“Wars and Rumors of Wars.”
By Dr. John Cumming
The next predicted precursor will be “wars and rumors of wars.” The first rumor of war that recently startled us was with America; it died away, and we are thankful that these two powerful nationalities are at perfect peace. The next rumor was war with France; and the powerful Emperor who sways its sceptre with such energy, and wisdom, and success, was expected not as the ally and the guest of our Queen, but the avenger of Waterloo and all its antecedents. That rumor has died away upon the breeze, and a brighter result has come round than we were led to anticipate. Next the tide of war rolled across the plains of Italy; dashed its waves against the walls of the “mistress of the world;” and the round shot of the eldest daughter of the Church pierced the roof, and were bounding on the consecrated floor of St. Peter. At this moment all Italy is a volcano, repressed, not quenched; the quiet of France depends upon the life of one powerful ruler exposed; Austria deprecates war, and yet dares not be at peace; Prussia is in the agony of irresolution; Hungary, long depressed in heart, begins to feel her hopes beat high; and Poland, the memorial of European sin, threatens to start to her feet and be Poland once more; and there is not one of these nations at this moment that does not stand literally with its hand upon its sword-hilt, not knowing where or from whom the flames of war may break forth. Lastly, the Russian autocrat, thinking that France had more upon its hands than it could manage; calculating that England and France had traditional hostilities that never could be quenched; ever longing to possess Constantinople, and the fair and sunny lands of Eastern Christendom; believed that the hour was come when she might hurl her gigantic avalanches upon Western Europe, and possess the prey, and take the spoil, and plant her victorious eagles on the mosques of Constantinople, and be the representative of a formidable power, to which Western Christendom would be able henceforth to offer, in all probability, no successful resistance. Have we ever had a decade disastrous as the last ten years? Wars, rumors of wars, spreading as flames in the prairies of America; and the prospects of peace that the death of the mighty autocrat induced us to indulge in for a little, crushed apparently for ever; and the doom of the cannon around Sebastopol breaking out only more terrible from the momentary lull and respite that has been given. * Amid all this, we read of “men’s hearts failing them for fear.” Feel, if you can, the steadiest and noblest pulse that beats at the bravest wrist in the land, and you will learn what that means, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear.” There is in the minds of statesmen a presentiment of coming woe, a foreboding of approaching doom; cabinets are at their wit’s end, their policy confounded, their blunders by-words. Italy at this moment is a volcano, and Austria knows it. The vast population of France is encamped, not domesticated. Only a people enlightened by Scriptural education can be a great nation. If that fine people, not the least noble in Europe, had only our privileges, our Bibles, our sanctuaries, our sermons, they would be as noble a race as the sun shines on. But France at this moment is encamped, not domesticated; experiencing a bivouac, not enjoying a home. Russia, all the time that we have been vainly trying to persuade her into peace, has been gathering like a gigantic northern avalanche, ready to burst upon the nations of Christian Europe.—Dr. Cumming, of Eng.