The interest in the Balkan troubles has been centered for some time in what Montenegro would do about abandoning the siege of Scutari. The powers made demands that she desist from her designs on that place, and sent war-ships to enforce these demands. But Montenegro went right on, and at last the place has fallen into her hands. Now it develops that there is not an agreement among the powers in regard to what shall be done. There are great transports of joy in all the Balkan capitals over the success of the arms of Montenegro, but there is much perplexity in all the capitals of the powers. Russia thinks that Montenegro must not be driven out of what she has taken by conquest, and it is thought that England and France will stand with her; while on the other hand, Austria-Hungary has already made definite proposals to the powers to compel Montenegro to surrender Scutari. The tangle is perplexing, and is a menace to the peace of Europe, and is a part of the evidence which conclusively shows how the world is balancing along the brink of that vortex which the Bible proclaims as the war of Armageddon.
Clinedinst Photo, Washington, D. C.
Ready.— Referring to struggles between Roman Catholics and Protestants in the past, the Western Watchman of April 10 says: “For four hundred years Protestants have been moaning and nursing hurts they received from Catholics in the religious wars of the past. Their histories are a wall; their polemics a lamentation. Catholics have forgotten all about the conflict long ago, and with beaming faces they await the next call to arms.” Exactly; and will meet it with the same spirit that was manifested in the past. All that true Protestants have done, or ought to do, is to show the spirit and principles that made possible all the wars of the past. A rejection of those principles and an adoption of the true principles would never permit such wars or struggles in the future. And the adoption of those principles will result in religious persecution now as they did in the Dark Ages.
