p. 8 | The Outlook by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 23.

The Outlook

By Editor

"I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what He will speak with me."

The Crisis.—He looks indeed with careless eye and thoughtless heart who does not see the rapidly-approaching crisis which is coming upon the world. Intensity is taking hold upon all phases and conditions of life. In the nations and governments of earth we see fulfilling before our eyes the very things that Jesus predicted should herald his second coming—"upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity." See Luke 21:25-27. "Perplexity" regarding finance, regarding preparations for war, regarding war itself, regarding the power of trusts which defy all law, regarding the religio-political, social, and anarchistic propagandas going on in their midst, and undermining all confidence in government. There is perplexity everywhere. "Distress" because of inequality between man and man, distress because of poverty, famine, and pestilence, distress because of oppression of the poor. And yet there is plenty in the world, as never before. The Protestant church has departed from the principles which gave her her life, and now clings to tradition, and pleads for the aid of the State instead of the help of God. Men solace themselves that all this will "turn out right in some way," but they know not how. They are buoyed up by a false hope. So men have thought in other ages. Nebuchadnezzar thought that Babylon would stand forever, but she lives only in the record of her folly and disaster and in the wine of her fornication with which other nations are drunken. Romans thought that the iron empire would stand forever, but the same causes which now operate through the world caused it to crumble and fall. We are living the life of the Roman republic and empire over again. The only hope of the world is radical reform at heart, but this the truth of all history and the prophetic Word forbid. The only hope of the world is in Jesus Christ. The only kingdom to which one can look with hope is his coming kingdom. In that and in that alone is stability.