The Outlook and the Call by E. E. Andross

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 28, 1909

The Outlook and the Call

By E. E. Andross

E. E. ANDROSS

[We take the following pointed paragraphs from the annual address presented at the meeting of the Southern California Conference.—Ed.]

EARLY in June the Imperial Press Conference convened in London, with more than one thousand delegates, representing the press from all parts of the empire, in attendance. Lord Rosebery, ex-premier, was the orator of the evening. In the course of his remarks he gave utterance to the following very significant words:—

“I do not know that in some ways I have ever seen a condition of things in Europe so remarkable, so peaceful, and in some respects so ominous, as the condition which exists at this moment. There is a hush in Europe, a hush in which you may almost hear a leaf fall to the ground. There is absolute absence of any questions which ordinarily lead to war. . . . All forebodes peace; and yet at the same time, combined with this total absence of all questions of friction, there never was in the history of the world so threatening and so overpowering a preparation for war. That is a sign which I confess I regard as most ominous. For forty years it has been a platitude to say that Europe is an armed camp, and for forty years it has been true that all the nations have been facing each other armed to the teeth. . . . They can not arm any more men on land, so they have to seek new armaments upon the sea, piling up these enormous preparations as if for some great Armageddon—and that in the time of profoundest peace.”

“When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.”

In a recent article on “The Changing Times,” Mr. Justice Brewer, of the United States Supreme Court, speaks in a very forcible way of the present situation, as follows:—

“Wealth is piling up in such enormous sums that Croesus and Lucullus would be unnoticed among the multimillionaires. All these changes are moving with increasing velocity, and that which to-day seems to be the summit of advance is to-morrow almost forgotten in the rapid unfoldings of something new. . . . It must be conceded that theology is at a discount; that creeds and forms of worship are losing their hold. . . . We stand amazed in the midst of these marvelous changes, and wonder if this progress is to continue, and whether in these rapid changes is to be found evidence of a decaying moral sense, and uplifting of the material above the spiritual, and a splendor and luxury which precede national decay and ruin.”

In an article in the Literary Digest of July 17, 1909, entitled “The Modern Passion for Righteousness,” appears the following:—

“Together with this appears a turning away from theology. This is accompanied by a turning away from Christ as a moral fact of the present. He thus comes to be looked upon as a historical figure of the past; they disregard altogether the idea of judgment to come.”

How forcibly this situation reminds us of the words that came to us through the spirit of prophecy some nineteen years ago, as follows:—

“We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are being fulfilled, and stormy times are before us. Old controversies which have apparently been hushed for a long time will be revived, and new controversies will spring up; new and old will commingle, and this will take place right early. The angels are holding the four winds, that they shall not blow until the specified work of warning is given to the world; but the storm is gathering, the clouds are loading ready to burst upon the world, and to many it will be as a thief in the night. All heaven is represented to me as watching the unfolding events. A crisis is to be revealed in the great and prolonged controversy in the government of God on earth. Something great and decisive is to take place, and that right early. If any delay, the character of God and his throne will be compromised.”

While this is a dark picture, and one from which we would fain turn away, we must remember that as the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn, so this darkness is a token of the breaking of eternal day. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”

These things have aroused and alarmed the people, and many are inquiring, “What do these things mean?” They are not only ready, but anxious, to listen to or to read anything that explains these things, and now, just now, is our opportunity.

Los Angeles, Cal.