CHURCH AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3030, 17 March 1917, Page 6

CHURCH AND WAR

PALESTINE A HIGHWAY FOR ARMIES MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS The January number of the International Review of Missions (Oxford University Press) states: —

Conditions in the Near and Middle East have been gravo mid distressing throughout the year, and at'the time of writing the political outlook is unsettled and the suffering of great masses of the population unrelieved. An event of wide significance which may have far-reaching results in' missionary work was the revolt in June of tho Grand Sherif of Mecca, supported by Arab tribes, against Turkey. Mecca, Jeddah, Taif, and Yambo, the port of Medina, were quickly captured and provision made for an Arab senate for the Hedjaz. Sympathy with the movement was shown in Turkey, as well as amongst Syrians and Mosopotamians at El Azhar in Cairo and Moslems in India.

In Turkey itself the war has entailed heavy sacrifices upon tho people: famine and distress havo prevailed among all races both there and in the western parts of Asia Minor and disease has been rife. Conditions in Syria and Palestine have been pitiable, far worse than a year ago, and crime has enormously increased; in Beirut business has been brought to a standstill and a reign of terror has existed for months; by the middle of the year it was believed that 24,000 had died of starvation, and in the autumn the estimate had risen to between 60,000 and 80,000. _ Typhus raged in Aleppo and other districts, and several missionaries and thirty-six native doctors have died of its effects.

In order to avert alleged political dangers, a reign of \terror has prevailed under the leadership of Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey. Prominent citizens in Turkey and Syria havo been imprisoned and death penalties and cruel punishments inflicted on Moslems and Christians alike. Efforts to induce Christians to become Moslems havo been continued, hut have met with little success. The Lebanon was surrounded by a military cordon, all persons of influence were dispersed, every means of tilling the land was removed, and the starving peoplo were cut off from food. Palestine, swept bare to support the troojis, became as in past clays a highway for armies.

Meantime the ruthless deportation and massacre of the Armenians has continued to horrify the world. Tho atrocities appear to he dictated by a desire- to make Turkey exclusively ■Turkish rather than by religious fanaticism or as a part of a Holy War. Tho Armenian population has been reduced from 2,000,000 to 1,200,000, and of the survivors a million are said to be starving. The policy of extermination is being steadily carried through. Voices have been indignantly raised among the Turks themselves against these cruelties, but in. vain.

At the close of-1915, the missionary situation in Turkoy, though difficult, .had elements of hope. Since then the prospect has darkened. Suspicion and distrust, not between missionaries and pupils, hut between missionaries and tho authorities, has poisoned the atmosphere, and uncertainties and thr'eatenings have been in the air. An arrangement made at a conference between missionary leaders and the authorities in Constantinople as to the working of the educational regulations of 1914 proved futile, and during the year there has been an increasing restriction of the liberty hitherto given. Notwithstanding tho presence of largo military forces, and fighting in tho western desert with tho Senussi, and in the Sinai Peninsula antr the neighbourhood of the Suez Canal with the Turks, Egypt is reported to have been 'one of tho safest and quietest lands on earth' during the year. Missionary ivorlc has gone steadily forward, in spite of the abnormal conditions and the added claims which have come upon some of tho staff for medical or spiritual ministry to the troops. It is a striking testimony to the value of medical missions that when shortage of doctors made it difficult to keep the CM.S. hospital at Omdurman open, the Governor-General of tho Sudan held that it was politically inexpedient that it should be closed.

The tido of war which swept Christian missionaries out of Persia has turned,.and though the country is still unsettled, American missionaries in Western Persia and those of the Church Missionary Society in the centre and south of Persia. have returned to work. The Bible Society agent was able to remain throughout. In Mesopotamia the work of the Church Missionary Society in Bagdad and Mosul is in suspense. The "Review" deals with many other phases of missionary work in various parts of the world'. It also contains tho' first. of a series of articles entitled "The God That Must Needs he Christ Jesus," by Professor A. G. .Hogg, tho author of "Christ's Message of tho Kingdom." Professor Hogg holds the chairs of Mental and Moral Science and of History at the Christian College, Madras. THE SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. MORAL' ISSUES OF THE WAR. Tho Scottish correspondent of tho "Christian World" writes:— / A brief review of the year from tho ecclesiastical point of view obviously brings forward once again the overwhelming influence of the war. Tho Churches have suffered and sacrificed with the rest of the nation. But it is more than probable- that while- it has done these things it will also reap a harvest of good in more directions than one. In his report on the spiritual and moral issues of the war at the last Commission of Assembly of tho Church of Scotland .Dr. Wallace Williamson said the negation of the spiritual view of life was at the back of all the troubles of the nation. God required from them as a Church and as a nation three things—tho return to a simpler and nobler spiritual religion, the confession of Christ aJI spheres; personal, national, and international; and the reformation of practice, in Churoh and nation. He characterised this.as the finest bit of work to which tho Church of Scotland had ever been called. The United Free Church has reorganised some of its work, more notably that of home missions, but there can bo little doubt that for it tho year | will bo memorable mostly on account I of tho Moderatorship of its most distinguished son, Principal Sir George | Adam Smith. He has travelled by land ' and sea, and wherever ho has gone, whether among the hamlots' of the far north of Scotland or the great churches of tho Metropolis, among tho sailors of the Grand Fleet, or the soldiers of tho New Army in France, ho has carried with tho high prestige of a great namo and a worthy office the friendly and heipful message of the warmest of hearts.

DR. KELMAN IN PRANCE. Dr. Kclman's first letter from tbo front Has been read with tremendous interest by United I'Veu St. George's. A blither and keener worker you will not find uc' all the splendid ranks or fcho Y.M.C.A. And thus be writes:— "My ivork is an address at a different camp each day, in tbo evening, and several hours before and after it going about among the men, bearing and talking of their old homes and tbo loved ones

there. Oft Sunday Bight 1 spoke to aii audience of filling one of the lints. The froqpW's wero clearly visible, but Whim* them all was a niist of blue tobacco smoke at first. The mist gradiiallj cloarcd, and by the end wo were looking straight into each other's eyes—in more senses than one." —"Britieh Weekly." THE WORLD THAT 18 TO BE. "Our trouble and anxiety have already done for us what no prosperity and happiness could do," said Dean Inge at St. Paul's Cathedral recently. "I do honestly think that we are doing better for. the next generation than the Victorian did for us, although we aro living through the most wretched experience in our history." 'Die nation itself, said the Dean, is not degenerate, It will bo able to receive God's message when it comes. There may he a great outburst of spiritual and intellectual energy which will majco the twentieth century one of the, great ages of the wortd.- It will not be a dull world for our children. The powers of good and evil will strive together with extreme There will be much undeserved suffering. But for all this our salvation is nearer than when wo believed. "Many of us who have lived through happier times will not bo sorry when our own call to rest comes. But let us bo hopeful for our children and our friends' children who will face the new problems with the freshness aud confidence of youth, and, ive may be sure, with tho help of God." CURATE WINS THE D.S.O. The Rev. George Herbert Marshall, curate of Kirkburton, Huddersfield, has been awarded the D.S.O. Mr. Marshall became a chaplain to the Forces in 1915, and went to Gallipoli, but was invalided home in tho autumn. At the beginning of 1916 he was sent to Mesopotamia, and towards tho end of the summer he contracted typhoid. He has been acting as chaplain in one of the London hospitals since returning to England. The brave deed for which he has been decorated happened on April 9, with the Relief Force which failed to reach Kut. Ho became aware of a wounded officex..lying out in the open, and to prevent him from being killed he went out while bullets were raining on the place and made a parapet to shield him. How he escaped being killed himself is a mystery, for the work took an hour to accomplish."