p. 4 | Nearing Home by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 2, 1907

Nearing Home

By C. M. S.

The long period of tribulation which Christ foretold is in the past, and Europe is dotted with the graves of the martyrs that it produced.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun was to be darkened and the moon turned to blood as a sign of the approaching end of this present world. That event is long in the past.

Then the stars were to fall from heaven, “even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” That has been an accomplished fact for seventy-four years.

“And there shall be . . . upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows.” We are seeing this with our own eyes. A few years ago the whole country of India was in direst distress from the plague and lack of food. Thousands upon thousands died. Then it was Russia, where whole provinces were in the hunger zone. To-day it is Russia and China both at once, and though the whole world is stirred over it, it is impossible to prevent the actual starvation of thousands of the people. Russia and China are sorely perplexed to know how to save their starving millions.

But this does not complete the application of the text, “In perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows,” find their most direct fulfilment in the uprisings of the people against organized government; for, says the revelator, “The waters which thou sawest, . . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Rev. 17:15. Never in the history of this world was there one single movement embracing the people of so many nations. Socialism, anarchism, and nihilism are leavening the lump of the whole world with the leaven of discontent and the determination to overturn “the powers that be.” Never was nation more sadly perplexed than Russia by the billows of her boisterous people. Socialism is growing to be a power in all the European States. In addition to that perplexity, they have the ever-present dread of the inevitable scramble for the territory of European Turkey.

In the United States there is rising the same ponderous wave of discontent and disloyalty to the existing government. Throughout the ranks of the capitalist and wealthy middle class there exists that same terror, as they contemplate the rising storm. Certainly this is the age of perplexity—it is fulfilling the prophecy.

Christ further says: “There shall be great earthquakes, and in divers places famines and pestilences.” Look at Krakatoa, Vesuvius, Guatemala, St. Pierre, St. Vincent, California, Chile, Jamaica, and southern Mexico. Earthquakes in divers places there are indeed. The earthquakes we are experiencing to-day are verily earth-quakes, not merely the quaking of a locality, but the trembling and shaking of the world. Concerning the frequent disasters of this nature the Washington Times asks, “What’s the matter with Mother Earth?” and says, “The epidemic of disturbances this year puzzles the scientists.” It asks, “Is universal disaster imminent?” and assures us that one set of scientists believes it is. The New York Sun, of April 18, heads a long article with these words, “The Earth is All Aquake. Volcanoes and Shocks in Four Continents.” These last occurred exactly one year from the date of the great California disaster, and during that year the earthquakes of the world have cost the world $745,000,000.

A few years ago earthquakes were so infrequent that the people seldom gave them a thought. Now there is probably not a hamlet in the land that is not wondering when its turn will come to be shaken.

The famines and pestilences also are in evidence. There are millions of people to-day in the merciless grip of the hunger fever, while the whole civilized world is standing on guard against the bubonic plague and tuberculosis. Pneumonia is assuming the proportions of a plague, numbering its victims by the thousand, and la grippe is undermining the constitution of the race, and furnishing fertile soil for any other plague that may arise.

How faithfully the Saviour has delineated our generation! And the occurrences he outlined are pointed out by him as signs of the end of the world. We have seen these all fulfilled or fulfilling. We have also seen the fulfilment of that other sign which was to precede the shaking of “the powers of the heavens;” viz., “men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world.” “One set of scientists,” says the Washington Times, “believes a universal disaster is imminent.” While that universal physical disaster is nearing, the billows of an angry people are threatening an equally great economic disaster. “Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21:27, 28. “These things” have more than begun to come to pass, and we have a right to “look up,” for the promised redemption is nigh at hand.

C. M. S.