The Present State of the World.
By Uriah Smith
THAT the world is ripening for destruction, needs no proof. On this point it bears its own testimony. According to inspiration, the last stages of its existence were to be marked by signs in the natural, moral and political world. These signs are unmistakably fulfilling before us. They are spread out on the whole broad face of nature, and all who will, may read and understand. It would seem that any who are candid believers of prophecy, and even casual observers of the signs of the times, could hardly interpret them amiss. The events now beginning to agitate the world are watched with interest and anxiety by all classes; but with especial interest are they regarded by those who, guided by the light of truth, are looking for that blessed hope. In them we see the last words of prophecy fulfilling; we see the evidences of our hope confirmed; and we see the day approaching which brings redemption to all God's people; and when we see these things coming to pass we can but look up and lift up our heads and rejoice; knowing that our deliverance is near. There shall be wars and rumors of wars, and distress of nations with perplexity. On the European continent the leading feature is the eastern war. The czar, Nicholas, assuming to be the supreme head of the Greek church as the Pope does of the Roman Catholic, claims the right to exercise the protectorate over its subjects in Turkey. Turkey, considering that so great a portion of her population belong to that class, and that to admit the claim, would be but to compromise her own dignity and place herself under the power of Russia, refuses to comply. This is seized as a pretext for an aggressive and destructive war, which will involve all Europe, at least, in the struggle. For over seven months this war has been waged. The suffering and misery which are beginning to attend it are already immense. Wm. G. Shauffer of Constantinople, speaking of the distress already occasioned among the poorer classes of that place, says: "There is no commerce, no business going on, but little money to be seen, and thousands of human beings are dying of hunger, thirst, nakedness and disease. Rats and mice are eaten by many to allay the cravings of hunger, and people who but a few months since were comparatively rich in worldly goods, now beg for bread." He says that "although he has resided twenty years in Constantinople, through all the horrors of war, plague, famine and fire, he never saw such distress as now exists." For seven months the war has been in existence with all its attending evils; but what has yet been accomplished. We learn from foreign intelligence that about thirty thousand men have already lost their lives; and still no important battle has been fought, and the position of the armies remains unchanged! The largest fleets that Europe has ever seen, and armed with the most deadly weapons, float in the Baltic and Black Sea, and yet no engagement has taken place; while England has expended ten millions sterling in preparations, and the treasury of Turkey is completely exhausted! Why is all this delay? Why is all this dallying with protocols, manifestos and ultimatums? True, the plot has been gradually deepening. England and France have given their declarations for war, and preparations have been going on; and now these belligerent powers stand, and have for some time stood, drawn up before each other in battle array as if ready, at any moment, for some decisive movement. Yet why is no important step taken, and no marked progress effected? This is a question which people are beginning seriously to consider; and the singular delay which has attended the movements threatens to become as strange and perplexing as all the rest. But is there not a cause for all this? Are not the angels holding the four winds that they hurt not the earth nor the sea, &c., till the servants of God are sealed? Rev. vii, 1-3. Human affairs are in the hands of God, the governor of all; and it is not in the power of man to urge them on faster than will fulfil his will. While he has a people upon earth his eye will be upon them; a hair cannot fall from their head without his notice; and he will not suffer things to be precipitated to their final issue till all have had fair opportunity to seek a shelter from the day of wrath. But we cannot expect a long delay. A short work will the Lord make. All who would secure a place in the ark of safety now, must needs make haste. The restraining power will soon be withdrawn, and the anger of the nations left to its own course. There is perplexity among the nations. Look at Austria, Prussia, Denmark and Sweden. They stand as it were upon a pivot and know not which way to turn. The crisis and the sacrifice is before them. Whether they join Russia or the Western Powers, they see little else but death awaiting them, and their only choice can be in the kind. We may regard their indecision of purpose as an index of their perplexity. Look further at Italy, Germany and Hungary, with their impatient and restless multitudes chafing under the bands of a hated despotism, and waiting to rise as one man when Kossuth or Mazzini shall give the word. Such is the condition which Europe presents to us at the present moment; and the gloom of this picture is not at all alleviated by the deep conviction beginning to fasten upon the nations that it cannot at present be improved. Matters have gone too far to be retraced; and they begin to realize that the difficulties existing cannot be settled by any short process, but that a long series of struggles, distress and misery, must necessarily follow. We come to the western continent, and find our own nation upon the edge of a volcano; causes existing which are raising the public feeling to a most intense degree of excitement; and deep and secret influences every where at work. The slavery question is fomenting discord and strife throughout the country. The riots which have already occurred upon it, are only portents of what is coming. We sometimes almost wonder why such a diabolical abomination as slavery should ever have been permitted to take such deep root in the very bosom of this country, and how a nation can act so signally contrary to its own profession; but we must remember, that, to fulfill the prophecy, this two-horned beast must speak as a dragon. Rev. xiii, 11. How much more of the same spirit which is manifested on the slavery question by the United States as a nation, would it require to pass the decree of verse 15? It would only be a little further development of the same principle: a few steps more taken in the same path which they are now treading. But there are other fearful features of the present time which claim our attention. We refer to the secret organizations now progressing in the land; and of these we will only notice those entitled, "Know-nothings," and "Native Americans." The former class alone, it is said, in the single city of New York numbers over 50,000. They are forming in almost every principal city of the Union. The latter class has already had one serious outbreak with the Irish Catholics in Brooklyn. Their aim is to watch and check the progress and encroachments of the Catholic power, the man of sin, which has already marked out this country as its own. But this is not their only purpose. With other associations they openly declare that if the government fails to take certain steps and effect certain measures, they will take the matters into their own hands, independently of the165government. Add to all this the one million and three hundred thousand mediums of spirit manifestations, and of course a far greater number of believers in their teachings, which are at war with all truth, and are undermining the very foundations of christianity; consider, besides, the broad extent and deep root which infidelity and atheism have taken in the land, the numberless haunts which intemperance has erected in our cities—and what a mass do we behold? What may we expect from the fearful elements here combined! It is certainly not a very agreeable subject of consideration for those who are resting their hopes upon a temporal millennium. We behold rather all the necessary ingredients for a “time of trouble such as never was.” Dan. xii, 1. Not only is it so in this country, but also in England and Europe. The British Messenger says: “Our day is amazingly prolific of unlooked-for combinations. We have England and France united with Turkey to resist the unjust encroachments of the Russian power. We have a government composed of men of almost every shade of political opinion, to forward a constitutional reform at home, and maintain the honor and prestige of the nation abroad. We have persons of nearly every form of unbelief banded together, under the colors of Secularism, for the purpose of sapping the foundations of religion, and of diffusing, throughout the working population of the country, the demoralizing and soul-destroying tenets of infidelity. And we have individuals, of every creed and church, joining together to offer united and determined resistance to the progress of social evils, and ecclesiastical intolerance, persecution, and tyranny.” That a great crisis is approaching, all seem fully aware. The antagonistic principles of Temperance and Intemperance, Protestantism and Catholicism, Freedom and Slavery, Republicanism and Tyranny, will give the world no rest. Whey would wage upon each other unceasing war, until, were the allotted days of time sufficient, one or the other should completely triumph. But in the days of these kings the God of heaven is to set up his kingdom; the man of sin will be destroyed only by the brightness of Christ’s coming; and evil will only be eradicated by Him, who was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil. The harvest of the earth is fast ripening. The materials for the last great work of destruction are all prepared. We can but regard these commotions as the avenues that are leading direct to the final conflict. The harvest will soon be fully ripe. Soon one like the Son of man will appear on a great white cloud, having in his hand a sharp sickle; and he will thrust in his sickle and the earth will be reaped. Rev. xiv, 14, 16.