“He Shall Come to His End”
By W. A. S.
Two paragraphs from articles on the Eastern question in the November reviews are worth reprinting. They show that men of affairs are fully anticipating exactly what we know by the prophecy to be the final stages in the solution of the problem. The North American Review prints a paper by an Indian Moslem, Mohammad Barakatullah, whose sympathies are, of course, bound up with the growth of Mohammedan influence. His dream had been of a policy to rally the Balkan States round the throne of the sultan, as a barrier against the north, and to unite the Moslem peoples under the same standard. But he recognizes that destiny has directed otherwise, and that it is too late to stay the process of disruption. He says:— No man ever had such golden opportunities of attaching the three hundred millions of Moslems to his throne. . . . It seems ordained, however, that Abdul Hamid II is to see the end of the Ottoman empire as it was when he received it—to see it destroyed by his own hand. Karl Blind, a European writer of prominence, discussing the question in the Nineteenth Century Review, speaks of interviews he has had on the matter with the masters of statescraft during the generation passing. Alluding to the cry so often raised by the radical pulpits in favor of ending the rule of Turkey in Europe, he thus suggests the time of trouble that is in store for the nations when the king of the north comes to his end:— Yet the selfsame men, in their haste, would fain light up—at least by proxy, that is, by urging on other powers—a conflagration that might desolate the European Continent; and this, by speaking “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Little do they reflect, or care, how such violent proceedings might come home upon the greatest Mohammedan power; that is, England herself. Thus, month by month, current literature bears witness to fulfilling prophecy.