Your ShelfYour Projects

Note and Comment

25%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 14, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 2.

Read the full edition

Note and Comment

By Editor

ON another page of this issue we publish an instructive article on the prospective war between Russia and Japan, by the editor of the Cosmopolitan magazine. Many thoughtful minds are pondering the ominous possibilities of a general world-war which lie wrapped up in the present situation, and even to those not looking for the end of earthly things there is something about it which suggests Armageddon, the last great battle scene set forth by inspired prophecy as marking the close of human history. Here is an utterance by the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which shows how men's minds are being turned in this direction:
It has been for the most part a year of peace, but the sun of 1903 has set for the last time with all hearts agitated because of the condition of things in the far East. Does Russia intend to fight for her present position, or to back down outwardly and still gain her position by the arts of chicanery and duplicity? That is the question intelligent men are asking themselves the world over, and the answer is still as difficult as it was some months ago. Is it not strange that the czar, who called The Hague conference and pretended to be in favor of universal peace, should be threatening the youngest member of the great family of nations? There are those who believe that there will be no war, because Russia has everything to lose and nothing to gain by fighting. There are those who think the dogs of war must necessarily be unleashed, and they are wondering whether the fight is to be a duel, or whether each combatant is to get an ally. In the latter case we are on the verge almost of the great battle of Armageddon, and it is useless to speculate.
It is useless to speculate, truly, but it is highly useful to know what saith the Word of the Lord concerning the signs of the times in this period of the world's history, and to be guided by the light which it throws upon the pathway before us. It is in the highest degree essential to every soul not to be in darkness at this time, that the day of God overtake him not as a thief in the night.