He Shall Come to His End
By P. T. Magan
My last article on the Turkish question, which appeared in the REVIEW some months ago, was entitled, “The Rise of the Ottoman Empire.” In it I showed how, in three centuries, the descendants of Othman, the founder of the Ottoman empire, had made themselves masters of a magnificent domain embracing over two million square miles. The magnitude of this vast territory will be better understood in the light of the fact that the square mileage of the continental United States, exclusive of Alaska, aggregates 2,970,230 square miles, or less than one third more than that of Turkey in her halcyon days. Viewed through the medium of another comparison, her area was nearly double the size of Europe, Russia excepted. Now how came Turkey to lose nearly all of this grand empire? How shrank she from such giant proportions to be, in Europe, at the present time, a mere pigmy, ruling over the shabby pittance of 26,018 square miles,—an area so insignificant that it totals only thrice the size of the little commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is even smaller than the State of South Carolina? (See Monroe, “Turkey and the Turks,” chap. 1, par. 9.) Certain it is that there never was one spectacular, world-shaking Cæsarean or Napoleonic war or campaign, which swept this vast domain from beneath the Turkish scepter. No man can point to such an event as this, for the simple reason that there never was such an event. Yet Turkey has been “drying up” for years. The “Star and Crescent” empire has been declining. The decline has been fairly slow, but it has been going on surely and steadily. Many statesmen have prophesied the end long before the present day. Ever since the beginning of the last century, it has looked as if the dissolution of the Ottoman empire was imminent. Nevertheless the Turkish power lived, and has continued to live even to the present hour. The reason for this must be sought, first of all, in the Word of God. The eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel give the history of the great movements which have convulsed, and which will continue to convulse the near East until the end of time. It is not the purpose of this article to analyze or explain these chapters. Space will not permit this. Near the end of the eleventh chapter—in the fortieth verse—the “king of the north” is mentioned. He is spoken of as going forth “like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships.” It is written of him that “he shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown. . . . He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet 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: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Dan. 11:40 to 12:2. Now note some of the territory which this power designated “the king of the north” conquers and occupies. “The glorious land” is mentioned. The margin of the Authorized Version denominates this “the goodly land;” literally, “the land of delight or ornament.” This clearly refers to Palestine, the good land of Canaan. Again it is said that from this “king of the north” the “land of Egypt shall not escape,” and that “the Libyans [North Africans] and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” Now these countries have all formed, and some of them do still form, a very considerable and valuable part of the Turkish empire. Moreover, in the earlier verses of this eleventh chapter of Daniel this same “king of the north” is brought to view, and there the prophet clearly refers to the power which occupied Syria, Asia Minor, and Thrace. And this, again, is the territory of the Turkish empire. Again, in the forty-sixth chapter of the book of Jeremiah there is another reference interesting in this connection. This chapter is “the word of the Lord . . . against the Gentiles.” Among other things Jeremiah states: “Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates. . . . For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.” Jer. 46:6-10. Here, then, “the north country” is identified with “the river Euphrates,” and the names and terms are used in6connection with a time which is styled “the day of the Lord of hosts, a day of vengeance,” the expressions which above all others refer in Scripture to the end of the world. But the term “the river Euphrates” is the name by which the Bible designates the Ottoman empire. Therefore, as surely as the term “the river Euphrates” applies to the Turkish empire, so also do the terms “the north country” and the “king of the north.” The Scripture says that “tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble” Turkey, the king of the north. Russia is the power which occupies the territory to the north of Turkey. And it is hardly necessary even to state that “tidings out of” Russia have been a source of trouble to Turkey for hundreds of years, and especially ten times during the last two hundred years. And the Turks themselves expect nothing else, and have stated and written it, than that Russia will ultimately drive them out of Europe. As one Turkish magistrate remarked in 1895:— “Yes, we expect nothing else than that the Christian powers will take Constantinople from us, and force us to leave Europe. This may not be done just now; but there is no doubt that sooner or later they will do it. Then we shall establish a new capital somewhere in our possessions in Asia: and, if not immediately, it will be ultimately at Jerusalem.” And the prophet shows that Jerusalem, “the glorious holy mountain” between the Mediterranean and the Dead seas, is where the Turk, when driven out from Constantinople, will “plant the tabernacles of his palace.” And then it is added concerning this same Ottoman power, “the king of the north:” “Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” This last statement is a fundamental one. It proves conclusively that the reason Turkey comes to an end is because “none shall help him.” And to any one understanding political workings and logic it would show that the only reason why Turkey has not come to an end long before the time here specified is because some one has helped her. It is therefore a fair question, Does history record that some one has helped the Turk? Is it a notorious international fact that some one has been helping the Turkish empire ever since the days when the Empress Catherine II of Russia resolved that “the possessions of the sultans should become the heritage of the tsars”? Has this thing of helping Turkey to maintain his house in Europe and in Constantinople been carried on to such an extent by at least one great power that the world has stood aghast at the enormous sacrifices of blood and treasure that have been expended? If history records an affirmative verdict to these questions, she at the same time verifies a remarkable prophecy made some twenty-five hundred years ago by Daniel, the great prime minister and prophet statesman of Babylon and Medo-Persia.