armenian and
Syrian Relief in New York.
In the history of the early Chris
tian church there are no figures so
glorious, none which have continued
to be so much honored by the church
all through it's later days as those
of the martyrs, men and women who
from the time of Nero down to that
Of Dioclestian sealed with their
blood the testimony to their faith
withstanding every lure and every
threat in order to preserve to their
faith loyalty to the Lord and Mas
ter Christ.
In our town 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
and heroic devotion which the Ar
menian Christians have given. OF
the seven or eight hundred thou
sand Of Armenians who have perish
ed in the recent massacres many
thousands have died as martyrs by
which / mean they have died, for
their Christian faith when they
could have saved their lives by re-
nouncing it.
This has perhaps not been realiz-
ed 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 exter
minated They can hardly under
stand how there should be religious
persecution in our time; so 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 nominally Mo-
hammedans have no religion what
ever. Their aim was political. They
wanted to make the whole Turkish
empire Mohammedan in order to
make it uniform with only one creed
and no differences between one
class of subjects and another. They
saw that the Christian part of the
population suffering under constant
expressions and cruelties, continued
to turn its eyes westward and hope
for some redress from the Chris
tian nations; SO they determined to
eliminate Christianity altogether.
During these recent massacreS
whenever any Christian would turn
Mohammedan his life was spared. 1t
was only as a. Christian that he was
killed. Many a Christian child was
torn from it's parents to be brought
mp as a Mussulman. Thousands OF
Armenian Christian girls were sold
I'm the market or distributed among
Turkish officers to be imprisoned
for life in Turkish harems and there
forced. into Mohammedanism. But
many more thousands of Armenians,
women as well as men, were offered
their choice between Christ and Mo-
manned and when they refused Mo-
manned were shot or drowned forth
with. For days and days together
the bodies of Christian women who
had thus persisted were seen floating
down the Euphrates.
Surely the remains of this suffer-
ing nation could make no stronger
appeal for pity and help to the
Christians of America than they
make through these martyr deaths.
Only remnant is now left to whom
charity can be extended. 1t is still
sorely afflicted remnant.