WAR IN EUROPE by George B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 13, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 19.

WAR IN EUROPE.

By George B. Thompson

BY ELDER GEO. B. THOMPSON.

"BEAT your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong." Joel 3: 10. He who looks at things in the political world as they really exist is convinced that these words will soon be fulfilled, notwithstanding the siren voice of "peace and safety" which is heard in the land.

All Europe quivers with unrest, like some slumbering volcano ready to burst forth at any moment. The nations regard each other suspiciously, and are arming for the impending conflict which each feels to be inevitable. War, rather than agriculture, is the absorbing occupation. Again and again we hear it stated that universal war must begin in the East, and in almost breathless expectation the world looks on to see which of the continental powers will make the fatal move on the political chessboard which will involve, apparently, all nations in the ferocious and deadly contest. How the map will then look we know not. Then will the European "sick man," Turkey, be driven from his possessions, and "plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain." "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Dan. 11: 45; 12: 1.

The ingenuity of man is taxed to the utmost to invent engines of destruction with which his fellow-men may be slaughtered faster than ever before, and he who succeeds is placed in the niche of fame. Already "automatic repeating rifles" are in the hands of trained millions, with which it is claimed that bullets can be poured out like a hailstorm, and will "sweep away like flies" the ranks of an opposing army. Smokeless powder is brought into use, and with no merciful cloud of smoke they can better carry on their terrible scenes of carnage, and literally drench the earth with blood. The Boston Journal of November 26, 1892, sets this matter forth as follows:—

War as we know in the Rebellion was terrible; but when the armed truce is finally broken, and Europe's armies by the hundred thousand meet on the field with these wonderful new devices of death and mutilation, the horrors of Gettysburg will be multiplied tenfold, with no merciful canopy of smoke to hide them.

This picture is a gloomy one, but it shows the situation as it is. Prince Bismarck, when speaking before the German Reichstag, stated the truth when he said:—

It will be a furious war, a war of destruction, in comparison with which the war of 1870 was but child's play.

All these things are but a fulfilling of the words of the Saviour, telling us of the "distress

of nations, with perplexity," and "men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." Luke 21: 25, 26. The nations are distressed and perplexed greatly by foes within and foes without. Anarchy, Socialism, and Nihilism perturb them at home, and a dread has filled the hearts of men as they see these things increasing in the earth and they utterly powerless to stay their progress. Knowing that the end will be all-devastating war, they are arming to the teeth for the bloody affray.

There is to be no reign of peace prior to the coming of Jesus, but it is while the nations are "angry" that he comes and destroys them with the breath of his mouth. Rev. 11: 18. These mutterings of unrest, discontent, and anger, tell us in unmistakable tones that the time is near at hand when the world will behold the "Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Be ye therefore ready. Matt. 24: 44.

Springfield, Ill.