Vivid Language of the Prophet in Describing Present Day Wars—Leading Persons of the World Use the Same Words in Talking of Europe’s Strife—The Message of Hope Should Be Given as Never Before
By WILLIAM A. SPICER
A GROUP OF OFFICERS ENGAGED IN THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT
When President Wilson, in the early days of the great European conflict, made the tactful offer of the good offices of the United States as a neutral country in mediation or arbitration, the courteous answers received from all the powers involved indicated plainly that the general feeling was that it was not an opportune time to talk of terms of peace.
The Anger of the Belligerents
Discussing this phase of the situation, the secretary of state, Mr. Bryan, said: “When the anger of the belligerent nations has sufficiently abated, they will find the president waiting to render such assistance as may be within his power in the direction of accommodation and conciliation. He has sent the dove out of the ark in search of dry land. God speed its return with an olive leaf.”—Washington Post, August 18.
When modern statesmen discuss the situation, they can but use practically the same terms employed by the ancient prophets in foretelling conditions among the nations just before Christ’s second coming.
He Described It Beforehand
Mr. Bryan spoke of the “anger of the nations.” Describing the scenes on earth during the last generation, while the closing Judgment work is proceeding in the heavenly temple above, the prophet John in the Revelation wrote: “And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Rev. 11:18.
What the prophet described so long ago we see fulfilling on every hand. The temper of the times is irritable. With the whole world brought closely together by modern means of intercommunication, the peoples of the world touch one another at every point, and once conflict is launched an unwonted spirit of hatred seems to spring up between them.
During the early days of the European conflict, Mme. Rosike Schwimmer, of Budapest, visited Washington to plead in the name of the women of Europe for every effort to be made toward intervention. In an interview in the Washington Herald Mme. Schwimmer declared:
“As soon as one decisive battle is over, all hope of mediation will be lost. That is why my visit is so urgent. And if war is not settled by arbitration or mediation, then it will never be settled.
“Never was such profound hatred existing between warring countries. And even if the war is settled by fighting, we can never have peace in Europe.”
Not a New Thing
The national and racial rivalries that engender the spirit of hatred are no new thing in the history of man. It is the old, old story. When the apostle Paul describes the natural man, he says: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: . . . hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife.” Gal. 5:19, 20.
That has ever been the history of unregenerate man. That is what we all are by nature. The only thing that has distinguished our own time is the increasing intensity of this spirit and the world-wide range of it, as well as the rapidity and energy with which the nations can give effect to these feelings that stir the hearts of men.
Its Message of Peace and Good Will
It is a good time in which to lift up as never before the cry of the everlasting gospel, with its message of peace and good will. This other spirit that is of the world means nothing but eternal loss to those who are controlled by it. Closing his record of the works of the flesh the apostle cries out, “I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Thus it is that there is a divine consistency in the picture given us by inspiration of two distinguishing features of the last days. On the one side, the pen of prophecy tells of the waking up and arming of the nations, of anger2and hatred stirring the hearts of men into fierce conflict. On the other hand, the same pen pictures the working of the mighty power of God in the last days, in sending the gospel message to all the world—a message of peace and good will to men, amidst preparations for strife and the shock of battle.
The Work Goes Notwithstanding
Thank God, as our hearts are filled with anxiety and dread by each day’s news from the scenes of conflict, we have at the same time the blessed word from the four quarters of the earth that the missionary cause is striking forward notwithstanding all. Now, above all times, is the time to preach the gospel of salvation as it is in Christ Jesus, able still to save men from all the fierce spirit of the world by regenerating the natural heart.
It is not the easiest time to preach this gospel of the kingdom of Heaven’s grace and love, when men’s hearts are stirred with the passionate spirit of the world. Nevertheless, it is the gospel of God’s dear Son, the only gospel that Heaven has to offer, and the only hope for men and women in this wicked warring world.
