p. 208 | The Nations Were Angry

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 28, 1882

The Nations Were Angry.

The prophecy of Rev. 11:18, the fulfillment of which we believe commenced with the great European revolution in 1848, and has continued in the unsettled and sensitive state of Europe ever since, is receiving special confirmation in the attitude of the continental powers toward each other at the present time. The extreme sensitiveness existing is shown in the fact that a few words uttered by a single individual, and that unofficially, has set all the continent in a ferment.

The question is now raised whether Gen. Skobeleff, whose little war speech bids fair to prove the spark which is to ignite the magazine, may not be the coming man in European politics, like Napoleon in the French revolution. It is reported that Skobeleff has received forty-three challenges from Germany to fight duels in consequence of the anti-German remarks in his recent speeches.

The N. Y. Graphic of March 17, 1882, publishes the following on “The Coming Convulsion in Europe”:—

“We are probably on the eve of witnessing the outbreak of a war in Europe which, ere it ends, may involve every nation on that continent, and bring about changes of the most radical and sweeping character.

“This war will begin by a conflict between Russia and Austria, but in all probability each of the other powers on the continent will be drawn into it, one after another. Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy will be impelled, either for self-protection or by the hope of aggrandizement, to take a hand in the fray.

“It is not at all improbable that General Skobeleff may do with Russia what Napoleon I. did with France. Everything that is known about this extraordinary man points him out as one who is born to fulfill a brilliant destiny.

“The condition of affairs in Russia to-day is strangely like the state of society in France immediately before the first revolution. There is the same spirit of bitter revolt against all authority; the same hatred of the church and the crown; the same feeling among the people that their lot is too hard, and that it should be made more endurable.

“Skobeleff seems to be the man who can take advantage of these feelings and turn them into a movement which he could direct.

“What could he not do with a nation of 80,000,000 people behind him?

“The threatened storm may blow over for the present, but it is almost sure to burst ere long.”

How long, then, before the glad note will be sounded by great voices in Heaven, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever”? Rev. 11:15.