The headquarters of the association is in New York.
IX.
THE FUTURE OF ARMENIA AND THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON.
I am going to predict the future of Armenia. Not in the usual sense of guessing at it, but in the literal sense of foretelling the truth. I am not a prophet of God, yet my prediction is based on facts, and its accuracy should be given some credit from the way my predictions two or three years ago about the recent atrocities that have already taken place, have come true to the letter. At that time no American or European could be made to believe that such horrors would be perpetrated; but I said they would be, and they were. And even now the Western peoples are nearly as blind as ever; they cannot see the future of Armenia even with all the facts before them. Many have lost hope in it altogether; they think Turkey will exist forever, and exterminate the last of the Armenians. Doubtless I should in their place, but I was born in Turkey and know the situation.
This, then, is the truth as I forecast it:—
Till the end of next year the Armenians will suffer more than ever before. Perhaps a million will be massacred yet, not only in Turkey, but in Russia. The Jews, also, in great numbers, and not only the Jews and the Armenians, but the Americans and Englishmen too. The key rests in the character of the present Czar. Nicholas II is not like his father or grandfather, a strong man. I will not discuss the moral character of the two Alexanders, but I allow their powerful intellects and strong wills. They favored the Armenians. But the present Czar has no strength of character at all; he is weak both in intellect and morals. The Sultan is called the sick man of Turkey, but the Czar is the sick man of Russia. His short-sightedness in upholding Turkey is one proof. Up to the time of the coronation next May you will see no more massacres, for the Czar has ordered the Sultan to hold his hand, that there may be a peaceful ceremony, not clouded with horrors; that over, he will not only give the Sultan leave to unchain his dogs, but he will unchain his own. The atrocities in Turkish Armenia will be redoubled, and the Czar himself inflict on the Armenians all that has been inflicted on the Jews. Even this is not all: The Czar will instruct the Sultan to get rid of all American missionaries, either banishing them as breeders of sedition, or, if they refuse to go, requiring the United States government to order them back. Probably the government will obey. Probably, also, the missionaries will not obey the government; they will stay where they are. Then the Sultan will say he is not responsible for their lives, and will issue secret orders to kill them, which will be carried out. Further, the Czar will begin a fresh persecution of the Jews, and order the Sultan to follow suit on the Jews in Turkey, which will be done; no fear of the Sultan’s refusing an order to butcher anybody. Still more, the Czar will command him in secret to banish the English missionaries from Turkey; the Sultan will request the English government to call them back, and there is little doubt that Lord Salisbury will comply; but they, like the Americans, will refuse to go. Then they will be murdered by secret orders from the Sultan, who will say he is not responsible for it. These massacres will continue for two years more. The victims will cry aloud, the Americans and English will have greater mass-meetings, but the governments of both will do nothing. And Germany, Austria, and Italy will look calmly on; if they act it will be with the Czar, and not against him. Meantime both in Europe and America the war preparations will continue with greater zeal and energy, until the cup is full, until the crisis comes; then the noble blood of the Anglo-Saxon race will begin to boil, and the English and American people at once will be aroused like one man, and the governments will have to yield. The wrathful Jews will contribute Jewish capital for the war expenses; the wrathful Armenians throughout the world will give both money and soldiers to the governments fighting their battles. And a fierce battle will be fought between Russia, Turkey, and France on one side; America, England, the Jews, and the Armenians on the other. The former alliance will be beaten: the Czar’s Greek Church bigotry, the Sultan’s Mohammedan fanaticism, and France’s infidelity together will be crushed; Russia will go to pieces, Turkey will go to pieces, France will go to pieces; Armenia will be free, Judea will be free. The scattered Armenians will return to Armenia, the scattered Jews will return to Judea. Both the Armenians and the Jews will have their separate governments; not kings, not princes, but a clean republican form of government. Russia and Turkey will be opened to the gospel work. Where now hundreds of missionaries are going from England and America to other lands, then thousands of them will go; and Christian America and England will open their hearts and purses together to send as many missionaries as they can to Russia, to Turkey, and to France. They will hasten the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will prepare the way for the coming King, who has the power both in heaven and on the earth.
What will become of Germany, Austria, and Italy, who form the Triple Alliance? That alliance will be dissolved. The German Emperor is trying hard to maintain it, but he will fail. France will once in a while threaten Germany with vengeance, but she will never be able to carry it out, and there is no need for it, because the German people during this century will get rid of their Emperor. There will be a great civil war in Germany, between the people and the army. If the German emperor could do it, he would begin to crush the Socialists now. He will order his soldiers to kill their brothers and fathers, but they will not,—they are not as foolish as the Emperor; the only result will be the break-up of the German Union, and the division of Germany into small republican governments. Italy, Austria, and Spain will all have the same fate: civil war, and splitting into small republics. No czars, no emperors, no princes, no lords will remain. Government will be for the people, of the people, by the people. The time has come; this century will purify the whole world. But until it is purified, a great deal of fire will burn, very great battles will be fought, until freedom and peace shall reign. And the Armenian blood, now continually pouring like a river in Armenia, will be the cause and the foundation of the coming freedom of the world. For the present, the world is not free; it is not civilized. It cannot be with such rulers. To be free and happy, the people must be aroused, and get rid of them. The United States must be the example to the older nations; they must embrace Washington’s principles.
It is true that England and America will never go regularly to work to give freedom to Judea and Armenia, nor with that intention. Their immediate motive will be to punish Russia and Turkey for the murder of the missionaries, and after the victory is won, by the help of Jewish and Armenian purses and swords, the Armenians and Jews will be rewarded by giving them their original homes and mother-lands.