Christmas 1904 Armenian Prayers and Fears

It is not given in every man to spend Christmas in peace. There are thousands of Christians throughout the world who view the approach of their great festival day with fear and trembling. To them it is a day of reckoning with their foes. They know that in all probability they will be called upon to fight for their lives or those of their loved ones before the day is over. In that event, they know full well that on the morrow, when they take up secular work once more, many a familiar face will be missing from the market places. Probably the yataghan (sword) will have fallen on a next door neighbor; probably it will have stricken down a relative or dear friend. There is no telling. It has been so Christmas after Christmas these hundreds of years in Armenia, Syria and Macedonia... the blood of Christians flow at will; and for aught the sufferers know it will be so until the end of time.... The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 11, 1904.

When I came across this article written 106 years ago, it gave me to pause and feel the anguish of the millions of women, children and men who have died, and are dying today exclusively because of their faith, worship and love of Jesus Christ, Allah or Yahweh. The land on which their blood was poured out 106 years ago is the same land today that embraces the blood and tears of their descendants. Please God, teach us to love.