p. 11 | Guarantee of Peace by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 10, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 24.

Guarantee of Peace.

By Editor

We have received a circular letter from the National Farmers' Association asking us to advocate a powerful navy as a guarantee of peace. We have nothing to advocate in this line. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES is not in politics in any way. It does see certain tendencies which are fulfilling prophecy, and which, carried out to the ultimate, mean the destruction of earthly kingdoms. Over and over again God has predicted in His word a great coming war of Armageddon. In the fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Jeremiah, and the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, and the fourteenth of Zechariah and elsewhere, we are warned of that time when all the nations of the earth shall be prepared for battle. It is utterly impossible for a nation to become what is considered well prepared, without stirring up a spirit of boasting and aggressiveness on the part of the people of such a nation. When one nation feels that it is prepared for its possible foes, other nations will prepare and feel the same way.

At the present time commercialism is ruling the world. Together with the war-ships, they are building ships for commerce, and the war waged in the commercial field is as tense and earnest as the war waged with musket and gun. And when commercialism demands, as it has again and again, battle-ships will be called to defend "our commerce," and the outcome is bound to be war. It may be delayed for a while; prophecies of God's word indicate that that is the case; delayed because nations wish to be prepared to meet other nations who are prepared; but sooner or later the great crash will come and will be all the worse because of the time and money which has been expended in preparation for it.

If we were to view it from a purely worldly standpoint, our opinion would be that if America would attend to her own business at home in the development of her own resources, she would not need any such great world-power navy. The products of her lands and industries would be so needed by the other governments of earth that there would be no desire to go to war with her. That, however, is not the dominant spirit in the world to-day. When pugilists train for combat, they are never resting in the assurance that the training is for ease and labor. The nations of the earth are becoming great pugilists, and they are training for war.