The Prophet Sees Visions of War That Stir His Soul — What a Minister Saw in Europe When the War Storm Broke — The Literal Fulfilment of the Prophetic Word in Present Conditions
AN ancient prophet, while viewing scenes of war and strife, uttered the vividly expressive words: "My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can not hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war." Jer. 4: 19.
This quotation is from the Revised Version. In the King James Version the prophet says, "My heart maketh a noise in me." This language conveys the most intense agitation of mind. The prophet is viewing scenes which cause his heart to palpitate so violently that it makes "a noise" in him. It is "disquieted."
SAW IT TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
Can it be possible that the prophet Jeremiah, some two thousand five hundred years ago, was viewing the very scenes of carnage that are now devastating such a fair portion of Europe? Without question, humanity in general regards this war as something so unusual and so unlooked for, that it is really awe-inspiring. For instance, the Springfield Republican, shortly after the breaking out of the war, said: "Writers who can tell a stupefied world what this fearful portent means, who can throw light on the great fundamental problems of the race, and give some hint as to its destiny, will have an attentive and even anxious hear-
ing." The world is "stupefied."
When the war broke out, the Rev. Dr. Frederick Lynch was in Europe to attend the first general meeting of the Church Peace Foundation, recently established by Andrew Carnegie. In a recent issue of the New York Christian Work and Evangelist, he tells of the shock that came to him, along with the other fifty or so ministerial delegates that were with him, when the awful carnage began. A few of the striking utterances from his article are the following:
AN EYE-WITNESS OF THE WAR FURIES
"In a moment, almost without premonition, millions of men on the continent have become frenzied, and with wild eyes, with bestial thirst for blood, and with savage yells, are rushing to rip their brothers' bowels out. Women are rushing from besieged and burning cities with little babies in their arms, and little, cold, hungry, tired boys and girls, hardly old enough to walk, trying to keep up. Poverty stares millions in the face — poverty not only during this war, but during long years to come. Thousands of women are to be widowed, millions of little children are to be left fatherless. Natural affections are already blotted out, and their place being taken by strange, cruel lusts and passions. The virtue of women will be a free commodity for all soldiers. Drunkenness has already594spread throughout these lands in a mad orgy. All industry will be ruined. Thousands of farms and villages will be laid waste. Thousands of schools and churches will be blown up. Hatreds will be engendered which will keep Europe irritated fifty years after the peace of exhaustion shall come. The commerce of the world will be all upset. The general morality of Europe will be lowered to a point where the churches will have to begin all over again and work a hundred years to restore it. Already thousands of atheists have been made. Almost every other man we have met in Europe this last week has shook his head with sadness and said, 'What's the good of Christianity if it can not stop this sort of thing?' It is as if the devil and all his angels have taken complete possession of Europe."
"Another thing which we think every American of the fifty who got this first sight of war has come to feel is that our religion has broken down in its psychology, that our gospel has been addressed to a man who does not exist, that our sermons have been preached to an imaginary man. We have been preaching to men as highly respectable, on the whole good, some of them saintly, while as a matter of fact this has been only seeming. They have seemed this because great temptations have not roused them from their sleep. No one who came across Europe within the last month can ever hold this easy faith again. Men are beasts; cruel, lustful, revengeful, ravening, just as the gospel represents them. There are exceptions, but in most of us the beast lies just below the surface, and nothing but a regeneration which shall sweep through men's souls as a wind from heaven can make them clean."
This minister has been aroused by actual conditions as they really exist in this time. But we ought to know these things from the word of God itself. What he says of the thirst for blood, and of the helpless women who are rushing from the scenes of war with their little children, shows something of the awful conditions that will be produced by modern wars.
THEY MOBILIZE AND STRIKE QUICKLY
It used to take the better part of a year to mobilize an army and get it into action, and then it was composed comparatively of only a few thousand men. Some of the largest armies that Napoleon ever mustered were below 300,000. Only in a very few instances in previous times have armies reached up into the millions. And even in these cases, there is some doubt thrown upon the size of these armies by the records of the historians.
But if we will stop to realize it, this war has been in progress only about two months, and millions of men have been fighting savagely for more than half of that time. And with modern machine methods — using machinery to kill men, instead of doing it by any kind of ordinary hand process — they are strewing dead bodies of men and animals all over their battle-fields, and are spreading desolation and ruin everywhere.
POVERTY AND SUFFERING FOR MILLIONS
No wonder Dr. Lynch says that "poverty stares millions in the face." But observe that one of the utterances of the doctor is, "Natural affections are already blotted out." Paul told Timothy, nearly two thousand years ago, that in the last days perilous times would come, because men would be "without natural affection." Not only did he say that they would be without natural affection, but they would be "fierce"; and the ferocity of this war shows that one of the greatest perils confronting us is the fierceness of humankind.
Please read carefully all of the third chapter of 2 Timothy, which gives most clearly many other specifications of conditions that would exist "in the last days."
THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS AT WORK
The doctor also says of this war, that "it is as if the devil and all his angels have taken complete possession of Europe." Here again a scripture that we have often quoted comes in for a literal fulfilment; for of the gathering to Armageddon's war it says:
"They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." See Rev. 16: 13-16.
The doctor is very emphatic in his recognition of the fact that our boasted Christianity in this time is only nominal. All ought to see that the world, instead of getting better and better, is doing just what Paul, in this third chapter of 2 Timothy, said it would do. It is "waxing worse and worse," and men are not only "deceiving" but "being deceived." Our boasted civilization is deceptive, and can not be trusted.
The doctor strikes the truth forcefully when he says, "In most of us the beast lies just below the surface, and nothing but a regeneration which will sweep through men's souls as a wind from heaven can make them clean."
THEY ARE "CHRISTIAN NATIONS"
All these nations that have gone to war are called "Christian nations." But in the suffering and the carnage that are spreading over Europe, there is no semblance to Christianity. Here we have again a striking fulfilment of Paul's words that those who would be "without natural affection" and "fierce," and who would make the last days "perilous," would also have a form of godliness without the power. To quote the Twentieth Century Version of the text, "While they re-
tain the outward form of religion, they will not allow it to influence them." 2 Tim. 3: 5. And again he says — quoting from this same version: "For a time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will follow their own wishes, and in their itching for novelty, procure themselves a crowd of teachers. They will turn a deaf ear to the truth and give their attention to legends instead." 2 Tim. 4: 3, 4.
That is just what the people of this time are doing. They have the outward form of religion, but they do not allow it to influence them. And many doctors of divinity are studying and teaching legends in place of the word of God.
WILL BECOME WORSE AND WORSE
Dr. Lynch has been aroused to see this; and his strong, clear message should be rung in the ears of the people everywhere. A regeneration that gives the Bible its proper place in the hearts and lives of men is the only thing that can save men from conditions such as now exist in Europe.
But we know that the world will not be saved from them, because it will not heed the teachings of the Christ of God. Instead of this, it will go on just as these scriptures have said, becoming worse and worse, until in a little time from now the climax is reached by depths of iniquity that can be tolerated no longer, and the Lord Jesus Christ will fulfil His promise to come in person.
THE PROPHET'S VIEW AND HIS ANGUISH OF SOUL
Please read further from the prophet Jeremiah, beginning with the verse quoted at the beginning of this article:
"My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can not hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people are3foolish, they know me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before His fierce anger. For thus saith Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it. Every city fleeth for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein. And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life. For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Wo is me now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers." Jer. 4: 19-31.
DESTRUCTION AND DESOLATION
The prophet's emotions are stirred by the war that he sees raging. "Destruction upon destruction is cried." He sees the whole land become a desolation; sees the fruitful field turned into a wilderness; and finally all the cities are broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before His fierce anger. Not a man is left. And in connection with this graphic scene, he hears a voice as of a woman in travail. In her anguish, she is gasping for breath, and crying, "Wo is me now! for my soul fainteth before the murderers."
In an incidental way, and as a sort of type, this scripture met a partial fulfilment in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem; but this graphic language can not possibly be made to apply but incidentally and partially to that time. The words of the apostle Paul are to the point: "All these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10: 11.
When this prophecy of Jeremiah is studied in connection with the other prophecies, it gives unmistakable evidence of its direct application to the times through which this world is now passing.
NOT THE LAST WAR
This war in Europe is not the last great war. In all probability it will soon come to an end as abruptly as it began; although just how long it may continue, no one can forecast. But as has been stated in previous issues of this paper, God is restraining these winds of strife, and He will not permit them to continue. Possibly He has allowed this war to break out in order to destroy the delusion in the minds of men that we had a civilization and a quality of Christianity in this time that would save us from wars.
DANGER OF DELUSIVE PEACE
Our next danger will be, when peace is again restored, that the delusion that we will have permanent tranquility will become stronger than ever. But the Bible continues to say that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse"; and therefore we know that wars as they break out will be more and more violent, and more and more barbarous, as the "last days" are continually made more "perilous" by the "fierceness" of men who are "without natural affection." And finally it will be in a time when a deluded world is congratulating itself with established and permanent peace, that the climax will come; for the apostle Paul says:
"Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5: 2-4.
These words of the divine Book are plain. They specifically and clearly describe present-day conditions, and this last quoted text shows that those whom Paul would recognize as brethren were not to be overtaken as a thief. They were not to be surprised by the great outbreaks of war in these last days; and they would not be among those who would be saying "Peace and safety," when their senses ought to teach them that the whole world is a tinder-box of revolution and war. They will not be among that class that go down in the "sudden destruction" which engulfs the wickedness of this world forever, destroying it in the great day of the Lord that is ushered in by the second coming of Christ.
The famous Death's-Head Hussars, the favorite regiment of Emperor William and all his family. The regiment is so named from the death's-head worn on the front of their hats. The mottoes of the regiment are, "Neither give nor accept quarter," and "Fight to the death."
PRINCE GEORGE OF SERVIA, HEIR TO THE THRONE
Boston Photo News Co. LORD HIGH ADMIRAL VON KOESTER, OF THE GERMAN NAVY
