In the year 1914 there suddenly burst upon the world the most terrible war which has ever been known in the history of the race. Ever since sin darkened the world there have been wars and rumors of war, but at no period has the earth been so convulsed with war. We indeed look out on a troubled sea. About fourteen nations, marshaling the greatest armies, equipped with the most destructive implements of death ever brought upon a battle field, are today locked in a death grapple. The toll of men and money is appalling.
For years the nations have foreseen a bloody and calamitous contest. Diplomacy has apparently averted the cataclysm for a time. But the volcano has continued to smolder, threatening international eruption. While diplomats have been at work, the nations have been arming for the inevitable.
Years of Preparation for War
Preceding the present war, one writer says, “Every war office in Europe went over its plans of strategy. Every plan of mobilization was scrutinized. Every nation took account of its stock, of its munitions of war, and of its financial strength. The nervous strain of keeping the peace, with millions of soldiers ready to fight at any time, seemed to be exhausted, and the people began to ask if it were possible to prevent the flames of international jealousy and hate from bursting forth into strife, with practical anarchy and chaos as the price to be paid for it.”
The earth is being drenched with the blood of the flower of manhood among all the nations. A suspense and dread grips the world, and men are asking what these things mean. Has this unprecedented condition a special meaning? Is it Armageddon? Is it a herald of the day of God?
The Outlook
Conditions are indeed strange and dark and perilous. The affairs of the world are turned out of their regular channel. Men are standing dumb before the tremendous and sudden changes which have come into the affairs of the world, and there is a grave apprehension in the minds of men that we are on the verge of some terrible and hitherto unknown events which will overturn the very foundations of society, and usher in a new order of things. The situation is such that the editor of the Springfield Republican was led some time ago 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.”
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. . . . Some countries are in revolution, others are at war. . . . 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.”
A War of Extermination
Now the great war is on, a war toward which so many have looked with almost stupefied apprehension. The magnitude and spirit of the world-wide struggle is not paralleled in the history of man.
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: “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 said recently that “the world is on fire,” and 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.”
Civilization Committing Suicide
What a change has come over the earth in a few 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. Civilization seems to be committing suicide. A dread and a pall hang over the hearts and minds of men.
What It All Means
What does all this mean? Is this the last great war foretold in the Scriptures, which ushers in the second coming of Christ? Is the great day of God at the door? Everywhere—on the street, in the drawing-room, in the hotel lobbies, on the trains—we hear the questions repeated. “What do these things mean?” “Is this Armageddon?” “Is this the fulfilment of the Scripture?”
We are glad that while the heavens are lurid with the flame of war, while horror grips a stupefied world, and a dread of what may yet come to pass unnerves humanity, the Lord has told us the meaning of all these things. We are indeed entering into that dim twilight zone where time will soon dissolve into eternity. Man’s day of probation and of preparation for eternity is drawing near to its sunset. The coming of the Judge of all the earth draws nigh. These things tell us that Armageddon is not far in the future. The terrible conditions which trouble the world are forerunners of the day of the Lord, and speak to us in the clearest tones that the history of this planet, cursed by sin, is almost finished, and that Christ will soon come, when God’s people will experience the realization of that blessed hope which is to be fulfilled in the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
