The Latest War Instrument.
A GOOD deal of space is being given just now in the newspapers to reports of the successes of modern balloons, equipped with power so that they can navigate the air. These "airships" can be guided about in the heavens over our heads very much the same as a ship at sea. Their use in a commercial way has not received very much consideration. The principal thought seems to center in the use they can be in case of war. One of these balloons was recently sailed about over the harbors of New York and a lieutenant from the navy, who was one of the company, was so deeply impressed by what could be done to destroy forts by dropping dynamite into them that he will make a report suggesting that all possible speed be exercised in equipping the fighting force with a squadron of war-balloons. It has been but a few years since experiments began to be successful in the development of the submarine torpedo boat. But now every navy in the world is being equipped with this late form of fighting-craft. And to the destructive war-ship that can be used under water to destroy the unsuspecting enemy is now added the ship that navigates the air, loaded with the terrible explosives that have been developed in this generation. The eagerness with which every new invention and discovery is scrutinized to see if it can be made useful in war shows that there is a strong spirit working to fill the minds of men with the emotions that drive them to the strifes of the battlefield. The agitations of all who are lovers of peace are doing something to hold this spirit in check. God's word also tells us that He has commissioned His angels to hold the winds of strife and war until He has finished His work of sending the Gospel of His kingdom to "the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations." And when that work is finished, peace-loving men and women and the angels that cooperate with them will cease their humane efforts, and Armageddon's "war of the great day of God, the Almighty," that war so clearly announced in prophecy, will quickly follow. And then comes the glorious consummation, the second coming of Christ in all His glory and the glory of His Father and the angels. That soul-inspiring and soul-rejoicing day is right at hand! And how is all the sadness and gloom of this time dispelled by the hopes that it awakens in the breast of every one who is preparing to meet his Lord in peace!