A Sobering Situation by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 20, 1915

A Sobering Situation

By F. M. W.

NINE months of world-wide war, growing more bitter and barbarous with every passing day! While every nation is not actively engaged in the strife, there is not a government on earth that is not paying tribute in some form to the conflict. Last winter it was hoped that before summer peace would be brought about, but apparently the passing of the winter has marked the beginning of hostilities on a larger and more unprecedented scale. It seems inevitable that Italy, the last great power of the Old World, will be drawn into the conflict. The end in time or results no man can foretell.

It is perhaps well that the veil is drawn over the horrors of the future; the present picture is all the heart of man can bear. And what a picture is presented! Kings dethroned, countries subjugated, cities and villages turned to ashes, fertile fields desolated, thousands upon thousands of human beings—the flower of the nations—buried, like the beasts of the fields, in unmarked graves, thousands of others maimed and crippled for life, thousands of wives widowed, thousands of parents bereft of sons. Millions have been called to mourn the loss of loved ones. Grieving, sad-eyed Sorrow sobs beside the altars of a million stricken homes. Gaunt, hollow-eyed Famine stalks through the land. Pestilential disease numbers its victims by thousands.

The sinking of the “Lusitania,” sending without warning to a watery grave more than a thousand souls, is but one incident in the terrible havoc being wrought. This latest horror will be succeeded doubtless by others and still others until the human sensibilities become calloused and benumbed.

Surely if there ever occurred in the history of mankind a situation to cause sober thought and serious reflection, it is the one presented before us today. And thousands, deeply impressed, are anxiously inquiring the meaning and portent of this great conflict. Others, it is to be regretted, are passing on indifferently and recklessly. They are eating and drinking with the drunken. In the mad strife for wealth or fame, in the wild whirl of social life and pleasure, they are endeavoring to stifle a half-aroused conscience, and forget God.

Heaven is permitting these great evils to arise in order to awaken the impenitent to the danger of impending judgment. We do not say that these disasters following in the wake of war are the judgments of God. This is a question we may not determine. But we do know this, that fire and storm, earthquake and warfare, famine and pestilence, are permitted by an overruling providence, and in these calamities God is speaking to sinful men to turn from the evil of their ways, and find refuge and salvation in Christ Jesus from the final, overwhelming destruction.

Surely this situation should appeal to the believers in this message. It should appeal to our young people, leading them to see the vanity of earthly glory and possessions. We know not what a day may bring forth. We know not what new and strange trials wait on the morrow in our experience. Now is the time for us to be certain that everything is clear between us and Heaven, that our sins are forgiven, that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Are there any among us who do not have this assurance? Are there wandering sheep of the house of Israel? Are the brethren and sisters of our acquaintance safely anchored in Christ Jesus? Are the members of our own families at peace with God? Are our children within the ark of safety?

Some there are who company with Israel who are not of Israel. Some there are who belong to the Seventh-day Adventist Church who do not really know God. We find in connection with many of our churches men and women whose hearts are still in Egypt. They are looking backward instead of forward, to earthly possessions instead of to the heavenly treasure. Some are going on adding farm to farm and building to building, forgetting that their possessions must pass away with the using. And some of our young people are reckoning without God. They have high hopes and lofty ambitions, but have failed to make Jesus a partner in their calculations. Will these careless, indifferent ones be aroused before it is too late? Will they see whither they are drifting, and make an effort to stem the onrushing tide that is sweeping them toward the precipice?

Upon us who sense the times and the seasons there rests the solemn responsibility to sound abroad the warning cry. We must be watchmen upon Zion’s walls. Seeing the evil coming, we must sound the alarm. We would not be alarmists. We would not be sensationalists. What the immediate outcome of the present conflict will be we cannot say. Whether this present war will drag on, merging into the last great strife, or whether there will be a little time of peace, we cannot safely predict. The future is known only to God. But we do say this: The times are ominous, the multiplying signs are portentous, the muttering thunder and gathering clouds betoken the speedy breaking of the coming storm. And we have no time to lose. Whether the Lord comes next year or five or ten years hence, we cannot afford to trifle with his invitations to repentance, we cannot afford to stifle our consciences. The present is the only opportunity of which we are assured.

The ordeal before us will be a fearful one, one that will try men’s souls, the time of Jacob’s trouble, when wrestling with God for victory will be our only hope. We need now to gather strength to stand. The weaklings will go down in the strife. Those only whose hearts have been purged from sin, who have made a full and complete surrender to God, who have placed all upon the altar of his service, who can stand not in the

strength of argument or reasoning but in the power which God will impart to his devoted children, will be enabled to resist the pressure of sin and temptation, and go through to the end triumphant.

Now, today, in the life of every one is the time to begin the gathering of this power, the building of this experience. What will be your answer?

F. M. W.