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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 12, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 36.

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What

By Lucas A. Reed

Nation Is to Rule the World?

The

Coming Universal Kingdom
By Lucas A. Reed
As a result of the present war, what nation is to rule the world? This question may be in the minds of many. The answer can be very simply and easily given: No nation any longer can dominate the world. We know this by appealing to one prophecy of the Bible, that given in the second chapter of Daniel. According to this prophecy, there were to be but four universal empires during the reign of man upon the earth. The first of these was Babylon, the second Medo-Persia, the third Greece, and the fourth Rome. After Rome there was to come the divided Roman Empire, under the form of the many kingdoms of Europe; and the prophecy gives us the definite conclusion of earth's events by saying that "in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed."
This is so clear and definite that there is no ground for demurring or speculating about the matter. We do not know just what the plans of Russia may be. It has plainly come out that she seeks for Constantinople and the straits as her necessary way into that place as a great nation which by right of existence belongs to her. How much further she may at heart desire or intend to go, we are largely left to presume.
The ambitions and intentions of Austria and Germany have been quite clearly stated, according to the report published in the London Times by one who calls himself "Observer." Of course, this report, coming as it does freely and frankly from a partisan on the side of the allies, may need to be taken with some degree of allowance; but events seem to indicate the truth of some of his assertions, as, for example, the following:

Unable to Repeat "Starving" Policy

"THE German people feel that with the crushing of Servia and the opening up of the route through Bulgaria to Constantinople and beyond, the first and most essential portion of this great scheme has been realized; and they do not for a moment believe that their mastery of the highway to the East can now be seriously challenged. Consequently they are confident that, as soon as the enemy shall have recognized defeat and left Germany at the head of an immense Zollverein stretching from Antwerp to the Persian Gulf, no power on earth and no British blockade will ever be able to repeat a policy of 'starving Germany out.' The symbol of this great achievement is the Balkanzug, the Balkan express, which runs twice a week from Antwerp to Constantinople. This German train has now replaced — the Germans believe forever — the former International Orient Express.
"It is not that the Germans have given up the idea of challenging British naval supremacy or of obtaining 'the freedom of the seas' for German sea-borne trade. The disputes between the partisans of 'central Europe' and those of 'world trade' have, in reality, little importance. The two aims are complementary to each other. The Germans mean to secure both. But, for the moment, it is the 'central European' and eastward tendency that predominates, because the only field which, for the moment, lies open to German enterprise is to be found in the East.
"Is it any wonder that, having secured, as they believe, the highway to the East, and with it, the power to throttle Russia on the Bosporus at their pleasure, the Germans should be confident? The best proof of their confidence lies in the efforts they are now making to organize, develop, and extend their inland waterways so as to make it possible for vessels of one thousand tons to pass from Antwerp, Hamburg, Bremen, or any other port on any large German river or canal, to the Black Sea by way of the Danube.
"This 'Danube question' is to-day the foremost question in Germany. Preparations are being made to link up, by a system of canals, not only the Rhine, Danube, and Elbe, but every important German waterway. In the past, this 'canal scheme' was chiefly Bavarian. Now it has become national and imperial. . . . "One of the objects of the 'Danube scheme' is, to secure for Germany the control of both banks of the Danube, from source to mouth. Throughout Austria and Hungary, and along the Servo-Bulgarian shore, the control is assured. It is hoped to bring Roumania into the scheme by persuasion or force, and to compensate her by securing for her possession of the Russian shore of the lower Danube. Thus German control of the whole waterway would be complete, and would, together with the control of the railway route, link Germany indissolubly with the East."
We see, by this, that the ambitions of Germany and Russia diametrically oppose one another. Russia wishes to press toward the South and the East, conquering Turkey, and bringing everything into subserviency to her own commands. Germany has a similar ambition toward the East, but plans to make the Turk an ally, causing the people of the Orient to coöperate in a great alliance for trade and prosperity. It is plain enough to any one, that neither nation intends to stop, if unhindered, with this ambitious project; and so, after all, the conflict of interests and purposes in this present war seems to be really because of an ambition of each nation to be the dominating influence in world affairs. However, the recent successes of the Russians on the eastern front appear to be a mighty menace to the cherished plans of Germany.

The Coming Kingdom

BUT Europe — that is to say, the territory of the old Roman Empire — is to remain divided to the end. The scripture declares that "they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." Dan. 2: 43. "The kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. . . . And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Dan. 2: 42, 44.
There is yet to be one more grand, universal empire. That will be the kingdom of Christ, and it will be set up on the ruins of this world's kingdoms. It will be a kingdom of righteousness, one that shall never pass away.
Every world ambition that runs counter to these plain truths of the Bible is but an illusion, a dream. God's word can never fail. "The Scripture cannot be broken."