GERMANY has no fewer than seventeen recognized and distinct political parties that have elected members to her Reichstag. This fact alone is sufficient to show that her social organism is one great volcano of unrest.
Germany is adopting our English word "bosses" to designate a class of men that is seeking to control and manage her politics. The work of these "bosses" corresponds quite closely to the "boss rule" that holds sway in this country.
The Center Party is Germany's largest, and with the possible exception of the Social Democrat, it is the most influential. It is the Catholic party, and openly avows that it is working for the best interests of the Catholic Church. It is rather unique to find the most influential political party in this professedly Protestant State openly affirming, in its platform, that it is upholding "the constitutionally recognized independence and rights of the [Catholic] church."
The Social Democrat Party is the most active, the most skilfully organized, and at the same time it is feared by the government the most, of all the political organizations. It is needless to say that this Socialist Party is actively and vigorously opposed to the Center or Catholic Party. This fact throws the government and the Catholic party together in their common fight against the Socialist. Hence the growing influence of the Church of Rome over the government of Protestant Germany is perfectly natural.
For more than a thousand years the rulers of Germany were successively chosen to hold the empty title of "emperor of the Holy Roman Empire." Is history about to repeat itself? and is Germany, even now, well along toward doing her part in fulfilling the Bible prophecy that the Papacy will establish her dominion over all the kings of the earth? The political strength that the Papacy is acquiring in all the governments of earth is truly significant.
While the Center Party of Germany stands openly for the advancement of the interest of the papal church, the Social Democrat Party is avowedly the party of the poor man. They speak for the poor man as against the rich, and advocate an international union of the working men that will overthrow the existing order, and bring to an end the domination of the rich and the aristocratic. In this respect the Socialists of Germany are very much like their brethren in all the other countries of the world.
The high cost of living was one of the much discussed questions in the recent political campaign in Germany, and the discussion is not ended yet. The high cost of living is coming more and more to be a leading theme for discussion in every part of the world. And while some assign one cause, and others assign another, yet upon this topic, if not on some of his other doctrines, it is quite apparent that the Socialist presents some facts that are hard to go around. He thinks the high cost of living is largely due to the fact that combinations of capital fix the price and demand a toll for their private coffers from the sale of all the commodities of life. This enables a few men to have fabulous fortunes, while a great part of humanity is suffering for the necessities of life.
While Germany has her full share of internal difficulties that are causing great anxiety to her rulers, she is also distressed because of her fears of international conflicts. Much has been said, during recent years, in regard to the hysterical fears of being invaded by the Germans, that agitate the minds of the English. But the Briton's fear of the Germans is not one bit greater than the dread in the German bosom, that England may drive them into war. There seems to be an indescribable fear in this respect in both nations; and each month, as it passes, brings some new occasion for the alarms of war.
Every one knows that the turbulence of Germany is merely characteristic of the unrest that pervades the world. The foundations of all governments of this earth are being undermined, and any one who looks can see it. Many different remedies are suggested, but the one and only thing that can meet the situation is the second coming of Christ. And the prophecies show clearly that this selfsame turbulent condition of all the nations of earth is an unmistakable sign that the great event is near.
T.
The assembly hall, Nanking, at the time the general assembly of the Republic of China held its first meeting, January 28. The automobiles are those of the president and some of his followers.
The World-Wide Study of Earthquakes
ROBERT MALLET, an Englishman whose career belongs to the middle of the last century, is regarded as the first great seismologist in the modern sense of that term. The seismologist devotes himself to the study of earthquakes and their causes; and the fact that we had no great students in that field till half a century ago, should show us, even if history were silent, that it is only in recent years that earthquakes are becoming sufficiently frequent to give rise to seismology as a distinct and separate science.
While Mallet studied the subject sixty years ago, yet as a distinct and independent branch of knowledge, seismology, or the study of earthquakes, is not more than thirty years old. But during that thirty years, and particularly the last part of it, there has been very great activity. And a strong effort is being made now to establish stations entirely around the world, in order that every earthquake wave may be followed in its course and studied. It is significant that earthquakes should have so increased during the last half century as to cause this world-wide study concerning them.
Two thousand years ago earthquakes were of very rare occurrence. Indeed, any man who is fifty years old or more can readily think back to the time when he was a boy, and consider how tremendously the occurrence of earthquakes has increased during this short span. And while science is seeking to learn all it can from the physical side, it is assuring to know that there was One who could say with authority nearly two thousand years ago:
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. Luke 21:10, 11.
The Master inspired Luke to record in advance His utterances concerning the "great earthquakes" that would finally mingle with the "fearful sights and great signs" that shall come from heaven. But in a much earlier time the same Master had inspired Isaiah to say:
From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, wo unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, and he that fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously. Isa. 24:16-23.
Let us seek to take in the majesty of the situation. Standing in the days when the earthquake was a thing practically unknown, the prophet declares that the day will come when the "foundations of the earth do shake," when it is "moved exceedingly," and when it "shall reel to and fro like a drunkard." Isaiah must have been carried into the very council-chamber of the Most High, and permitted to gaze in a long, clear vision upon the very times in which we now dwell. Otherwise he could never have had the courage to pen such stirring predictions in that time when nature was all tranquillity.
To him who does not know the meaning of the increasing frequency of earthquakes, the facts must be very disquieting; for there is absolutely no power in man to help himself when the "foundations of the earth do shake." But there is no fear in the breast of the one who knows the Lord who foretold these earthquake conditions nearly three thousand years ago. He knows they are coming, and he knows what they portend, and the event they foreshadow so fills his soul with delight that all thought of dread or fear is completely banished. The same one who could foretell these mighty upheavals of earth, has also said:
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Ps. 91:5-11.
He who has learned to know Him who has power to shake the earth, is not filled with fear when He is doing it. God's Word furnishes the only satisfactory solution to the earthquake mystery. And in dissolving the mystery, it also dissipates the awful dread and fear.
