Saying "I am Strong"

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 27, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 33.

Saying "I am Strong"

ITALY'S war with Turkey is costing her about $500,000 a day. It has cost her all together, up to the present time, about $150,000,000. Patrizi, the scholarly editor of L'Italia, says that it was necessary for them to declare war on Turkey, or face a revolution at home. The outrages committed by the Turks against his people in Tripoli had made the people at home so angry that they demanded the war. He says that Turkey had despised Italy because of her supposed weakness, but the prosecution of the war has shown that Italy is one of the strong, modern, military powers. One of the prophecies that we know applies right in this time reads:

"Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshapat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision." Joel 3:9-14.

The foregoing prophetic utterance, together with many more of a like import, tells plainly that the war spirit will be raging in the closing days of this earth's history. The weak nations will be saying, "I am strong." They will be beating their plowshares and pruning-hooks into implements of war; they will bestir themselves for the mad strife. The literal way in which these and all the many other prophecies relating to this time are being fulfilled should cause men to think. Everything points to the fact that the career of this world in its course of sin is about to be terminated.

Every day is adding some new chapter to the story of the police corruptions in New York City. The despatches are now saying that the mayor himself is involved in it, and that during the last eight years the profits to the gamblers under police protection in that great city have amounted to $93,400,000. This sum shows only their profits after deducting their expenses. Their gross income was something like $120,000,000. Now added to this scandal in New York is the arrest, on August 9, of sixteen aldermen in Detroit, Michigan, the arrest of at least two more to follow, charged with the crime of defrauding the city by various grafting methods. Then there comes the news, right in connection with this, that Oakland, California, is talking of starting on a similar so-called "house cleaning." The "Vice Commission" of Chicago has told of the terrible conditions existing there. The evidence is piling up on every hand, showing that our great cities are rapidly coming into the hands of thieves and robbers. The very police officer that is paid by the people to protect life and property is allied to the criminal element and is making gain of the evil combination. Is it to be wondered at, in view of all these facts, that the prophet of old singled out the cities for prominent mention by saying that "all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger"? Jer. 4:26.