IN TEN YEARS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 10, 1900

“IN TEN YEARS.”

Under this heading the Springfield Republican of June 26 compares the situation ten years ago with what it is to-day, with respect to the reign of peace on earth. The comparison proves, in fact, to be a mighty and most ominous contrast. It should be published everywhere; and, therefore, to do our part we send it along. The editor says:—

To see how fast we are moving, it is necessary sometimes to cast a short backward glance. One grows so quickly accustomed to daily news of war that it is easy to forget how new a thing it is in our time. To-day it seems hardly believable that only a few years ago the world was at peace, and peace lovers were not without excuse for believing that a brighter, sweeter era was at hand than any this blood-soaked planet had ever known. War seemed a remote possibility; peace seemed the normal and natural thing. To see how far we have moved from that tranquil time, it is only necessary to turn back to a newspaper of, say, ten years ago, and compare it with one of to-day. The contrast is overwhelming, appalling.

The Republican of Wednesday, June 25, 1890, was not so large as the paper of the present day, but it gave in compact form the news that was of most import. The only item of Old World news which was sufficiently important to be given a place in a crowded paper, ten years ago yesterday, was a four-line paragraph to the effect that Mme. Sarah Bernhardt had accidentally taken an overdose of chloral. Nor did any of the editorials mention any foreign topic, except the action of Newfoundland in regard to the purchase of bait. How dull and disappointing such a day’s news would be to the reader of to-day, whose appetite is whetted with daily horrors from all quarters of the world?

To complete the contrast, it is only necessary to analyze the contents of yesterday’s Republican. The principal news page was given up almost exclusively to war—to four different wars. We read of “North China Ablaze,” of Minister Wu’s opinions on the war, of the supposed safety of our people in Peking, of the rise of the Boxers in Canton, of the rumored killing of a missionary, of the shipping of vast stores of ammunition to China, of the departure of marines from Washington, of the part of England and the United States in the war, and that of Germany and Russia, of the sailing of the Sixth Cavalry, of the killing of four Americans in an ambuscade, of the sailing of the cruiser “Brooklyn,” of the transfer of the headquarters of the Asiatic squadron, of the plans of the War Department, of our ex-minister’s views on the war, of the rescue of a missionary, of the sailing of a Russian cruiser, and the augmentation of the Indian army bound for China, of pressure brought to bear on Turkey, of England’s war with the Ashantees, of General Buller’s progress in South Africa, and the raids of the Boers, of the departure of Boer envoys, of the war with a mob in St. Louis, of General MacArthur’s dealings with the Filipinos, and the movements of American garrisons in the Island of Samoa. There is barely room in this appalling record of bloodshed for a brief statement to the effect that about nineteen million persons are starving to death in India. There is much peaceful news, too, baccalaureate sermons, sermons from local pulpits, the happenings of the day; but the dominant note is war, one sensation topping another. . . .

The contrast between the two snap-shots of the world in 1890 and 1900 throws a strong light on the pace at which the world has been moving. The view ten years ago showed a placid, smiling river; now we see the boiling rapids of a torrent plunging toward what abyss no one knows. War has followed war with swift succession, the scene shifting from Greece to Cuba, from Cuba to the Sudan, from the Sudan to the Philippines, from the Philippines to South Africa, from there to China. What the next stroke will be, who shall say? The record of ten

years ago was dull and humdrum, but the world was moving steadily forward toward the ideal of the wise men of all ages. Can as much be said for the record of to-day?

And at the present rate of the plunging torrent extended ten years further, what mind can contemplate any other result than the “abyss” here suggested, and which the whole field of prophecy foretells? The day of the Lord cometh, it is nigh at hand. “Get ready, get ready, get ready.