p. 52 | Eastern Omens by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 11, 1875

Eastern Omens.

By Uriah Smith

THE war cloud is thickening in the East. The two points around which great interest now clusters, and upon which the gaze of the world is concentrated, are Rome, as the seat of the papacy, and Constantinople as the seat of the Turk. When the western nations are involved in trouble, so as not to be able to interfere, Russia moves with alacrity toward accomplishing her purposes in the East. Such a condition of things now exists. There is virtual war between the papacy and the western powers. The pope, chafing under the loss of his dominion, looks to Catholics in all nations to rally to his support, and restore his lost privileges. Against such a move the nations must be forearmed. A strong undercurrent is at work. A storm is gathering which must soon burst forth.

Meanwhile Russia makes a significant move toward the dismemberment of Turkey. One of its chief principalities, Roumania, under prince Charles, is encouraged to take a position independent of the Sultan’s government. Germany, Russia, and Austria, promise him support in this move. Other provinces will doubtless follow the example. All this is to weaken Turkey and render her an easier prey to Russia. Russia’s ambition is to possess Constantinople, and drive the Turks into Asia.

In reference to this situation of affairs the Boston Post says:—

“Thus the old quarrel, which culminated in the Crimean war, and which has long threatened to break out again in Central Asia, emerges ominously on the Danube. For the eastern question involves Central Asia as well as Constantinople and the Danube. Its central fact is the ambition of Russia. That ambition is known to be to possess Constantinople, to control the Ægean, to absorb Persia, and to monopolize the trade of the far Orient. By making Roumania independent, she in so far weakens Turkey; and she desires above all things to see the Ottoman Empire crumble and fall to pieces.”

In reference to the papal question, the N. Y. World says:—

“On the other side of the Atlantic are brewing wars and rumors of wars which threaten to involve not State alone with State, but whole sections of society with one another, and the civil with the ecclesiastical power from one end of the Continent to the other.”

The Christian Union says:—

“Preparations for the final pushing of Turkey out of Europe and into Asia seem about to commence. It is stated that Austria will at once make independent treaties with Roumania, one of the northern principalities over which Turkey exercises dominion. It is not at all likely that Austria will so boldly violate the conditions of the treaty of Paris unless encouraged by others of the parties to the treaty, while the one of these most vitally interested in Turkish affairs is Russia. . . . . The effect of the recognition of Roumania as an independent power will be to rouse Servia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and other Turkish provinces and dependencies to revolt. To spare Turkey from Europe will not be hard to do; she has cost much money and disquietude, and given nothing in return; and should it be possible to peaceably erect a respectable nation upon the ruins of a power which exists only by sufferance, and without decent excuse for existing at all, Europe will be the better for it.”

Under the heading of “The Gathering Storm in Europe,” the N. Y. World quotes from the London Times as follows:—

“One need hardly be even so much of a prophet as Mr. Disraeli to forecast the thick coming on of troublous times in the Old World. In comparison with the present attitude toward each other, and with the present internal condition of the greater Continental powers, all was perfect peace in Europe when the Emperor Napoleon III., in that famous speech delivered, if we mistake not, at Lille, prognosticated woe and war from certain ‘black specks on the horizon.’ They are not black specks now; they are visible clouds as big, not only as a man’s hand, but as the hand of a giant, which are rolling and piling themselves up over Paris and Berlin, over Madrid and Rome.”

“All over Europe there hangs a huge war-cloud, which the philanthropist may hope to see dispersed without a destructive storm, but which the politician views with undisguised alarm. *

“To revert to the military condition of Europe, if all London and its environs were emptied of inhabitants, all the houses would scarcely contain the armies of Russia, France, Germany, and Italy. Such vast preparations for war cannot be a guarantee of peace. While such prodigious forces are organized, they are like so much gunpowder under the dwellings of Europe; and in Rome sits the arch-conspirator anxious to find out where to apply the match.”

And the N. Y. Sun quotes from the London Times as follows:—

“ALL EUROPE ARMING.

“London, Jan. 18. To-day’s Times, in its leading editorial article, says:—

“‘In the gloom surrounding us one thing is perceptible. All men are arming. Germany is arming en masse, and the surrounding nations, including the best part of the world, cannot do otherwise. The momentary dreams of peace have fled away. Germany recognizes the stern necessity. What she won by arms she can only hold by arms, and while arms are in her hands.’

“The Times confesses that Germany cannot raise a third army. Her hopes are in her navy.”

To every one but the Christian student of prophecy these prodigious preparations and significant portents inspire only uncertainty and fear. The prophetic student knows what they mean. To him they are omens of cheer; for he sees God in the storm, and deliverance beyond.

U. S.