A NEW ROAD TO THE MILLENNIUM.
The “old paths” through which, since the days of Daniel Whitby, in 1680, men have supposed that the world was to reach the millennium, have in these days become so choked up with the debris of sin and iniquity, and so strongly barricaded by the hosts of evil, that they are being quite generally abandoned as any feasible routes to that desired end. Hence a new way must be suggested; for the temporal millennium they are bound to reach, at all hazards. A new avenue of hope is opening in this direction; and, strange to say, it is not coming to light through the ministers of peace, but by the agents of war; it does not consist in the discovery of any new instrumentality to be used in the gospel, but in the invention of a new and terrible implement of war, to aid in the sure and wholesale destruction of men. This is indeed a strange way to reach that state, one grand feature of which is to be that men “shall learn war no more;” but there is no telling by what contradictory processes men will reach a conclusion the establishment of which is with them a foregone determination. In the Christian Union, of May 1, 1878, is an article on “Killing as a Science,” in which is described a new invention, by an American, Gen. Berdan, now being tested in Germany. It is called a range-finder, and consists of an instrument by which within twenty or thirty seconds the actual distance of an approaching army can be ascertained, and the guns brought to bear upon them so that every shot shall be sure and deadly. At present it is ascertained that two thousand balls are discharged to every person killed in battle. This involves an enormous expenditure of ammunition, time, and strength, in every engagement, which accomplishes nothing. With the use of this instrument, all this will be saved, and an army by simply coming within range of the guns is almost sure to be annihilated. In the experiment recorded, the following results were shown: A target representing thirty men was prepared, and a single light field Krupp gun loaded with shrapnel used against it. The range-finder gave the distance in thirty seconds, and at 3500 meters 5 hits were made; at 3000, 10 hits; at 2500, 20 hits; at 2000, 30 hits, and at 1000, 40 hits. The conclusion which the writer draws from this is, that war being deprived of its romance, and this wholesale human butchery being so certain, no nations will dare to go to war; hence, per force, there must be peace. We shall see how far the events of the few years to come, will justify this calculation.