THE WOUNDED IN BATTLE

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 8, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 48.

THE WOUNDED IN BATTLE

THE enormity of the damage to human life in the European war is indicated to some extent in the meager accounts that reach us from time to time of the difficulties in caring for the wounded. In one city after another, we are told, all public buildings, such as schools, churches, lodging-houses, etc., are used as hospitals. Private homes are required also in large numbers for the same purpose. In some sections the buildings in the cities are not sufficient, and farmhouses in the country are turned into temporary hospitals to care for the constant stream of wounded that are brought to the rear from these battles that are raging so furiously in so many parts of Europe.

When we used to have to do our work “by hand,” it took a long time to hew out logs and boards and shape them with the mere strength of human muscles; but when steam and electricity were applied to machines, a few men in a very short time could accomplish more than large numbers would have done under the old methods. The inventive genius of man has devised machine guns and other deadly weapons of warfare. These have been supplemented by means of communication that enable armies to move so rapidly from place to place that they are kept in an almost constant death struggle. The battle now in progress in northern France has continued without interruption for about a month. Such a thing was never known before in the history of the world, and the slaughtering and wounding of men and the destruction of property is something terrible beyond description.

As these scenes are wrought into actual life and made a reality in the world, who can doubt, on reading the words of the prophet Jeremiah, that he had a most realistic view of what is now occurring? His words are: “My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can not hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.” Jer. 4:19, 20.