p. 171 | The Prospect for 1861

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 26, 1864

The Prospect for 1861.

"And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars; for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." "And there shall be . . . upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity." Matt. xxiv, 6, 7; Luke xxi, 25.

The New Year has come. It opens with "wars and rumors of wars." The summary of news from the four winds is, "There is strife, or its coming shadow, in every part of the world." On our own soil the great civil war, which has slain its millions, and has already lasted three years without a moment's respite, still continues. "More men for the field," is the call of the authorities; and additional thousands are about to be marched to the scene of carnage.

A little south of us, in a neighboring republic, another bloody contest is being waged. The subtle emperor of the French has thrown an army into Mexico, and is changing the whole system of government there, by overthrowing the republic, and erecting an imperial establishment upon its ruins. An empire has been proclaimed, and an emperor elected, and the sword is being glutted to sustain that empire against a bloody resistance which may take years to overcome. Napoleon, having gained possession of the silver-fields of Potosi, is most probably aiming at the annexation of California and Sonora to the French dominions. He is desirous of a French colony and foothold on the coast of the Pacific, and will doubtless make efforts to accomplish it. Having set at defiance the decrees of the "Holy Alliance," of the Old World, he has not hesitated to tread under foot the "Monroe doctrine" of the New. It would seem, also, as if these French movements on this continent were about to involve still further hostile complications. The motion has been offered and entertained, in our Congress, to declare these aggressions in Mexico unfriendly to the United States, to insist on the withdrawal of the French forces from Mexican territory, and unless this withdrawal takes place before the 15th of March next, to declare war against France.

The emperor is also largely involved in the contest in Cochin China. And the failure of his proposition of a grand congress of European sovereigns at Paris, in consequence of England's refusal to enter it, has caused her to be branded as an enemy to liberty and the happiness of the human race, and is extensively announced as the forerunner of "a universal war of the peoples against their sovereigns."

The proposed congress itself was the product of a great plan to compromise lawless revolution with existing despotism. The people of all the nations have for a long time had a growing determination to be free. But the nations of freedom which look to the abjuration of all bonds of religion and government, society and order, have more than once proven themselves the breeders of worse evils than those against which they protested. Revolutionists have grown wiser since their first experiments. They are now for compromise. They say to the existing regime, "Let us come to terms. Let democratic principles prevail, and we will agree to have them sustained and protected by a strong central dictatorship." Hence the idea of "the liberty of the peoples" under one great confederate empire over all Christendom, with the democratic emperor of France at its head. Hence the proposed congress which was simply a bid to legitimate and enthrone revolution—a thing which has just now been determined, and which its projectors are bent to accomplish by one means and another, proclaiming peace and liberty with the sword unsheathed, and with vengeance and chains for all hinderers of their purposes. Such is now the spirit of the most vigorous movements in the world of European politics.

On the 5th of November last, the day on which England celebrates her deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot and popery, Napoleon delivered his imperial address, which may justly be taken as the inauguration manifesto of the new alliance. He then said, "The treaties of 1815 have ceased to exist." He thus expressed a literal and momentous fact, which he shows he appreciates, and upon which he indicates his purpose to proceed. That one little sentence covers the political history of a century, and put Europe back into the days of the French Revolution and the first Napoleonic empire. We may, therefore, look for the putting forth of these same revolutionary ideas, guided by that same Napoleonic mind, made wiser by experience, and sustained by a wider influence, deeper scheme, and a firmer compact. Says one of the London journals, "The emperor has crossed the Rubicon; and he has crossed it with the Revolution for his ally. We are on the eve of momentous events."

And besides the dangers which are investing England from this source, with her vast colonial possessions, she is seldom without some military contest on hand. There is her continual periodic war in South Africa. There is the rebellion in New Zealand. There is the revolt in India, which so far from being settled, is becoming much more serious than was expected. There is entanglement still with China. And there is actual war with Japan.

There is a lull in the disturbances in Italy; but she is endeavoring to place her finances in a safe condition, without diminishing her defences. Her army is four hundred thousand strong. Her fleet is being increased, and things are ripening for more bloodshed and trouble there.

Accounts from the East tell us that Turkey is to be invaded. Russia is throwing half her army into the provinces bordering on the Black Sea, preparing to invade Armenia, and to conduct an expedition to the Caspian. She has formed an alliance with Servia and the Principalities for the invasion of Bulgaria, and placed her best general in command of her Southern armies. France, instead of undertaking to hinder her now, may rather be expected to combine with her in her Eastern schemes. Austria is really with her.

Poland is being desolated by bloody, civil war, which has already continued for a year, and which has but little prospect of success to the insurgents, or interference from abroad to put them down.

A revolutionary manifesto has been recently placarded in the principal towns of Hungary, also, announcing the establishment of a new organization for the independence of Hungarians, of which Kossuth is said to be the head, betokening another bloody uprising.

In Germany, the Schleswig-Holstein question is causing much anxiety, and is very likely to end in war. Measures are being taken at Berlin for calling under arms the Sixth and Tenth military divisions, as their radius of recruiting and garrisoning is the nearest to Holstein. And everywhere the spirit of war is rife.

Surveying, then, this excited, exciting, and threatening state of things the world over,—the multitudes of men engaged in deadly strife, and the multitudes more in arms and at the command of leaders preparing to give the word which at any moment may make the vast world one field of blood,—the fearful activity of agencies and elements which have been the deprecation of wise and good men of all ages,—the disintegration, revolution, impiety, selfishness, and treachery, enfeebling and destroying all the fabrics and ties by which society has hitherto been preserved,—what conclusion can we draw, but that unexampled changes are at hand, and that all that Christ and his prophets have spoken respecting the last perilous times, are about to have their speedy fulfillment!

Some persuade themselves that all is well and hopeful; that the reign of evil is about at its last; and that the long-trampled plant of liberty is putting forth for its world-wide bloom; that time's great conflicts are so far over, that we have only to pursue the easy victory, to complete the emancipation of the earth from all its ills. And we would fain believe, after a voyage so long and against so many adverse storms, that we are at last touching upon the blessed shores: that at length the gates of final triumph are opening before the steady march of light and inquiry and freedom.

But every one knows, who readeth things aright, that these shores are only islands and marshes of confusion and despond, and these opening gates but flood-gates of disaster and judgment, and that continents and seas of trials and storms yet lie between us and the promised Millennium. Prophecy assures us, with unmistakable certainty, that the earth shall first be "turned upside-down," the nations scourged, shaken and deceived, and all confederations of the unsanctified finally smitten, until "the mountains shall be melted with their blood," and all people be in pain as a woman in travail!

Call it the shriek of birds who love to fly in storms: denounce it as the Jeremiad of silly people; here stand the words of God as its full warrant, so plain that one may read them while he runs. And man can no more keep back the fulfillment of these words, than pluck the stars from their places, or stay the golden chariot of the sun in the magnificence of its morning ascensions.

There have indeed, been "wars and rumors of wars" before, and revolutionary troubles, and powerful men of insatiable ambition causing disturbances and overthrowing nations, in other ages. But never to this day, has there been the same menacing and convulsed state of things, so universal in extent, so intense in degree, and connecting so directly with one centre of power and one system of ideas. More than ever in the whole history of Christendom, things are heading up to that fulness of development in the directions of prophetic indication, which argues that "the harvest" is at hand. The whole period of the personal absence of Christ from the earth is more or less characterized by the prevalence of wars, deceitful usurpations, and tribulations. But, everywhere, the Scriptures tell us that the last years of that period are to have these features ripened and intensified to a point which shall shake the world, overwhelm nations, and entail unparalleled distresses upon mankind. And the year upon which we are entering promises to be one of those years,—at least one of the years of eventful preparation for the triumph of Antichrist and the sufferings of nations. The signs and probabilities all point sufficiently in that way to make us solemn and thoughtful. These certainly are not the times for the people of God to grovel in levity, worldliness, and extravagant and luxurious living, but rather to watch and be sober. Every soul should be making ready for the Lord's coming and the day of vengeance upon the proud and Christless. As remarked by the Boston Recorder, "the great day, and its momentous events, may be a little nearer than we think. We may have but little time left for all we have planned to do for ourselves, for our friends, for the church, and for the world. Let every house, then, be put in order, and every lamp be trimmed and burning."

The Lord give us grace to attain that peace which his Holy Spirit, diligently sought and followed, alone can give; and to keep the word of his patience, that he may also keep us from that hour of trial which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth!—Prophetic Times.