of the Church
Missionary Society (Church of England), one of the greatest missionary
organizations in the world, sent a message to its missionaries in all
lands at the outbreak of the war. In this message was a call to prepare
for the coming of the Lord:

"It may be that these events will quickly usher in the return
of Christ to gather His saints together from the four quarters
of the earth.... Many see in the events preceding and
accompanying this terrible cataclysm of war the signs of our
Lord's near return. If so, blessed will that servant be whom
his Lord when He cometh shall find giving 'their food in due
season' to those fellow servants who have been put in his
charge."--_Church Missionary Review, November, 1914._

Timely as this call was, it was evident, from the prophetic scriptures,
that the conflict then opening could not be the Armageddon of the
Apocalypse, for the prelude to that final clash of nations is an event
yet in the future--the downfall of a nation whose part in the closing
scenes is clearly described in the prophecy of the coming Armageddon.

The end of the power which rules over the territory through which the
river Euphrates flows, is the prelude to Armageddon. The prophecy 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.

Next follows the gathering of "the whole world" to "the battle of that
great day of God Almighty." Verse 14.

Through all modern times Turkey has been identified with the Euphrates.
The region of Syria and Asia Minor, long held by Turkey, has been the
historic meeting place of the East and the West. In the London
_Fortnightly Review_, May, 1915, Mr. J.B. Firth wrote:

"When, with the fall of Ottoman sovereignty at Constantinople,
the Turk is driven out of Europe, there will arise once more
the eternal question of the possession of Asia Minor. That land
is the corridor between Europe and Asia, along which have
passed most of the European conquerors--the Russians alone
excepted--who have invaded Asia, and most of the Asiatic
conquerors who have invaded Europe."

The fall of the Turkish power in this Euphrates region will, in some
manner, prepare the way for "the kings of the East" to come up to the
final conflict.

The Awakening of the East

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