Ominous Signs of the Times
By Editor
The year 1904 has opened ominously. First came the awful horror of the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago. Following this, fire has licked up with ravenous tongues millions in Baltimore and Rochester, N. Y.; a prairie fire swept parts of fertile Oklahoma, leaving a thousand homeless, and causing the loss of several lives, while small conflagrations in various places have kept up the regular account. Notable among these was the $800,000 fire in the state capitol of Wisconsin, at Madison. Earthquakes, especially in Peru, have well-nigh ruined the city of Lima, and surrounding towns. Strikes of various sorts, paralysis of business on account of labor troubles, continue unabated; and crime, foul and red-handed, terrorizes our cities. Cold weather and floods have been prevalent, and the horrible red cloud of war is rising in the Eastern horizon, threatening to envelop the world. No one knows what a day may bring forth. "It is 'distress of nations, with perplexity.'" And yet our Lord, who foretold this, assures us that the very conditions we now see are omens of His coming again, as "King of kings and Lord of lords."