The President has sent to the Senate the treaty negotiated last July by the representatives of the various nations at The Hague Peace Congress. It is said that ten signatures have already been attached to the convention for the pacific settlement of international disputes. It will be agreed among men that they will quit fighting, but they will not keep the agreement. And when they complete this agreement that they are to have wars no more, then will they say, “Peace and safety,” just as the Word of God foretells. But this “peace and safety” is such only in name, for the sure Word further says, “Then sudden destruction cometh upon them; . . . and they shall not escape.” “Sudden destruction” can not come where there is real “peace and safety.” We should not be deceived by peace congresses or peace talk. Any one should be able to recognize that the world was never in such a ferment for war as now. Every nation is involved. It is the rush of all the armies of earth in their preparations for the great battle of the great day of the Lord that we hear, and not the gentle and kindly whisperings of an assured peace. Study the Word of God, then look around you, and you will know for yourself the meaning of the events in these times.
The many rumors of international alliances are a significant omen. On one day the papers report a proposed alliance between England and the United States. The next day it is England, Germany, and the United States that have reached an agreement of alliance. Then, again, it is Russia and France, and then England and Turkey, and so on. This is a strong indication of the feverish condition of the world. It shows that the rulers of the nations are disturbed and afraid as they view the situation in international politics, and hence they are eagerly looking about for some means of augmenting their strength so that they may stem the tide. But all men should know that the collapse of the whole world is right at hand. Every prophecy shows that the end of all things is almost here. And the spirit of war that is calling out these proposed international alliances is the clear fulfillment of one of the plainest of these divine prophecies.
Negotiations have been opened by the United States for the purchase of Chatham Island, one of the Galapagos group. The island is desired by the Navy Department for a coaling station. How feverish is this country becoming to make of herself a great naval power! The order of things in the government has been reversed, and it will be nothing but war preparations and various broils and entanglements until the time is reached when America will rush, with all the other nations, into the great and final battle-field of Armageddon.
Prof. Reginald Fessenden and his assistant, Professor Kitner, of the Western University of Pennsylvania, are said to have invented a receiver for the wireless telegraphy that is two thousand times more sensitive than the one invented by Marconi. Marconi’s instrument has sent messages a distance of over 90 miles. Professor Fessenden thinks that his instrument, when fully perfected, will transmit messages without any wire clear across the Atlantic.
Rumors continue to come in regard to the prospect of King Menelek leading his forces against Great Britain. The subject is causing much uneasiness in London. If Menelek and his Abyssinian forces, with all their modern equipments for war, should rise up against England just now, it would make a very serious situation.
A sleeping operator on the North Pacific Railroad in Montana, allowed two freight trains to collide on December 25, near Bearmouth, and four men and nine horses were killed, and several other men were more or less seriously injured.
In a severe storm off the North Carolina coast, on December 24, the British steamship Ariosto was driven ashore, and twenty-one sailors were drowned.
Major-General Henry W. Lawton was instantly killed by a Filipino bullet near San Mateo on December 19.