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By Far Euphrates

A TALE

BY
D. ALCOCK

Author of "The Spanish Brothers" "Crushed, yet Conquering"
"Dr. Adrian" etc

London
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
27 PATERNOSTER ROW
——
MDCCCXCVII

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Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.

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PREFACE

Many a tale of blood and tears has come to us of late from farEuphrates, and from the regions round about. It is not so much the aimof the following pages to tell these over again as to show the lightthat, even there, shines through the darkness. "I do set My bow in thecloud" is true of the densest, most awful cloud of human misery. As inthe early ages of Christianity, "what little child, what tender woman"was there

As in later times, of no less fervent faith, "men took each other'shands and walked into the fire, and women sang a song of triumph whilethe gravedigger was shovelling the earth over their living faces," sonow, in our own days, there still walks in[Pg vi] the furnace, with Hisfaithful servants, "One like unto the Son of God."

Every instance of faith or heroism given in these pages is not only truein itself, but typical of a hundred others. The tale is told, howeverfeebly and inadequately, to strengthen our own faith and quicken our ownlove. It is told also to stir our own hearts to help and save theremnant that is left. The past is past, and we cannot change it now; butwe CAN still save from death, or from fates worse than death, thechildren of Christian parents, who are helpless and desolate orphansbecause their parents were Christians, and true to the Faith theyprofessed and the Name they loved.

D. ALCOCK.

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CONTENTS