ON September 30 war was declared on Turkey by Italy. On the same day a strike began in this country which involves some of the greatest financial interests of the nation. It is too early to say what will be the outcome in either case, but it is not too early to say that this actual war between Italy and Turkey was immediately preceded by the big war scare that threatened to involve Germany and France over the Moroccan question, and this was immediately preceded by much talk of war between England and Germany, and so the war game has been going.
In like manner the strike in this country was immediately preceded by a strike in England that really amounted to a civil war. Then there was the intervening labor war in Spain that has not received so much attention, but which has nevertheless been very threatening.
These actual outbreaks in war and labor strikes are only an indication of the turmoil and unrest that are found in Germany, France, Austria, Russia, China, India, the United States, and throughout the world. The problems of war, and of capital, and of labor, that present themselves now are absolutely new, and of a different character from anything that the past history of the world affords. In other times the nations of the world were segregated, and it took a long time for men to go from one country to another, and the means of communicating thought and intelligence was no speedier than the means of travel. But now the telegraph has made one neighborhood out of the world, and the doings and the thinking of each part are made known constantly to all the inhabitants of every other part of the globe. The whole world has come to be one vast assembly or deliberative body, and by the telegraph and the daily paper it is kept in constant session. Men of prominence to-day who arise to speak are not talking to some little isolated section, but their audience is the whole wide world.
In former days a problem might arise in some neighborhood, and be heatedly discussed, and finally settled and passed by, and an adjoining county might not know anything about it until it was all over, even if they ever learned of it at all. But now great problems become world problems, and no nation, or individual neighborhood in any nation, can have happenings of note without at the same time having a world-audience.
Hence there was never a time like this in the world's history, when it was such utter folly to try to predict what a day may bring forth. In this struggle Germany, France, England, Austria, and the United States in a particular sense, and all the rest of the world in general, are making continual notations and study of what is going on in the field of war between Italy and Turkey. Experts are on the ground to represent the nations, and they are making reports of what is done, and all these nations are having something to say about it. And in like manner our industrial struggle that is going on in this nation is watched, not merely by all parts of this great republic, but the world is looking on and having more or less to say.
The field of conflict between Italy and Turkey, with other neighboring powers and adjacent African and Asiatic territory
Perplexing problems are before us, and present facilities have thrown them into the lime-light of world-problems, and we have no precedent in history to guide us. But we should each be thankful that history is not the only light we have. History looks only into the past, and its dim light is not always the most reliable guide. But prophecy throws a clear, bright light into the future; and if we stand where this light is shining, it enables us to see the meaning of the present as well.
As an instance of what prophecy will do, let us consider the present war situation. Italy, it would seem from the despatches, has already taken Tripoli, and made some naval demonstrations and done a little fighting around Preveza. Germany, France, England, Austria, and Russia are each taking a hand in the diplomacy side of the contest, for they each have vital interests centering in this war. Hence we have frequent despatches stating that "all Europe is likely to be involved in a general war" before the thing is over.
There may be a general rushing to arms, and a great war storm may gather; it may possibly break out for a short time. But the prophecies of the book of Revelation show that God has commissioned the angels to hold the winds of strife and war until a definite Gospel work has been done in the earth. The fact that the divine decree is given to hold the war spirit in check, is positive evidence that outbreaks of war would be threatening on every hand. But Omnipotence has given the command to "hold" the demons of war; and no matter how hard the "war-dogs" may pull at their chains, and even tho there may be a temporary breaking away, yet will there be no general, world-wide war till the appointed time, and then it will be Armageddon, and Armageddon is followed quickly by the second coming of Christ to put an everlasting end to every form of this mad strife.
Just so definite as this are the prophecies of the Bible; and any one who is following any other light in this time of turmoil, rioting, violence, and war, will ultimately find that he is led by an ignis fatuus that is trailing him through the bogs of uncertainty into the ruin of everlasting destruction.
Why is it, when the kind Father has provided us with the clear light of prophecy, that we will persist in wandering on, not knowing the meaning of the portents of this time! How awful it is to be in the grip of the terrors of uncertainty and despair, when we might be resting in the haven of joy where the pennant is floating that is already sun-kissed by the dawns of that rapturous morning of eternal11deliverance! These times are too intensely interesting for either gloom or despair to lay hold of the mind that has been enlightened by the prophecies of God's Word. T.
