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What do These Things Mean?

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 9.

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What do These Things Mean?

By Arthur G. Daniells

For years Seventh-day Adventists have been calling the attention of the world to certain perils that seemed to be gathering, and have repeatedly and earnestly asked the question, “What do these things mean?”
We have now come to a time and to conditions which should lead us to take that same question seriously to heart. We wonder if we as a people fully sense the meaning of what is taking place in the world at this time. Conditions surely seem strange, and dark, and perilous.
Thoughtful men throughout the world are beginning to realize this, and to feel and speak very apprehensively about both the present and the future. They are sorely perplexed. They can neither account for the present nor foretell the future. The editor of the North American Review calls this time the “modern twilight of the gods,” and adds that “in these last ten years a strange breath has passed over” the world.
Five years ago, Sir Edward Grey, addressing the members of the House of Commons, said:—
It is really as if, in the atmosphere of the world, there were some mischievous influence at work which troubles and excites every part of it. We are passing, this year, through a period of excitement; it is so still. Some countries are in revolution, others are at war; and in several countries which are neither in revolution nor at war, there are people who seem to delight in discussing how near they have been, or are, or are likely to be, either to revolution or to war in the past, the present, or the future. Really it is as if the world were indulging in a fit of political alcoholism; and the best that can be done by those of us who are in positions of responsibility is to keep cool and sober.
The editor of Hearst’s Magazine says, “The rulers of nations are stupid. It would seem that they are blinded by the gods. It is as if madness is upon them, a fatuity incurable, a mania, fatal, malignant, satanic.”
The Springfield Republican says, “Such popular fury for fighting as appears to pervade Europe just now, has the aspect of demoniacal possession.”
The present Pope of Rome is reported to have declared, “All civilization seems to have gone mad.”
Writing of the devastating struggle now going on, Mr. Taft, ex-President of the United States, says, “Nothing like it has occurred since the world began. It is a cataclysm. The future looks dark indeed.”
Harper’s Weekly declares that “the most critical moment in the world’s history is upon us. That is the stark truth. . . . Events are transpiring to stun the stoutest mind. We are at time’s meridian.”
President Wilson says, “The world is on fire,” and that no man “knows what a single week or a single day or a single hour may bring forth.”
Of the present war Rudyard Kipling says, “This is not a war of victories, but a war of extermination. . . . Universal ruin awaits us.”
The situation we face leads the editor of the Springfield Republican to say, “Writers who can tell a stupefied world what this fearful portent means, who can throw light on the great fundamental problems of the race and give some hint as to its destiny will have an attentive and even anxious hearing.”
O that a stupefied world might understand that most reliable writers have already told what this “fearful import means”! Inspired writers have told it all in the pages of God’s message to the world. This day, this generation, the perils we face are clearly and accurately foretold in the Scriptures of Truth. They are also set forth in remarkable detail in the writings which have come to this people through the Spirit of prophecy. In 1890 the following graphic description of what was coming was given through this gift:—
The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We will see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of the earth will be swept away in flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment’s warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while he may be found, call upon him while he is near!
Surely these perils are upon us. “Destruction upon destruction” falls in swift succession upon a world that had well-nigh forgotten God. A “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time,” is clearly in sight. The “distress of nations, with perplexity,” causing men’s hearts to fail them “for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth,” foretold by the Saviour,—this condition with its effects is certainly upon us.
It surely looks as if the world is beginning to go to pieces. What a change has come over the human family in less than two short years! Thrones have been overturned; kings have fled as fugitives to other kingdoms for protection. Millions who were enjoying the blessings of family and national life have been plunged into poverty, sorrow, and mourning. All the values of modern, civilized life have undergone an amazing change and shrinkage. The grip of the human race on the world has been greatly loosened. It is being broken.
Brethren, are we awake to the full meaning of this tremendous situation? Do we sense it as we should? Are our hearts touched as they should be with the grief that has come upon this lost world?
This is the hour of opportunity for God’s people to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, a great blessing to hopeless men and women.
A. G. DANIELLS,