(London, 1853), p. 409._

A later Turkish traveler, Mr. Wilfred Scawen Blunt, says:

"Ancient prophecy and modern superst.i.tion alike point to the return of the Crescent into Asia as an event at hand, and to the doom of the Turks.... A well-known prediction to this effect, which has for ages exercised its influence on the vulgar and even on the learned Mohammedan mind,... places the scene of the last struggle in northern Syria, at Homs, on the Orontes. Islam is then finally to retire from the north, and the Turkish rule to cease. Such prophecies often work their own fulfilment."--_"Future of Islam," p. 95._

Thus native tradition and human forebodings have contemplated the break-up of the Turkish power, as the course of the years has witnessed the shrinkage of its territory and the ever-increasing difficulty of its position.

Now and then there has been a renewal of Turkey's vigor and prestige; then again its situation has been rendered yet more precarious. It has been a buffer between the clashing interests of the great powers.

Speaking of Turkey's difficult position in this respect, the London _Fortnightly Review_, May, 1915, expressed a common view thus:

"When once the nations of Europe set foot in Asia Minor, the pace of Turkey's further downfall will be set not so much by Turkey's strength or weakness as by the mutual jealousies of the occupying powers."

The storm clouds hang ever low over the Near East; while above all the din of wars and rumors of wars, the voice of divine prophecy declares that when this power comes to its end, the closing events in human history will quickly follow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONSTANTINOPLE THE KEY CITY OF THE WORLD

The cross on which the peace of the world has been crucified.]

The solemn truth rings in our ears like a trumpet peal; the age-long Eastern Question is hastening on to its final solution, and its solution brings the end of the world.

In the light of the "sure word of prophecy" the developments of our day in the East become more than matters of grave political concern to statesmen and observers of affairs generally; they are matters of deepest personal, eternal interest to every soul. In watching the trend of international affairs, we are watching the doing of the last things among the nations.

As these things are seen coming to pa.s.s exactly as the prophecy foretold, we recognize them as G.o.d's call to men in the last generation to turn to Him and prepare their hearts to meet the coming Lord. Let no one think to wait until he sees Turkey come to its end before making his peace with G.o.d. The end of this power, as described in Revelation 16, comes during the falling of the seven last plagues. And the last verse of the preceding chapter shows that Christ's ministry for sinners in the heavenly temple has ended before the plagues begin to fall. Human probation will already have closed. The solemn decree will then have been issued in heaven:

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly." Rev. 22:11, 12.

"Now is the accepted time," calls the Spirit; "now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2. We have not to make ourselves ready. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Our part is to believe and confess; His part is to forgive and cleanse and make us ready for the coming kingdom.

The Sinner's Plea

With broken heart and contrite sigh, A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry; Thy pardoning grace is rich and free: O G.o.d, be merciful to me!

Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done, Can for a single sin atone; To Calvary alone I flee: O G.o.d, be merciful to me!

And when, redeemed from sin and h.e.l.l, With all the ransomed throng I dwell, My raptured song shall ever be, "G.o.d has been merciful to me!"

--_Cornelius Elven._

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GREAT BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON

The whole world involved in the last great clash of nations. "The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come." Rev. 11:18.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON AND MT. MEGIDDO

"He gathered them together into a place called ... Armageddon." Rev.

16:16.]

ARMAGEDDON

THE FINAL CLASH OF EARTHLY EMPIRES

"We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime.

Hark! the waking up of nations, Gog and Magog to the fray; Hark! what soundeth? Is creation Groaning for her latter day?"

The sure word of prophecy that foretold the rise and fall of ancient empires, and outlined the general course of world history through the ages, describes also the last great struggle of the nations.

The proverb says, "Peace is the dream of the wise, but war is the history of man." And divine prophecy a.s.sures us that the history of this present world will end amid scenes of conflict.

Many in our time have come to think that civilization must reach a better way of composing the rivalries of the nations. The prophecy forewarns us otherwise. In fact, the prophetic word points to the talk of peace and safety amid preparations for war, as a distinct sign of the latter days.

"In the last days," Isaiah says, "many people shall go and say:"

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isa. 2:2-4.

This is what "many people" were to be saying. But the real conditions in the last days are described as exactly the opposite. The prophet Joel describes the real spirit of the world in these times:

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [the nations]: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong." Joel 3:9, 10.

The context shows that the prophet is speaking of the last times, when "the day of the Lord is near." Verse 14.

The Prophecy Fulfilling

This is what we have seen in our time, as never before in the history of man,--the product of the plowshare and the pruning hook being turned into instruments of war.

About twenty-five years ago the late Marquis of Salisbury, speaking as a man grown gray in the service of the state, asked a London audience the question, "What is the great change that marks this time as different from the times when most of us were young men?" The aged statesman answered his own question, saying that it was the arming of the nations, the swift race upon which the powers had then recently entered, to increase their naval and military armaments. It is a sign of our times, answering to the prophetic forecast.

Throughout the present generation the thoughtful have watched with grave forebodings the preparations of the nations for war. Queen Alexandra, of Britain, once said of it:

"I was educated in the school of a king who was, before all things, just; and I have tried, like him, always to preach love and charity, I have always mistrusted warlike preparations, of which nations seem never to tire. Some day this acc.u.mulated material of soldiers and guns will burst into flames in a frightful war that will throw humanity into mourning on earth and grieve our universal Father in heaven."

As the race of armaments went forward on a scale never before thought of, statesmen and writers began to make use of the word "Armageddon" to describe the conflict that they saw was inevitable. Years ago the London _Contemporary Review_ said:

"Odd things are happening everywhere.... Russia, Germany, England--these are great names; they palpitate with great ideas; they have vast destinies before them, and millions of armed men in their pay, all awaiting Armageddon."

In June, 1909, Lord Rosebery, in a speech before a press convention in London, commented gravely upon the significance of the feverish haste with which the nations were arming themselves, "as if for some great Armageddon, and that in a time of the profoundest peace."

To quote from a popular American magazine, of the same year:

"Today all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon."--_Everybody's Magazine, November, 1909._

Thus, everywhere, observers saw that the rivalry of interests among the nations was leading to a conflict so overwhelmingly vast that only the Scriptural word "Armageddon," with its appeal to the imagination, seemed adequately suggestive of its proportions.

Every pa.s.sing year added to the intensity of feeling and the antagonism of interests. In 1911 the London _Nineteenth Century and After_ said: