DO THE GREAT MEN SEE THESE THINGS?
THIS is a question which many are asking. The question ought to be, "What does the great Teacher say?" The Jews of old listened to Christ, and then asked, "Hath any of the rulers believed on Him?" And, depending on men, and rejecting Christ, they believed not, but died in their sins. God would not have men repose their faith in men. For that very reason, He must often pass by those whom the world considers wise and great, and choose humble instruments. And therefore He declares that "the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid," while He will reveal His mysteries unto babes. "Wise men," full of their own esteem, busy with "great" affairs, will not take time to learn of God, and hence are in darkness as to the future. Note some of their sad heart utterances:— Said Lord Salisbury, in speaking of threatened wars: These wars come upon us absolutely unannounced and with terrible rapidity. The war cloud rises in the horizon with a rapidity that obviates all calculation, and, it may be, a month or two months after the first warning you receive, you find you are engaged in or in prospect of a war on which your very existence is staked. Two years ago, after a European tour of inspection, Gen. Nelson A. Miles said: I have seen all the great armies of Europe except the Spanish army. What I have seen does not indicate that the millennium is at hand, when swords shall be beaten into plowshares. The late Bishop Newman gave his view of the situation in these words: This is the most unsettled condition of the world since the crucifixion of Christ. The stability of government is no longer a fact. Change is in the atmosphere. It is just as true now as a thousand years ago, "Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." . . . Statesmen are at their wits' end. Philosophers speculate in vain. Archbishop Ireland, Roman Catholic, declares: The bonds of society are relaxed; traditional principles are losing their sacredness, and perils hitherto unknown are menacing the life of the social organism. Prof. E. Benjamin Andrews, ex-president of Brown University, was led to say a few years ago: No well-informed person in Europe seems to believe that peace is destined to endure there very long. On all hands people are preparing for war. Armies and navies are strengthened; fortifications multiplied; immense war treasures of gold piled up; all possible hypothetical plans of campaign, offensive and defensive, studied and discussed; firearms, great and small, ceaselessly experimented upon, and improved; civil measures subordinate to military, and statesmen to great army men and navy men. Signor Crispi, for many years prime minister of Italy, comparing Europe with Spain, at the time of the Spanish-American War, said: Europe resembles Spain, from a certain point of view. Anarchy is dominant everywhere. To speak frankly, there is no Europe. The European concert is only a sinister joke. Nothing can be expected from the concert of the powers. We are marching toward the unknown. Who knows what to-morrow has in store for us? And, finally, the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, one of the ablest-edited papers in the United States, comparing the time of four years ago with ten years previous, remarks: The view ten years ago showed a placid, smiling river; now we see the boiling rapids of a torrent plunging toward what abyss no one knows. War has followed war with swift succession. . . . What the next stroke will be who shall say? And there is much more of the same import. "God is light." Apart from Him all is darkness. Men may reject the light and walk in darkness. And yet the way out of the darkness and perplexity is clearly revealed in the Word of God. "Thy Word," says the royal Psalmist, "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," says the apostle Peter, "whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn." We may heed God's light, and know the outcome, or we may walk on in blindness and darkness, to death and destruction. Which is the wiser way?