p. 2222 | Untitled article

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 17, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 14

Armageddon.

We give the following from the American Missionary, not as endorsing the idea that the United States is to be the theatre of the battle of Armageddon, but to show how many elements of hostility and trouble are being concentrated in this country.

A ministerial friend once told us that he had just preached a sermon to prove that the last great battle before the millennium was to be fought in this country; in other words, that when “God gathered them together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon,” the great battle-plain was to be America.

We have no great faith in such special interpretations of the book of Revelation, but there are some facts that indicate that there is a gathering of earth’s population here, and the consequent struggle of the vast forces of moral good and evil. Heathen Africa has had her people brought here until now they number millions. China has already begun to unbar her Celestial gates to let loose her very terrestrial masses to enter the Golden Gate on our Western shores; and when the Pacific Railroad is completed, we may expect them to come in greater numbers, and to spread themselves abroad in our country.

Romanism has not only come, but is taking the chief places in our cities and towns by vast cathedrals and churches.

With all these elements around us, and whatever else may come, as well as the depravity and vice which is indigenous, it is manifest that a great battle is before us. We cannot shirk the contest if we would. We can gain no victory by abuse, denunciation, or party contests. We must conquer by love and truth. The colored race, as being early here, and now in circumstances to call for most immediate effort, must first be won to Christ and the country. If we succeed in this, and make them good citizens, enlightened Christians, and active Missionaries to Africa, we shall have manifestly made the proper use of this people’s presence among us—we shall have shown that we understand the providence of God, and are ready to respond to its call. In like manner, and with like results, may we meet, and greet, and win to Christ, the Chinaman, the Papist, and all other comers.

With the Romanist the contest is urgent. He is not a negative power, but active and untiring, determined to conquer, and just now striving to win to himself the colored race in America. A dark day will it be for our country, and for Christianity, if he adds these unlettered multitudes to the obedient masses he already controls. We must anticipate Rome, by saving these people for Christ and liberty. If we fail in this, we fail in our duty to them and to Romanists themselves. Our success in educating and evangelizing the colored people will be the test struggle for the whole vast conflict.