SWORDS INTO PLOUGHSHARES.
We find the following paragraph in the Scientific American: "We have not yet reached those 'last days' spoken of by the good old prophet Isaiah, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountain, when he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.' For fifteen years past we have had extensive correspondence with mechanics and manufacturers throughout all the States, and we have yet to learn that the predictions of the inspired prophet have even an incipient realization on this or any other continent. We know not of an instance where a single rusty old sword has been beaten into a plowshare, but we have heard it announced than even the weather-beaten muskets of our distinguished fellow-citizen, George Law, have at last found a ready sale. Amidst the general dullness of trade and finance, the forges of Mars are blazing away with unwonted fury, and even 'strange fire' is issuing forth from their smoky embers. Dragons' teeth have suddenly sprung up as armed men, and we can almost hear 'the shout, the shock, the groan of war.'" It is not strange that the attention of people should be arrested by the present state of things, as contrasted with what all popular theological guide-boards tell us we shall soon reach in the journey of time. Those who are really expecting a universal reign of peace on earth in its present state, and a temporal millennium, certainly furnish striking examples of such as walk by faith and not by sight. But the writer of the above fails in not discriminating between what "the good old prophet Isaiah" says on the authority of inspiration, and what he says other people will say. Isaiah does not tell us that in the last days people shall beat their swords into ploughshares and learn war no more. But he does say that "many people shall go and say" such and such flattering things, and this among the rest. And is not this just what people are now saying? Is not here brought to view the very doctrine of a temporal millennium, and the very cry of peace and safety which is especially to characterize the last days? We would therefore suggest to the Scientific, that though we have not reached a time when men are beating swords into ploughshares, we have reached a time when people are saying that this is going to be the case, and this saying was to take place in the "last days," and was to be a peculiar mark of those days. But so far is this from being true, that the Lord rebukes them for entertaining such a delusive dream of carnal security. Isa. ii, 6: "Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines." He rebukes them for heaping to themselves such abundance of gold, silver, horses, and idols, and finally tells them to enter into the rock, and hide them in the dust for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. So far then from the present perplexity of the nations and rumors of wars, being a sign that we have not yet reached the last days, they are just the reverse. And still the religious teachers of the day, persist in reiterating their cry of peace and safety right in the face of daily-transpiring events, which demolish their sophisms at every step, and beat the brains out of their most plausible theories. The prophetic enunciation for this day may be found in Joel iii, 9-12: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about."