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Prophecy Fulfilled

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 22, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 31.

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Prophecy Fulfilled

WE find that in these days of increase of knowledge, even public men in official positions in the United States government recognize to some extent the meaning of the inventions we see about us.
On March 7 the National Geographic Society held its annual dinner at Washington, in honor of the fortieth anniversary of the birth of the telephone. The National Geographic Magazine for March gives a full account of the occasion. The eight hundred guests at the banquet each had a telephone receiver, and conversations were carried on with all parts of the country. At the end of the hall was a large map fitted with electric lights. As conversation with any place was carried on, a bulb connected with that place on the map lighted up. Many interesting speeches were made, but to us the most striking was that of Hon. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy. Speaking of the present time, he said:—
“We live at a time when the dreams of poets, seers, and prophets have been translated into realities. The finest things in the world are dreams. ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish,’ wrote one of the old seers, and another, whose vision seemed to overleap centuries and even millenniums and focus itself upon our own times, said, ‘Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’”
Referring to the prophecy which the secretary mentioned, we find that it reads:—
“Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12:4.
If this prophecy is now being fulfilled, as the Secretary of the Navy says it is, we are surely living in the time of the end. Secretary Daniels went on to speak of other prophecies which are in process of fulfilment:—
“It is indeed wonderful what some of those ancient wise men foresaw. Did Nahum get a glimpse of automobiles when he wrote, ‘The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightning’? Nahum 2:4.
“Did old Jeremiah get a foreglimpse of the aeroplane as an army scout when he wrote (chap. 48:40, 41), ‘Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab. Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are surprised’?”
“Truly the miracle of the twentieth century has been the discovery of radio transmission; it is the marvelous fulfilment—a fulfilment which we could not believe unless we had heard it with our own ears.”
If we read the verse just previous to that quoted from Nahum, we find that the chariots which Secretary Daniels thinks might well be automobiles, are said to be “flaming torches in the day of His preparation.” The present, then, is the day of God’s preparation, and this we sincerely believe. A world-wide work must be done that all may be prepared for the end of this world and the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Matt. 24:14 speaks of this time in these familiar words:—
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
When statesmen are recognizing the fulfilment of prophecy, it is time that we renew our own earnestness and go forward as never before to proclaim that Christ’s coming draweth near. Thus a people may be prepared to meet the King of kings and Lord of lords.