Almost Unbelievable Atrocities — Fire upon Their Own Dead — Impelled by Demons
A DEMONIACAL fury that goes beyond the powers of description has characterized the war in Europe. Both sides in the controversy have been studying, as never before, how they might improve their weapons of destruction, and how they might invent new ones. To use the language of one who has been on the battle field during some of these severe struggles: "As the war has progressed, science has been adding element after element to the arsenal of frightfulness." Poisonous gases and liquid fire have been brought into the field of action. It is said that two of the new automatic rifles are equivalent to one machine gun. The hand grenade has been constantly developed into greater convenience and power, while the "torpedo bomb" is perhaps the most terrible of the improvements that have been made in the destructive elements since the war started. This torpedo bomb has an "explosive force that is appalling. They split up into long splinters, sharp as a knife, that cut men about in atrocious fashion."
All these new elements and improvements have been brought into action to be used at Verdun, in the battle that has been raging there since February 20. The descriptions of that conflict, given by men who have been on the ground, show something of its awful character.
Seemed Like an Earthquake
BUT as these men say, words are powerless to tell the story. Every inch of ground is "searched by an incessant hail of shells of all descriptions." One of the participants said: "I saw two shells, I don't know of what caliber, meet in the air. The double explosion was appalling; but it was high up, and did no damage." This same individual said: "It made one dizzy to watch it. I once was in an earthquake in Martinique, and it seemed like that."
“I was once in an earthquake in Martinique, and it seemed like that.”
The earthquake in Martinique was one of the most destructive disasters in modern times; and the man who found the battle at Verdun like such an appalling earthquake as the one at Martinique, continues his description as follows:
"The ground appeared to rock and change its shape like the sea; and no wonder, for the shells were falling so thick that the craters formed by their explosions were promptly filled in and deformed by the craters made by fresh explosions. I have been in holes, during this fight, that were ten or twelve feet deep, and must have been made by several shells bursting in the same spot."
For more than four months, the mighty opposing armies have been in the midst of these demon furies of war in that battle of Verdun. Think of what it means for men to stand under such a strain for such a length of time. Before the war broke out, we were assured on every side, by the warriors and the pacifists alike, that men would never face the modern weapons of destruction, and therefore war on any large scale was at an end.
All these theories have been completely shattered. Four months of continuous war tempest like that at Verdun is sufficient to show that men will stand for day after day and week after week, in the face of the worst forms of destruction that demons can invent.
When this Verdun battle had been in continuous progress for three months and five days, a dispatch stated: "The fighting at Verdun continues with implacable fury. There is not even time given to bury the dead or succor the wounded."
The soldier is trained to face death, and he does it. It will take something besides appalling instruments of death to pave the highway to peace.
Speaking of a counter attack that had been ordered, this soldier, who was in the thick of it, said, "Our men arose as one man, . . . their faces transfigured by the desperate passion that shook us all."
In reference to the preparations for these fearful charges, it is stated that the men are "usually doped into madness by potent drugs." And in this condition, "they come on like fiends, and appear entirely unconscious of what they are doing."
Concerning the artillery fire that was playing upon the charging columns of men, this participant said, "It was mowing down the close ranks of the enemy, literally like standing corn before a reaper."
The Wall Street Journal is not given to publishing sensational news. It usually confines itself to the cold figures of finance. In one of their recent issues, they give a short description of what one of the eyewitnesses saw enacted on the battle field around Verdun. Viewing the scene through his field glasses, this writer tells of the masses of men that were charging forward. And then the "guns opened, and mangled humanity was piled in windrows. I thought the battle ended; but in a short time, another line in solid formation was sent steadily forward, and as they started to pass over the piled-up heaps of their dead and dying comrades, the cannon again blazed, and the pile of dead and wounded looked a solid wall."
"I had never dreamed of such slaughter; but the sight that followed, I think no man ever before saw. High explosive shells began blowing to pieces the masses of dead and dying."
Blew Up Their Own Dead
THE writer speaks of his horror at such a sight, and then explains that the action was "blasting the walls of the dead and dying, that another line of troops might pass through and execute the order, 'Forward!'"
All past wars have been bad enough; but never before have there been wars that the Bible has described as being especially impelled by the spirits of demons. John, in apocalyptic vision, describes the spirits of devils working miracles as they go to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day.
Is it any marvel that the prophet Jeremiah, while viewing the scenes that are passing before us in the world to-day, should9have said, as anguish took hold of his heart, that his heart made "a noise" in him? The scene was so tense, so indescribably awful, that as the prophet viewed it two thousand five hundred years before it should occur, he found his heart pounding within him, making "a noise."
BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF BALBOA AND PACIFIC COAST ENTRANCE TO PANAMA CANAL.
The prophet hears the sound of a trumpet and "the alarm of war," and says that "destruction upon destruction is cried," for "the whole land is spoiled."
It is apparent that our civilization is no barrier against the demons of war. And it is quite as clear that nominal Christianity, which has only the form, and knows nothing of the saving power of Jesus Christ, cannot keep men from fighting. The only hope for the individual in this time is the real experience in the salvation of the real Christ, which will prepare us to stand in His presence at His coming.
His coming cannot be long delayed, for the conditions in the world at the present time are too filled with destruction to last. To get ready for that great day should be the absorbing passion of every heart.
