OUR COUNTRY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 27, 1902

THE MARVEL OF NATIONS

The important element in history is the working of divine providence in the affairs of men. To rightly interpret this, and learn its lessons, and shape our own lives in accordance therewith, is the part of true wisdom. Nebuchadnezzar was taught that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men (Dan. 5:22); and the Jews missed the golden opportunity to prolong their national existence, because they knew not the time of their visitation. Luke 19:44. This is the day of God's preparation. Nah. 2:3. This is the day of OUR visitation. None should fail to know it.

“The Marvel of Nations” pictures the situation. Under the fostering care of a beneficent providence, our country has surpassed all other nations in material development, till now it stands forth the richest nation in ready money, the richest in resources, the richest in facilities for defense and conquest, of any nation on the globe. These developments are a marvel. It has been a friend of liberty, morality, and that righteousness that exalteth a nation. Prov. 13:34. This book tells how these principles have been exploited, and the results. All this was predelineated on the prophetic page. Hence the wonderful physique of this nation.

Its expansion and prowess became a living object lesson of the voice of God to the people. The thought of fulfilling prophecy should sweep the cobwebs of indifference from every mind, and when all the environing evidence shows that the fulfilling prophecy pertains to our own time, the very days in which we live, and to our own place, the very location which we occupy, so that our life and experience is inseparably interwoven therewith, what power can divert our minds from making all that field a theme of study to ascertain how far we may be enlightened and benefited by it. From every point of view this nation is a marvel, and challenges every man's attention. We can not ignore the mighty strides made in its progress, and we can not disregard expansion, the wonderful discoveries and inventions, which have almost lifted this nation into another realm. We can not set aside what God has said concerning it. We can not shut our eyes to the spirit of apostasy and decay beginning to manifest itself; we can not be indifferent to the issues clustering in the very focus through which we must pass. The pathetic voice spoken to the Jews is virtually repeated to us to-day, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!” Hold up before this land, the light. Warn the people of their danger. Rescue the perishing. This is the object of all revelation.