Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Representatives of Great Britain, Belgium, Canada, Australia, and the United States met in New York City Hall, May 5, to arrange a program for celebrating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which brought the war of 1812 to an end. Mayor Gaynor, of New York, is the central figure of the front row; and on his right, with cane in hand, is Lord Weardale, of Great Britain. Mr. Carnegie is at the right of the front row, with uncovered head.
On this page we have a photograph of leading members who attended the Peace Congress in New York. Another Peace Congress was in session in St. Louis at about the same time. There are something over a hundred individual peace organizations in the various countries of the world. In these organizations are many individuals whose names are known the world around. They are working energetically and ardently for peace. They are very enthusiastic in their claims that they will yet bring this world to enjoy complete immunity from war.
This is certainly a splendid dream; but where is there any evidence that such a condition of things may ever be brought about?
The world to-day is just as it has ever been since the introduction of sin upon this planet. Men are resentful, they are ambitious, and they are covetous; and while there is much very beautiful talk in regard to the brotherhood of man, yet the great majority of men stand ready to shed blood. We have our mobs and our general rioting everywhere, which show the great discontent that is in the world. The nations are arming to the very limit. They claim, of course, it is for the purpose of maintaining peace; but why the necessity of arming so strongly if there is such a growing sentiment in favor of peace? You do not find the farmers in any community where they are peaceably abiding together exhausting all of their resources in buying the latest rifles and other instruments of destruction in order to keep their neighbors from declaring war upon them. They have no thought of getting into trouble with each other, and they can spend their means for improvements and necessities on the farm and in the home, rather than upon implements of destruction. But where these peaceful sentiments do not exist you might find men arming.
But there is a spirit among the nations that is very different from the spirit of peace; and while there is this spirit of war in the world, yet there are also these great peace societies, and the splendid hopes expressed by the men and women who believe that they are going to put an end to war by peaceable means.
Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, says:
“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thess. 5:1-5.
It will be noted, in the foregoing text, that it plainly says that the day of the Lord will come as a thief upon a certain class. The text says just as plainly that the “brethren”—that is, those who are following the teaching of the word of God—are not in darkness, and therefore that day will not overtake them as a thief; but those who are overtaken as a thief are saying “Peace and safety” when there is no evidence of peace, because right in the midst of the peace-and-safety cry “sudden destruction” shall burst upon them. This scripture is so plain as to need no further comment.
Another scripture from the prophet Isaiah is very much to the point, and is as follows:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made; and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself; therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty.” “And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” Isa. 2:2-10, 19-22.
This text is talking of a time when the Lord is about to arise to shake terribly the earth. In that time the land will be full of silver and of gold. There will be no end to the treasure; and when the climax is reached, the men who have trusted in their gold and silver will be found casting it to the moles and to the bats, as they “go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty.” One of the conditions that precedes this climax is plainly stated,—“Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” They will affirm that “out of Zion shall go forth the law,” and that the Lord will judge among the nations, and will rebuke many people. Further, they will say that they will “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” and that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
A great many people have read that text of Scripture, and have thought, from their superficial reading, that it taught the peace of the world, and that nations were not to learn war any more; but observe that the text is talking about something that “shall come to pass in the last days,” and it is telling what many people will be saying, and all that the Lord Himself has to do with it is to foretell it, and to tell what it portends. When the Lord comes to describe the condition, He says that these people are soothsayers, that they are pleasing11themselves in the children of strangers, and that the mean man, or the man of low degree, and the great man, are alike humbling themselves. They are making a hypocritical profession of great things, but at heart they are going on to do the wickedness that is in their perverted nature. And because of this the text says, “Therefore forgive them not.”
This scripture is so plain that any one ought to see, from the simple reading of it, that it is telling the story of what the people would be claiming in the last days, and that their claim is exactly opposite to the real facts.
Now is it not remarkable that we are living in a time of the most awful preparation for war that this world has ever seen? And yet at the same time talking about world peace was never so much in style. The style of talk with a large number of people is that we are approaching world-wide peace. The facts show that we are approaching world-wide war. Armageddon, as predicted in the prophecies, lies just before us. God has pictured it all out in His word. These inconsistencies in humanity have been declared by the prophets, and we who live in this time should make no mistake. We should understand the truth.
There is truly a world-wide peace coming, but it will not be the manufactured peace of humanity. Peace is the desirable thing. The Christ of the Bible declares Himself to be the Prince of Peace, and He will soon establish peace on earth; but it will be at His second coming, and it will be upon the destruction of everything that is wrong, unjust, and oppressive.
These man-made methods of securing peace are nothing more than the counterfeit of the most glorious peace that has ever been offered. Each individual is now making his choice. All will soon be ranged on one side or the other. Some will accept the immortal peace that is offered by the Prince Immanuel. Others will follow a plan of their own choosing, and will find, as has been pointed out so truly in the Scriptures of truth, that in the place of securing peace, they have plunged headlong into the war vortex of Armageddon.
These are times when men should study God’s word, for God’s word discloses the actual facts of truth. It is an individual question, which can not be decided by great crowds of men, no matter how ardent or vehement they may be in their propaganda. It is better to be right than to be popular. Those who are in the right, even tho they may be in a hopeless minority now, will soon be united, at the coming of Christ, with the innumerable throngs that inhabit the universe of God; and then they will stand with the overwhelming and all-powerful majority. T.
