p. 23 | IN DARKNESS AS TO THE FUTURE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CAL., KANSAS CITY, NEW YORK · Nov 28, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 48.

IN DARKNESS AS TO THE FUTURE

THE following, from an article by Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, of France, a leading diplomat of Europe, who holds in the French diplomatic service the title of Minister Plenipotentiary, an authority in the French chamber on all international subjects, and a member of the French delegation to The Hague conference, entitled "The Future of Arbitration among the Nations," in the Independent of September 27, aptly illustrates how little the great and well-versed men of the world know of the future. He hopes that out of The Hague conference will come a settled court of arbitration, in which all international quarrels will be settled amicably—a result, certainly, to be devoutly wished for. But he closes this part of his article with this paragraph:—

"All this to-day seems cloudy, almost chimerical, because we live from hand to mouth, and because no one has time to think of the future, not even of the immediate future."

But it might be well to think of the future, even the eternal future. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished," are the words of earth's wisest king. God gave both a Pharaoh and a Nebuchadnezzar visions of the future, and through them visions to all earth's rulers who come after. It is folly to ignore the divine warnings.

But this is not all that the great diplomat has to say. He asks a question and answers it thus:—

"If the powers, in fact, were to persist in their dissensions, what would happen? "China will be, not their prey, but their apple of discord; the question of the far East added to the Eastern question and to all the pending questions, forces the great States of the world to augment indefinitely their armies and their fleets, already ruinous, while they keep continually on their guard against each other. At this sight the countries of disorder and of fanaticism, the Mussulmans of Europe, Africa, and Asia, will grow bold, and will begin again with impunity their persecutions against the commerce and the persons of Christians. "Therefore, sooner or later, civilization must unite against barbarism. And the sooner it is done the better, for the people of the white race are learning; without a single exception they desire peace. They feel that it is necessary to the solution of the social, economic, and moral problems which the discoveries of science have set before humanity during the last century; they will not consent to be at variance with their governments on this vital point; they will grow weary and will revolt. "To sum up: A ridiculous and blood abortion of civilization in the far East; the triumph of barbarism; universal war, or ruin and social revolution—such will be the inevitable result of discord among the powers at Peking."

There is certainly no harmony as yet. Patched-up peace may exist for a time, but according to the Word of God the great nations of earth are preparing for Armageddon, when the kings of the West, who have through China and the Orient become "the kings of the East," shall fight the battle of the great day of God in the valley of Jehoshaphat.