The Great Progress of To-Day Foretold
By E. W. Catlin
The Prophet Sees Knowledge Increasing and Men Running To and Fro—He Specifies the Time When It Shall Be “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12: 4. This is a divine forecast of events to be in the time of the end. Therefore we may look for these events to take place in a very conspicuous manner as signs of the approaching end of all things. The psalmist declared that the word of the Lord was settled in heaven forever. His word will not fail. Isaiah said that earth’s beautiful carpet of green grass should wither and die—and it does; also that the beautiful flowers made to comfort and cheer the heart of man would fade—and they do. But the word of our God shall stand forever. His word will not fail in the earth. The apostle found God’s word surer than the things he saw and handled. RUNNING TO AND FRO TO-DAY
Because knowledge has increased just before the end, men are able to “run to and fro” on land and sea to a degree never experienced before. We observe a marvelous increase of knowledge if we consider the frail ships that carried Jesus to and fro on Galilee and the crude vessels given Columbus for an eventful ocean voyage, and compare them with the modern submarine, which, when submerged, can glide through the water for five hundred miles before coming to the surface for air. The mode of travel by land has changed from the camel, with his slow, weary tread, to the motor cycle hurrying along the way with such wonderful speed; from the old stagecoach to the lightning express train teeming with humanity; and from the automobile to the airship. Truly men are racing to and fro in the earth just before the end. Think of Boaz with his company of gleaners in the harvest field wielding the little sickle; of the muzzled ox on the threshing floor, and the human hand winnowing the grain; then of the cradle, the reaper, the self-binder; and compare with the machine delivering the golden grain all sacked for the mill, because knowledge has increased in the time of the end. THE OLD SCRIBE AND THE MODERN PRESS
The scribe of former days, writing for weeks to finish a scroll, with the cylinder printing press of our time, receiving its paper from the great roll, and dropping the dailies, all printed and folded, faster than one man can receive them, tells of the rapid increase of knowledge which should cause men to prepare for the end. The human messenger of the past, traveling for days to deliver his message, is in striking contrast to the man sitting in his office reading the wireless account of a floundering ship in mid-ocean while it is sinking. This change of experience has come because of the increase of knowledge during our time, “the time of the end.”