PEACE SOCIETIES AND PEACE PROPOSALS ARE BORNE DOWN BEFORE IT—ONE GREAT BATTLE-SHIP OF TO-DAY MORE THAN A MATCH FOR TEN OF YESTERDAY—WHERE WILL STRUGGLE END?
The majority of the civilized world would without question agree that war is brutal and cruelly destructive of both life and property; and to the end that civilization may have the mastery over the demands of war, something more than a hundred peace societies and organizations have been formed in the United States and Europe. Millions of dollars are devoted to the work of creating a sentiment that will forever banish war from our planet.
A "NAVAL HOLIDAY"
British statesmen groaning under the pressure of their war budgets have called out earnestly for a "naval holiday," during which time all the nations, by common agreement, would refrain from any new expenditures or work in war preparations. But regardless of the efforts of the peace organizations, and the labors and propositions of statesmen, the war curse grows stronger and stronger. The great nations are feverishly increasing their war preparations; and with an energy that almost approaches hysteria, they are struggling to reach a position where they would have the assured ability to overcome in case of any outbreak of war.
The United States Battle-Ship Wyoming
ONE OF TO-DAY MORE POWERFUL THAN TEN OF YESTERDAY
"Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt," so says the Scientific American, "in a recent conversation with half a dozen captains of the United States navy, asked them which they would rather command in the event of a fight between one Wyoming and ten Oregons. Five of the six said they would prefer to take the Wyoming. The sixth thought that he would take his chance with the ten Oregons, because the one Wyoming might blow up. Now this unanimous choice of the Wyoming was made for readily understood reasons. The twelve 50-caliber 12-inch guns of the Dreadnought would greatly outrange the old 35-caliber 13-inch guns of the Oregons; and the superior speed of the modern ship of 21 knots, as against the present speed of, say, 14½ knots of the Oregons, would enable the Wyoming to maintain a distance of ten or twelve thousand yards, well beyond the effective range of the old 13-inch pieces, and silence or sink the ten Oregons one by one, or three or four at a time for that matter. It is considerations such as these that have led the naval powers to disregard the pre-Dreadnought battle-ship, in estimating the strength of the first fighting line of modern navies."
The Oregon was authorized by Congress in 1890, and at the time of our war with Spain in 1898 she was considered one of the newest and best battle-ships afloat. Her celebrated journey from San Francisco Bay to Santiago to assist in the destruction of Cervera's fleet made her famous, not only in this country but throughout the world. But in sixteen years it is the unanimous agreement of five out of six navy captains that they would rather have one Wyoming, the latest United States Dreadnought to be put into commission, than ten of those powerful ships of a decade and a half ago; and the sixth captain leaves us to infer that he would rather also have the one Wyoming in preference to the ten Oregons if he could be assured that it would not accidentally "blow up."
WYOMING ALREADY IN THE SHADOW
The awe-inspiring destructiveness of modern weapons of warfare is so well known that a description is unnecessary. And the Wyoming of today is being placed in the background very rapidly by the still more powerful super-Dreadnought that most of the leading nations are building. France, for instance, is about to commence the construction of four of the super-Dreadnoughts of some 29,000 tons displacement, which are to carry sixteen 13.4-inch guns in four quadruple turrets. The whole sixteen of these guns can be swung to either broadside, and eight of them can be fired either ahead or astern. Some of these modern ships are equipping themselves with 15-inch guns capable of hurling a projectile weighing one ton a distance of twelve miles with almost mathematical precision.
THE CAUSES OF WAR STILL WITH US
Winston Spencer Churchill, England's great statesman who has long stood at the head of the admiralty, recently declared: "The causes which might lead to a general war have not been removed. The world is arming as it never armed before. All attempts at arresting it have been ineffectual." And in view of this arming of the nations, Great Britain has declared its purpose to have ten of the new all-big-gun battle-ships in the water by the time any other nation in the world has two.
The Los Angeles Tribune recently stated that "no man is yet able to discern any signs of the advent of that day of universal arbitration that shall put a stop to war and end the waste that is breaking the backs of nations."
Ex-President Eliot, one of the best known and most earnest advocates of international peace, has recently come out with the statement that he sees no reason to expect that the world will be brought, in the next two hundred years, to that point in civilization where it will be willing to accept universal peace.
WAR AND COMMERCE
One of the leading causes for war is the opportunity for the expansion of commerce, and the battle along commercial lines was210never more intense than at the present time. The leading naval powers are also the leading commercial powers; and while they are seeking to extend their commerce in every possible way and in every section of the world, they are urged to the necessity of building these terrible engines of destruction.
WE MAY KNOW OF THE OUTCOME
These paragraphs are reciting some well-known facts in order that attention may be called to some prophetic utterances of the divine Word that the struggling, war-cursed nations of this earth are ignoring. This prophetic Word makes the positive prediction, in numerous passages, that our world is coming to its end in the throes of an awful and world-wide war.
One of the prophecies that make this prediction is the following: 'And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sun-rising. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.) And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon.' Rev. 16: 12-16.
The language of the foregoing scripture is too plain to need any comment. It specifically shows that the kingdoms of 'the whole world' are to be gathered 'unto the war of the great day of God.' This is the great war of Armageddon.
THE CARNAGE OF ARMAGEDDON'S WAR
Another scripture foretells the terrible destructiveness of that war in this language: 'And another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, he that hath power over fire; and he called with a great voice to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Send forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and cast it into the wine-press, the great wine-press, of the wrath of God. And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and there came out blood from the wine-press, even unto the bridles of the horses, as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs.' Rev. 14: 17-20.
It is well to give heed to the clear utterances of these divine predictions. They tell us with unmistakable accuracy the meaning of the events that are shaping in the world. The great day of God, the Almighty, is just before us. There can be no doubt concerning it in the mind of the individual who will carefully study the evidences. And, best of all, God has made provision so that each individual may stand secure from harm through that time, and in the soon coming day of Christ's appearing may enter upon the indescribable bliss and joy of the eternal world,
