THE DISSATISFACTION OF NATIONS.
The above is the title of a recent article in that conservative English journal, the Spectator. It says: “The century has been one of almost continuous progress, but its close is being marked by a singular epidemic of restlessness among the nations. They all say they are powerful and prosperous and advancing, but they all give signs of deep dissatisfaction with their position.” It then reviews the condition of the various great powers in the civilized world, and discusses the causes of unrest and dissatisfaction. In France it is the “social system,” and the thirst for power and glory. In Germany it is the red specter of Socialism, of which there are 2,000,000 active adherents, about the number of the entire army, with a ruler thirsting for power and glory outside of German territory. Says the Spectator: “There are signs in Germany which are ominous of coming trouble in the world.” In Austria it is “little better.” In Russia, a “feverish wish for more room and freer access to the sea.” “In Italy no one is happy, and in Turkey the dominant race is so stirred up by fears and furies that it is deliberately threatening all its Christian subjects, and extirpating one ancient people with horrid incidents of cruelty and lust.” In the United States it sees trouble in the economic question produced by changes in the value of silver, and its unsatisfied and longing pride. England also is troubled by fear of war, economic questions, etc. And the Spectator closes its review of the nations thus:— “The civilized world, in truth, which for nearly a century has advanced so rapidly on the path of material progress, is at this point of its strenuous labors seething with discontent, ready to risk all it has attained in an outburst of furious wars, intended to secure objects which it only half perceives in the distance, and is by no means certain that it really at heart desires. . . . A very small match just now would fire the magazine, and we feel no confidence, as we did five years ago, that all the matches are in safe hands. It is useless to say that the extent of the armaments is a guarantee of security, or that the peoples will not permit war, or that war is too wicked for the sensitive consciences of the modern nations.” And all this is in harmony with the predictions of the Prophet of Nazareth, who eighteen and a half centuries ago predicted these very times and things as precursors of his second coming. “And there shall be signs; . . . upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; . . . men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Luke 21:25, 26. The next great event is the coming of Christ. The nations are rousing for conflict. The slumbering giants of the Orient are rousing, arming, and training for war. The nations are quaffing of the cup of war, as foretold in chapter 25 of the prophet Jeremiah. Only the angels of God are holding the winds, that his work may be done, his Gospel given to the world, his people called out. Surely it is high time for all Christians to arouse, when the story of the press for every day is the record of the fulfillment of prophecy.