Part 47 (2/2)
Situated in Jerusalem, on Mt. Moriah, the site of Solomon's Temple.]
”Within the past few months quite a company of people from the Transcaucasus district have come to Ismid,--old Nicodemia,--bringing all they possess with them. Some of them possess considerable wealth. When asked if they were going to settle in Ismid, they replied that they would settle nowhere permanently at present. They stated that they had come to be prepared to go with their leader when he left Constantinople to go to Jerusalem.”
Wherever the capital may first be set up following the forsaking of Constantinople,--and Turkish authorities, we are told, have discussed a number of possible locations in Asia Minor,--there stands the ancient prophecy as to the eventual seat of the king of the north,
”He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain.”
Following that, what comes? The prophecy declares,
”Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
What Comes When Turkey Falls
The fury of his goings forth ”utterly to make away many,” the moving of his capital from one place to another, avail nothing in the end. ”He shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
The suggestion of the prophecy is that this power has. .h.i.therto been helped to stand. Here again every suggestion of the prophetic language finds its response in history. Through these later years of the time of the end the Ottoman Empire has been helped to stand, by either one power or another, or by some combination of powers. The late Lord Salisbury, while premier of Britain, thus stated the reasons for this policy of helping Turkey:
”Turkey is in that remarkable condition in which it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great powers of the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire should fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territories of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire there lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilized in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was the danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty, and that is a danger which has not pa.s.sed away.”--_Mansion House speech, Nov. 9, 1895._
The veteran premier stated the fear of modern statesmen that Turkey's fall would involve all civilization in a calamitous conflict. The prophecy pictures just such a catastrophe, in these words:
”He shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.”
What modern statesmen have seen impending and have sought to ward off, the ancient prophecy says will surely come to pa.s.s when the king of the north comes to his end,--a time of trouble for the nations such as never was.
In the New Testament
In the prophecy of Revelation 16, the last great clash of the nations is represented as following the fall of the power that rules the territory drained by the Euphrates. Describing the last events in human history, under the pouring out of the vials of judgment upon the world, the prophet says:
”The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” Rev. 16:12.
The water of the Euphrates represents the people or power ruling by it.
When anciently the a.s.syrians dwelt by that river and were about to invade Israel, the prophet said, ”The Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of a.s.syria.” Isa.
8:7. The waters of the Euphrates meant the a.s.syrian power.
Just so in this prophecy, the river stands for the people. As the Nile stood for Egypt, and the Tiber for Rome, so in all modern times the Euphrates has stood for Turkey. The ”drying up” of the Euphrates must mean the ending of the Turkish power. And in the verses immediately following, Revelation pictures the gathering of the nations of the whole world to Armageddon--”the battle of that great day of G.o.d Almighty.”
Following Turkey's end comes the final clash of nations. The earth quakes, the cities of the nations fall, and the last judgments of G.o.d come upon a warring world.
Here, as in Daniel 12, is pictured a time of trouble for the nations such as never was, and the end of the world, when the power ruling in Syria, by the Euphrates, comes to its end.
The Approaching End
For years statesmen and observers have discussed the approaching dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers in Turkey have reported that thoughtful Turkish people held the conviction that the crisis of their nation was near at hand. Years ago Mr. Charles MacFarlane wrote:
”The Turks themselves seem generally to be convinced that their final hour is approaching. 'We are no longer Mussulmans,--the Mussulman saber is broken,--the Osmanlis will be driven out of Europe by the _gaiours_, and driven through Asia to the regions from which they first sprang. It is Kismet! We cannot resist destiny!' I heard words to this effect from many Turks, as well in Asia as in Europe.”--_”Kismet; or the Doom of Turkey”
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