TO ITS UNKNOWN END by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 21, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 29.

TO ITS UNKNOWN END.

By T.

In a recent Independent Elizabeth Stuart Phelps said, “Think as we may, believe what we will, about the justification of this war, it must be fought now fiercely to its unknown end.”

It is well, indeed, to speak of this war with Spain as having an “unknown end.” Of course there can be no doubt but that Spain will be under the necessity of suing for peace before a great while. Her navy is practically destroyed, and her land forces will not be able to hold out for a great while against the superior forces of the United States.

But peace with Spain does not signify the end of this war. There is an “unknown end” still beyond. Germany has made it very manifest that she will have something to say about the settlement of the Philippines; Russia is uneasy over the situation; and France has showed a decided unfriendliness to this country all through the present war. No one seemed to dream of what was coming when the war broke out, but we find the United States is thereby suddenly plunged into the political wrangles of all the Eastern world. The great American republic is now a party to the Far Eastern Question, and the indications are strong that she will remain such till the end of time. And, truly, it is an “unknown” quantity, the complications and quarrels that she will necessarily be thrown into.

God will no doubt bring good out of it by opening up the nations of the East to the Gospel light; and everything goes to show that the Gospel will be carried very quickly to these benighted lands. The Bible is now translated into over 250 languages and dialects, and millions of copies every year are being sent to India, China, Japan, and the other oriental heathen peoples. Great preparation has been made by the agencies of the divine Father to do a vast work at once. And we have the unqualified promise that when “this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, . . . then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.

So then it is quite possible that the influence of the United States in the Far East, for a short time at least, may be used of God as a powerful factor in opening the way for “this Gospel of the kingdom” to be proclaimed there mightily. And it is very clear, also, as we have already pointed out in these columns, that by the United States being thrown into the Old World troubles, the last one of the great nations of earth has marched into the international battle-field. And there is no statesman that dares to conjecture what the “unknown end” will be. The Word of God alone throws light upon the situation. It tells us plainly that this world-wide marshalling of armies is the skirmish lines of the battle of that last “great day.”

The time is almost here when the Son of man will come in the clouds of heaven. He has told us that we may not know the “hour,” but He has given us signs by which we may “know” when “He is near, even at the doors.” These signs of His coming are filling the world to-day. Have you seen them?