THE KIND OF WORLD WE LIVE IN.
By G.
THE vicissitudes to which we are all more or less subject are illustrated in the record of one day in just one daily newspaper. A San Francisco morning issue not long ago noted the following occurrences: Anti-Jewish rioting in Kishinef, Russia, resulting in pillage, arson, and many persons killed. Five hundred Russian prisoners, returning from Japan to Vladivostok, became so inclined to mutiny that Japanese authorities were obliged to furnish guards. Admiral Rojestvensky was on board. Reports from riots at Odessa place the number of dead at 8,000, with 12,000 wounded. Recent riots at Vladivostok resulted in $25,000,000 damage to property, and 400 troops of the garrison were killed, and the jail thrown open. Korean emperor refuses to sign Japan's demands for a Japanese administrator, and orders assassination of ministers who voted for the measure. A steamship founders in the English Channel, and one hundred and twenty people perish. A young man trying to steal a ride on cars from Oakland, Cal., resisted officers who tried to arrest him at San Pablo, and was killed. Two men were completely consumed in a mass of molten iron at Philadelphia, and the whole forty-ton mass was buried with solemn funeral rites. The workmen refused to re-work the metal in which the remains of their former comrades were supposed to be mingled. A fire in Connelsville, Pa., destroys $4,000,000 worth of property. Fortunately a large part of the loss was whisky. A football player was reported dying at Lincoln, Neb. A man was held up and robbed in Seattle, Wash., in broad daylight, in presence of several witnesses. The robber escaped. The loss of a sealing vessel, with twenty-eight men, was reported from Victoria, B. C. A woman in San Francisco was crazed by the cruelty of a drunken husband. Another woman commits suicide because of the loss of her voice. A woman in Tacoma, Wash., has gone insane over the care of her six children. Inmates of a penitentiary are robbed of valuables entrusted to the authorities of the prison. A man is found dead in San Francisco, with his skull fractured. Birmingham, Ala., suffers loss of $150,000 by fire. A boy in Oakland, Cal., walking in company with others, received a bullet wound in the shoulder, and no one could tell whence the shot was fired. These items, showing the usual run of news do not include the usual police court events, the election fraud comments, the daily items of financial corruption, nor the reports of social immoralities. And when we reflect that the half never is told, and are reminded of the daily death-roll that comes as a matter of course, from the innumerable incidental causes, to say nothing of the untold suffering of the human family by disease and by "man's inhumanity to man," we can form some idea of the kind of world we live in. Is there no better prospect for the race? Did the Creator design that this should be all of the existence of intelligent creatures capable of higher enjoyment and higher usefulness? His Word says there is something better in store for those who love His law and accept His atonement. Wherefore, "we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." It is this "Gospel of the kingdom" which we are set to proclaim. G.