In a speech on Lord Mayor’s day Nov. 9, 1898, Lord Salisbury discussed quite at length the war-like conditions that pervaded all Europe. After speaking of the immense armies and navies, the immense war equipments, and the great burdens from war taxations, he said: “Still more serious is the consideration which recent events have forced upon us that these wars come upon us absolutely unannounced and with terrible rapidity. The war cloud rises in the horizon with a rapidity that obviates all calculation, and, it may be, a month or two months after the first warning you receive you find you are engaged in, or in prospect of, a war on which your very existence is staked.”
A General View of the Krupp Gun-works.—One of the Great Industries.
In Lord Salisbury’s speech on the last Lord Mayor’s day, Nov. 9, 1900, he gave utterance to a few sentences that are a remarkable commentary on, or, perhaps better expressed, a fulfilment of, his statement in the foregoing paragraph. Speaking of the South African war, that has been waged between the Boers and the English during the last eighteen months, Salisbury said: “We have shown things in this present war which were not so readily admitted, and which will alter very much the position which we hold in the view of contemporary critics. The achievement of sending between two and three hundred thousand men in that space of time, and with that perfection of equipment, to a distance of 6,000 miles is a thing of which we should not have dreamt, if it had been discussed here eighteen months ago. It is a wonderful achievement.”
It is indeed “a wonderful achievement” to send over 200,000 men a distance of 6,000 miles in so short a time. The wonder is intensified when we consider that many of these men had to be recruited and equipped. The wonder is greater still when we think of the terrible weapons,—the deadly rifles, the desolating machine guns, and the high-power cannon—which formed this equipment. After Napoleon had exercised his great genius for war for a sixth of a century, and after he had drained all the resources of France to the bottom, he had but 475,000 men ready for action when he began his famous march to Moscow. It taxed not only the resources of England, but of all Europe, to overthrow the Napoleonic arms. But here is an army that springs into existence in just a few months in these closing hours of the nineteenth century, that is more than half as large in numbers and many more times powerful in equipment than the one that Napoleon’s abilities were twenty years in organizing.
Calling to mind the thought that has been so earnestly presented that we are getting beyond wars in our civilization, is it not ominous that in the very midst of this peace talk we should have the most unparalleled activities in war? Truly good men have eloquently presented the evils and the barbarism of war, and have pointed out again and again that the enlightened intelligence of this time ought to lead men to do away with war altogether. There can be no doubt that the minds of men are convinced in regard to the evil of war. But in the very face of this teaching to the contrary, we find armies being hastily organized in such vast numbers and with such terrible equipments that old hardened warriors like Cæsar and Napoleon, if suddenly brought into the presence of it, would surely pale before it.
This war fever is in the world. There can be no mistaking it. It is not merely a foreboding of storm that is seen just above the horizon, it is a black cloud that completely covers the political sky of the whole world; and with all the desolating furies of typhoon and tidal wave it is about to burst upon us.
Are you perplexed about it and in doubt as to the meaning? If so, then read carefully the following words from the Book of Inspiration:—
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” Rev. 16: 12-21.
The foregoing scripture is plain and explicit in stating that the great day of God will be in close proximity to the battle of Armageddon. Furthermore, the legions of all the kingdoms of the whole earth are to be gathered onto that battle-field by the spirits of devils. Now when you think of the strong sentiment that the Lord has caused to be exerted in this generation against war, can you doubt, as you see the hosts of earth gathering like a furious storm to the battle-field, that we are approaching the very borderland of the battle of that great day?
Against that day of terrors, the Lord has provided a shelter. If you are under the banner of Prince Immanuel, you know what that shelter is. You have rested on its sure foundations, and know what its safety is. You know the all-pervading power of the mighty promises of God. You know what reality there is in these promises. You know what life and power there are in them. You know how they satisfy the weary and distressed soul. Then, as you love your Saviour, who has done so much for you, hasten to give His message of warning and love to those who are terrified by the perils of this time, but who do not know of the Refuge.
