p. 4 | The Awakened East by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Sep 21, 1905

The Awakened East

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE issue of the Russo-Japanese war has brought the world a long step nearer the great Armageddon of the nations. In Asia half the world has been for centuries lying inert and sleeping, so far as a place among the military nations is concerned. They counted little in great world events. Now there is a change. In our day this great mass of peoples and tribes has been rousing from the sleep of centuries. Writing of this change in Asia, a writer in the Deutsche Revue says:—

The Japanese successes, first at sea, then by land, struck this enervated world like a cannon stroke, and Siam, which is led by British sentiment; India, which is under England’s dominion; the Malay Islands, Java and Sumatra, the Anamites of Anam, Tonquin, and Cochin China, pricked up their ears. Five hundred East Indians at once set out to attend the lectures at the Japanese universities; Siam concluded a compact of amity, of whose provisions Europe has remained ignorant, with Japan; in Singapore, Batavia, Surabaya, Saigon, Hanoi, and Hai-phong the Chinese secret societies have redoubled their precautionary measures and their activity; China has opened its doors to Japanese traders, Japanese officials, and Japanese military instructors.

A change of great import has taken place. As this writer says, “All the Asiatic peoples now recognize that the axis of the Asiatic world has been shifted.” The vast heathen East is not to come up to the great Armageddon asleep, blindly led into conflict. The prophecy of Joel shows that there is to be a waking up of the people, and the heathen are to come up in multitudes to the valley of concision, or cutting off. Truly when Asia is aroused, there will be multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for Asia is half the world.

The kings of the East are to come up to Armageddon. That final crash of the world comes just after the close of probation. Now, just before probation ceases, we see the populous East awakened from its long sleep. It has stirred all Asia to see one of its brown peoples turning back a European power. China is rousing. Hundreds of its young men are being sent to Japan, Germany, and other parts for military training. The populous East has caught the fever of Western militarism. History is rapidly in the making. Prophecy is fulfilling. We must press in among these awakened peoples with the advent warning. W. A. S.