Earlier text: The Coming Week of PrayerNotes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
By W. A. S.
The Hand of God in History — No. 23
Notes on Important Eras of Fulfilling Prophecy
The Coming of the Judgment-Hour
With the ending of the long period of papal supremacy, events of the latter days have come crowding in. The course of sin is not to run on indefinitely. This earth has not escaped from the hand of its Maker. The end of the world is to come, with the appearance of Christ in power and glory to reap the harvest of the earth. Through all the history of earth's warring kingdoms, events have been shaping to this great crisis, now just before us. The Lord is to take the kingdom and reign eternally . This is the bright eternal purpose that runs like a golden thread through all the ages, from paradise lost to paradise restored. The living God is master of events. The early decades of the nineteenth century were running swiftly by, with the awakening and increase of knowledge that marked the new time; and just then came yet another crisis—the greatest in the fulfilment of time prophecy since the days of the Saviour's first advent. It was the coming of the judgment-hour in heaven. The Place of the Judgment
The Scriptures teach clearly that there is a work of judgment in heaven just preceding the second coming of Christ. This is the investigative judgment, and is not to be confounded with the final executive judgment upon the wicked, which is to take place at the end of the thousand years, as described in Revelation 20. When Christ appears at his second coming, it is with a consuming glory that destroys the wicked. 2 Thess. 2:8. The righteous dead are raised to life, and the living righteous are translated:— “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. The change to immortality is wrought instantly at the coming of Christ:— “We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Cor. 15:51, 52. There is no time there for a judgment investigation. Those brought forth to life have already been “accounted worthy.” The investigation of the accounts in the books of heaven takes place in the solemn judgment review just before the end. The investigation must necessarily begin with the records of the dead, and at the close the heavenly court must pass upon the living, until the last case is called and decided. And this takes place while men and nations on earth are pursuing their wonted course, living as if time is to go on indefinitely. In vision of the very last days, the prophet heard voices in heaven saying:— “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Rev. 11:18. The prophet Daniel was shown in vision the opening of this judgment-hour8in heaven, while still the apostasy was lifting up itself against God's truth on earth, and the world was running swiftly onward toward the final day:— “I beheld till the thrones were cast down [“placed,” R. V.], and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7:9, 10. This was the wondrous scene that transpired in heaven when the hour of God's judgment came. And the sure word of prophecy fixes the time when this solemn work began in the heavenly temple. The Time of the Judgment-Hour
In the third year of Belshazzar, of Babylon, Daniel was shown the development of the great apostasy. Dan. 8:10–13. As he beheld its warfare against God's truth and his sanctuary and his people, and saw it prospering as though to triumph forever over the right, the prophet heard a voice asking: “How long shall be the vision . . . to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?” And the answer was,— “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:14. Thank God, the wrong is not forever to triumph. God gives his answer in his own good time and way. In symbolic prophecy a day stands for a year. The cry was in effect, Until when shall apostasy be allowed to work its way? When shall the Lord lift up the standard against it, and cut short its course? The reply was an assurance that at the close of the prophetic period of 2300 years there would come a work which should give God's final answer to the lifting up of error and apostasy. This long prophetic period, as we know from the seventeenth verse, must reach to the latter days; “for at the time of the end shall be the vision.” In the angel's explanation of the time feature of this vision (in the ninth chapter), this longest of the prophetic measuring lines is shown to date from the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” This commandment went forth (as was shown in the detailed study in early numbers of this series) in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, B. C. 457. Measuring from this time, 2300 full years reach to the year 1844. Then, as the sure word of prophecy declared, was to come a new development in the work of God: “Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” The cleansing of the sanctuary in the typical Levitical service was the last work of the yearly round of priestly ministry . Leviticus 16. Through the year the ministry was in the first apartment, the holy place, of the sanctuary. But on the last day of the service—and on that day only—the high priest entered the second apartment, the most holy place, and the sanctuary was cleansed from the sins that had been registered there by the sprinkled blood as penitents had come with their offerings day by day. It was the great day of atonement, really an annual day of judgment in Israel; for all who were not found right with God that day were to be cut off from his people. Lev. 23:29. The brief yearly round of the Levitical service was a “shadow,” a type, of the whole priestly ministry of Christ, our High Priest, in the true sanctuary above. The last phase of his ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, then, must be similarly a judgment work, corresponding to that final day of the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. The prophet Daniel, in the words quoted from the seventh chapter, describes the transfer of the throne and the priestly ministry from the holy place to the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary. He saw the moving throne, with its wheels of flame, “placed” for the final work. “The judgment was set, and the books were opened.” A change had taken place in the work of our High Priest. It was the opening of the great anti-typical day of the cleansing of the sanctuary that the prophet here described. When this judgment work is finished, the cases of all mankind are decided for eternity. In the camp of Israel those who were not found right with God when the high priest finished that service of cleansing the sanctuary, were cut off from part with the people of God. Even so, when the solemn work now going forward in heaven is finished, those not found right with God are forever lost. Then will apply the words of Christ:— “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly.” Rev. 22:11, 12. And this judgment work that will put an end to sin will bring the great apostasy to account before the bar of God. As the angel said to Daniel, speaking of the papal power: “The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” Dan. 7:26. This judgment-hour began in 1844. As the solemn scenes of the opening judgment were transpiring in heaven above, events of deep significance in the fulfilment of prophecy were taking place in the work of God on earth. Freedom to Worship God
By C. M. S.
THE watchword of the gospel of Christ is freedom. Liberty is the purpose of the gospel’s promulgation. With the freedom that human laws vouchsafe, there may go that most terrible bondage, the thraldom of sin. In the liberty the gospel gives, the chains are slipped from the soul as well as from the body, or are slipped from the soul in spite of the chains the body may still be compelled to wear. The soul may be gloriously free, while as yet the body is chafed and bruised and bleeding from the chains and scourgings of oppressive human laws.9 Liberty flows out of the gospel like water out of the riven rock, like the river of mercy from the throne of the Eternal One. Is there a righteous law on the statute-books of earth? The way for it was chiseled through the rock of oppression by the very hands that to-day in heaven bear the cruel nail prints of human oppression and bigotry. That precious privilege for which the martyrs died; that privilege which sent the Pilgrims across the stormy seas to the unexplored land of the savage, with all the ties of earth broken and flung to the pitying winds; that privilege for which every soul cries out when it has learned the lesson and the joy of true worship,—that privilege, freedom to worship God, is a fundamental bequest of our crucified and risen Saviour. But even before our Redeemer burst the shackles of the tomb, the machinery of satanic malice was set in swifter operation to crush out more effectually the hope of the race. So we find the trembling disciples gathered behind closed doors “for fear of the Jews.” So we find that stalwart Christian, Stephen, paying with his life for the exercise of that gospel-given freedom of worship. So we find the disciples and the early believers “scattered . . . everywhere” by the persecution that raged in Palestine after the resurrection of Christ. And so we find Saul “exceedingly mad” and “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” against the believers in Christ who chose to worship in accordance with their belief. But that was the religion of ceremony, warring against the religion of soul; and wherever religion has deteriorated into form and ceremony, it has found use for invective, hatred, “threatenings and slaughter,” with all the body-bruising accompaniments of thumbscrew, rack, fire, and dungeon. In proportion as the light of the gospel of Christ has permeated the darkness of this world, those instruments of oppression and that unchristian spirit have slunk away into the darkness where they were conceived. Following the persecution of the early Christians by Jewish officials came that organized and legalized oppression of centuries under the iron monarchy of Rome, with occasional rifts of light followed by denser gatherings of the clouds of darkness. Then came that long, unrelieved, persistent campaign of a backslidden church with a formal religion to grind down, and, literally, in the language of God’s Word, to “wear out” the company who clung to their God-given bequest of religious freedom. That was a terrible struggle,—a long struggle in the darkness, out of which there came but faint sounds to tell of the cruel work that was being done. Then the dawn of a new day began to break, and O, what a record that long, pitiless night had made for itself! What myriads of human lives snuffed out in the name of religion because men claiming to be Christians would not hear the voice of Christ, would not heed the precepts which he enunciated, would not practise the principles which he in love pronounced! In the dawning of that day God opened a door in another land—opened it and flung it wide, as wide as the great sea that rolled between the lands of “civilized savagery” and the lands of the untutored savage. That highway to liberty was lashed by no gale so fierce as the storms that surged over Europe, seeking to drive upon the rocks of death every mariner who sought to guide his bark into the true harbor of refuge. The wildest sea is merciful beside the wrath of him who pretends to sit in the place of God. If God had treated men as men have treated one another, the race would have perished in the ages gone by. But because of the great love wherewith he loved us, he has given us, over and over again, the principles of love and justice and truth and mercy and liberty. He not only gave us those principles in written form, but sent One to us, to be with us and among us, who himself was those principles incarnate. His mission was to free men in the kingdoms of this world, and to save them out of the kingdoms of this world, so they might enter the kingdom of the eternal world; and incidental to that mission was the teaching of men how to conduct themselves toward their fellow men. His personally illustrated principles of doing for another what we would have another do for us, is but the principle of gospel liberty at work. He taught men that, and some of them learned it. But some of those who sought liberty in the New World had not learned it. They would turn the shrine of spiritual soul liberty into a shamble of corporal oppression and soul imprisonment. They would shackle the soul, and put a padlock on the door of the mind, and establish their own dark ages at the very portals of liberty. But God would not permit that thing to take root here. The waves of ecclesiastical domination over the conscience and the soul had reached the shore-line beyond which they might not pass. When that new nation arose out of the soil of liberty hunger, some of that day had learned the lesson; and in the same precious document in which they declared their bodily freedom, are set forth the principles of equality and justice which the Word of God made known to the world. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That the men who established this nation intended that liberty to cover the liberty of conscience is shown in the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That was the principle upon which the nation stood. That the States have not fully recognized the principles laid down in the Declaration, nor practised those declared in the national Constitution, is a matter of deepest regret. When State laws have permitted the fining and imprisonment of men for the peaceful exercise of their religious faith, they have been following the example of ancient papal states more than the principles of their own great Declaration and Constitution. It is the justice of the great principles then announced to the world that makes the fourth day of July a day worthy of memory. Such principles are eternal. They will shine with undiminished splendor when the very memory of bigotry, oppression, and soul slavery has perished from the rejuvenated universe. But there is a sad picture which presents itself before our eyes to-day. The names of Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Lincoln are inseparably linked with the righteous foundation principles of the government of the United States. On those principles they stood and for them they labored. The nation can not repudiate the principles without repudiating also the memory of the men who gave their all in their defense. The New World set before the Old a worthy example, a noble influence, in the matter of human rights; and that example and that influence have done much to ameliorate the conditions of the common people in the Old World; but the nation has drifted far from those righteous principles, and has set its face toward the East, to follow the example of that other republic which ruled nations outside its borders, permitted the oppression of the people for cause of conscience, and went down to ruin. And in these latter days this nation, founded upon the principles of the separation of church and state, has done in effect what its Constitution forbids,—established religion by a ruling of its highest judicial body. That lowers the standard of the nation to the standard of the States in the matter of religion by law. We see a sweeping retrogression toward the principles that were dominant in the world before Columbia’s light was set upon its lofty tower. It looks toward the dawning of that day when this nation will “both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Rev. 13:15. That is religious oppression, and that language is used concerning the nation in which we live, and the forces are already in training that will bring it about. From oppression to liberty and back again, is the prophetic outlook for this country, and the trend of events shows that the prophecy is true. It is a time for the Christian to have, to exercise, and to teach the principles of true liberty of body and soul as never before, that the world may see and choose which it will have, freedom or bondage, light or darkness, life or death. C. M. S. Grave Crisis in Europe
By F. M. W.
It is not alone in the religious life of the people that there is marked unrest at the present time. Turning to the political situation, we are confronted with the workings of the same disintegrating principles. International complications and internal dissensions continually make uneasy the heads that wear the crowns. The present political situation is anything but reassuring. Nineteen hundred twelve is not yet rid of the heritage of political perplexity descending to it from the preceding year. The great revolutionary upheaval in China is not wholly past history. Conditions in that unhappy empire are still unsettled, and the new republic is far from being recognized as stable and permanent. The same is true of conditions in the Mexican republic. The year 1911 witnessed the overthrow of the Diaz government. The administration of President Madero promised great things in the pacification of the country, and in the correction of many abuses. How signally efforts at pacification have failed the long-drawn-out and still-existing struggle loudly emphasizes. Added to these complications in the western continent have been the revolution in Cuba, and the still more recent trouble in Central America, demanding the active interference of the great American republic. The war between Italy and Turkey has dragged wearily10on. Unlike preceding Turkish imbroglios, the European powers have seemed loath to interfere, and have manifested but little interest in bringing the conflict to a conclusion. Propositions looking toward a peace settlement have been made. It is believed that the war is practically over. The last few days have served to inject a new and exceedingly grave element of danger into the European situation. The small states of the Balkan Peninsula, the so-called “cockpit of Europe” in which trouble is always fermenting, have evidently seen in the present situation an opportunity for making new demands upon the Turkish power for greater liberty for their brethren in Turkey. Thirty-four years ago, in what is known as the Treaty of Berlin, it was distinctly provided that the powers of Europe would see to the realization of reforms in the administration of European Turkey. Upon this assurance the little states of the Balkan Peninsula fondly expected the reform of many abuses which existed. For these reforms they evidently have waited in vain. It was believed that under the rule of the Young Turk party greater liberty would be accorded, but it seems that the reverse has been true. The last few days have witnessed the mobilization of the armies of Montenegro, Servia, and Bulgaria, and with these Greece is uniting her forces for a joint attack upon Turkey. The war spirit is at fever heat. Not since 1870 have there been so many men under arms as are now facing one another in this new alignment of forces. Frederick Werner, special correspondent from Berlin for the Cincinnati Inquirer, writing to that paper under date of October 19, says:— Never has Europe passed through more troublesome weeks than the last two; never has the cabinet in every capital in Europe worked harder or against heavier odds to maintain peace than at present, and never has the general political situation looked more desperate. All over Europe the governments pray for peace, and outside of the Balkans there is not a people that does not share the wishes of its government and abhor the very idea of war. Still, war is surely being forced upon them. The statesmen are suffering from their mistakes of the past, and dearly may the great powers now be called to pay for their mutual jealousy, which has prevented them from forcing the Turkish government to carry out the reforms in Albania and Macedonia which were promised time and again.
Every effort will be made by the concert of powers to restrain the conflict within the borders of the Balkan Peninsula. The interests involved, however, are so far-reaching that it will be difficult to do this. Both Austria and Russia have large interests in the Balkan States, and it is altogether improbable that they will willingly see these interests sacrificed without protest or interference. A general feeling seems to prevail that, whatever may be the immediate outcome of the embarrassing dilemma in which Turkey finds herself, one more step will be taken toward her ultimate elimination from the map of Europe. The Wall Street Journal in speaking of the problem says:— It contains, among other vital issues, the land road to British India; Austrian domination in the Adriatic through the possession of the Turkish coast line down to and including Salonica; the autonomy of Christian races in Turkey, like the Albanians and the Macedonians; and the control of the entrance to the Black Sea.
The Drying Up of the Euphrates
Little by little the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire has been taking place. Upon this process of dissolution the New York Journal of Commerce comments as follows:— Greece, Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria successively freed themselves from Ottoman sovereignty; Albania has been in a state of chronic unrest, and Arabia always unruly. Cyprus and Egypt are in English hands, Tunis is under a French protectorate, Bessarabia is a Russian province, Bosnia-Herzegovina is a territory of Austria-Hungary, and Tripoli has finally become an Italian colony. The work of disintegration would probably have been pushed further if the absorptive designs of the powers were not neutralized by their jealousies.
It is too much to expect that any of the little states of the Balkan Peninsula will enrich itself from Turkish territory as a result of the present conflict. Indeed, according to the terms of the Berlin Treaty, the great powers of Europe pledged themselves that in event of war between the Balkan States and the Ottoman empire there would be permitted no modification of the territorial limits of European Turkey. If any nation is to benefit from the continued drying up of the Ottoman dominions in Europe, it will be one of the great powers that for years have looked with jealous eye upon the rich possessions of Turkey. Of this the Washington Herald of October 21, says:— Just what designs lie back of the permission which the powers of Europe appear to have given for the war in the Balkans will not be evident for some time. The causes and expected results are far from being on the surface. What is plain is that astute statesmen at Berlin, Paris, London, and St. Petersburg have begun a series of international jockeyings, out of which the “little brothers,” who actually spill their blood, will derive only incidental benefit, perhaps none at all. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the Ottoman is driven from the Bosporus back into Asia, whence he came a conqueror centuries ago. While this would not be mourned by Christianity, the question which of the great powers should occupy the most strategic spot near the Levant could not possibly be decided without an appeal to arms by four or five nations. Does any one suppose that any of the small Balkan States will be permitted to seize a prize that half a dozen big states have unsuccessfully coveted for centuries? Would Britain consent to have Russia controlling the outlet into the Dardanelles and the Ægean Sea, with the advantage this would give her arch-enemy in Asia and rival for the Indian Ocean commerce to block the Suez Canal, the short route to India and Australia and all that this would mean to England?—Never! Yet Russia, in whose territory are the three mouths of the Danube, in Bessarabia, to the north of Roumania; Russia, with her frowning Sebastopol fortifications in the Crimea; Russia, which some day is bound to make good the prophecy of Peter the Great; Russia, which has all the advantages of strength and wealth on her side, will scarcely allow England to be given the protectorate—a favored English method of grabbing countries—over Constantinople.
National Rivalry and Jealousy
The events in the Near East are being watched by thousands with intense interest at the present time. For years the atrocities perpetrated by the Turkish government upon its Christian subjects have enlisted for the persecuted ones deepest sympathy, and created an insistent demand that the persecutor be severely taken to task. It has been felt also that the Oriental civilization of Turkey stood as a check to the spirit of commercial intercourse between the East and the West. The only thing that has sustained Turkey and prevented just retribution being visited upon her has been the jealousy of the European powers. Every nation in Europe has been quite willing that the so-called Sick Man of the East should come to his end, but the questions have always been, Who shall fall heir to his dominions? What nation shall control the great highway to the wealth and commerce of the East? Who shall rule on the Bosporus and control the passage to the Black Sea? There will come a time, however, when if these questions can not be settled by international agreement, and they probably never can, it must be left to the chances of war. In this conflict, as in others that have preceded it, Turkey seems to be the prey around which the vultures are gathering. What a day may bring forth the most far-seeing statesman is unable to tell. There are so many interests involved, international relationships are so complicated and delicately balanced, that the slightest readjustment may serve to start the fire of long-suppressed animosity and national rivalry, and the end be a widespread conflagration. The great increase in naval expenditure during the last decade is indicated11by the following naval estimates of the world's eight leading nations for 1902 as compared with 1912:— In round figures the aggregate naval estimates of the eight powers in 1902 were $454,300,000. In 1912 they are $869,000,000. Great Britain naturally heads the list with $154,000,000 in 1901 and $225,000,000 in 1912. Next comes the United States with $80,000,000 increased to $134,000,000. Germany jumped from $47,000,000 to $113,000,000; Japan, from $22,000,000 to $47,000,000; Austria, from $9,000,000 to $29,000,000; Russia, from $46,000,000 to $88,000,000; France, from $69,000,000 to $90,000,000; Italy, from $24,000,000 to $42,000,000. We are living in thrilling days in this earth's history, in a period of great national and international unrest, affecting in some degree and in some manner practically every nation under heaven. The governments of earth are quite as much concerned over revolution from within as attacks from without. Strong and growing elements of disorganization must be contended with. Conservative ideas of government are being displaced by radical teachings which would cast aside the old-time barriers of safety, and, like the closing days of imperial Rome, make appeal to the passions and prejudices of popular acclaim. License is demanded in the name of liberty. In consequence of this growing disregard of just and stable principles of government, as seen in the legislative assembly, in the judiciary, and in the work of the executive, as never before in the history of men can it be said that “judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Yea, truth falleth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey.” As never before the children of God need to place their trust in the Most High, realizing that he rules in the affairs of men. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. . . . Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Ps. 46: 1-3, 10. F. M. W. Financial Stringency of Church Funds
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS are not the only people who are called upon to meet deficits in church funds. The mission board of the Methodist Episcopal Church is now facing a deficit of nearly two hundred forty thousand dollars. Earnest appeals are being made through their church papers for the raising of this amount. The great foundation principle of the gospel of Christ is that of giving. God the Father gave his only begotten Son to die for a lost world; the Son gave himself for the same noble purpose. The plan of salvation is laid in sacrifice. As through God's gracious provision and the benevolence of his children the light of the gospel has come to us, so we are in turn made debtors to others to give to them the light of truth which we ourselves have received. Let us never tire of giving of our means to spread the blessed gospel. Let us rejoice that God affords us an opportunity to become co-laborers with him in this blessed sacrifice. THE general European situation is well summed up as follows in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Times illustrated weekly, sent us by the courtesy of Elder C. E. Leland:— In spite of all the earnest appeals from the peace advocates of to-day for peace on earth, it looks as if we might be on the very edge of another great struggle between the nations of the earth. We do not mean to play the rôle of the alarmist nor to raise the notion that this war will break out to-morrow or next year, or perhaps within seven years, or even at all, for sure. But we do think this it is not unwise to take due cognizance of the conditions that exist, and point out the disturbing elements in world politics. The war between Italy and Turkey may seem a small affair, and yet it is keeping every head of every government and every chancellery in Europe awake nights and busy days, fearful of what may break out of that insignificant brush over Tripoli. We have the heads of European governments running from one capital to another on secret missions. Italy has possessed herself of certain islands in the Levant which belong to Turkey. Every government in Europe is hoping against hope that this war may cease, and yet not one of them dares touch the subject of reconciliation with its little finger or with the end of a forty-foot pole. Turkey has been left isolated, Great Britain not daring to interfere in her behalf, Germany having cast her off, and Austria on the west ready to pounce upon the Balkan States, and Russia on the east ready to cross the Caucasus. There is lined up on one side in a loosely constructed entente Great Britain, France, and Russia, and on the other Germany, Austria, and Italy. Germany is afraid to advise Italy to make peace with Turkey except on Italy’s own terms, for fear the triple alliance may go to pieces; and France dares not say a word on behalf of Turkey, lest the threads that tie Russia to the French cause may be disrupted. Meantime Turkey sits grimly defiant upon the Bosporus, pointing out to Great Britain, and to France, too, the danger of angering the 300,000,000 followers of Mohammed, who look upon the sultan of Turkey as the earthly head of their religion. These Mohammedans are fanatical in their religious bigotry, and Great Britain has to deal with them in India and Africa, and France has to keep them quiet in Algeria and Morocco. Meantime Austria inaugurates a new military scheme which doubles its effective army, raising the peace standard to 350,000 and the war footing to 1,500,000. On the other side Russia votes $645,000,000 on a plan to construct in the short period of five years a new navy that, if the money is properly spent, will give the great northern bear really the greatest naval force in the world. For centuries the Muscovite empire has been hemmed in from open harbors, and thereby prevented from developing oversea commerce. Germany blocks her way on the Baltic, Turkey on the Euxine, Great Britain on the Persian Gulf, and Japan on the Pacific coast. Since the days of Peter the Great, Russia has been trying to reach the open sea, but has been checked in every attempt. What is the purpose of the new navy Russia proposes to create? Is it that she sees in the isolation of Turkey an opportunity to accomplish the purpose she had in mind when the Crimean war was waged by the allied forces of Italy, France, and Great Britain to keep the great empire from securing Constantinople, and was revived some forty years ago in the Balkan war, when with Russia and her armies at the walls of Constantinople the powers again stepped in and forbade her to enjoy the fruits of victory? If it is, then Armageddon is about to be charted. THAT there is strong probability that in the near future the Jesuits will again be permitted to carry forward their propaganda in Germany is recognized in many quarters. Speaking of this and of the reasons that will lead to according them a renewal of their privileges, the Continent of Sept. 26, 1912, says:— It is felt among Protestants in Germany that there is considerable danger of a readmission of Jesuits to that empire, from which they were excluded in 1872. The Center party of the German Reichstag,—which is the Roman Catholic section of the imperial parliament,—though violently opposed to the socialists and lamenting in general the recent extraordinary addition to the numbers of their socialist colleagues, appear to have conceived the idea that they can make a profitable alliance with them in this one particular. As is well known, the socialists are more than willing to annoy the German emperor in every way possible, and though they could have no other interest in the readmission of the Jesuits to Germany, this reason alone is considered by some of them at least to be sufficient excuse for joining hands with their Romanist fellow members on this issue. These parties are the two largest groups in the Reichstag, and united they would constitute an overwhelming majority. The expulsion of the Jesuits was Bismarck's first stroke in the fierce kulturkampf, the great political conflict with the Vatican, on which he launched out immediately after the present German empire was organized, at the close of the Franco-Prussian war. Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life
By N. W. VINCENT
CHRIST is the way, his Word we bless,
Highway of peace and holiness.
With Christ our wisdom, his employ
Leads up to heaven and perfect joy. Christ is the truth, our souls are free
When we believe, dear Lord, in thee;
Error and darkness take their flight
While we abide in thee, our Light. Christ is the life, the God of love,
Our Father's gift from heaven above.
While dead to sin, we live by thee;
Our way, truth, life, forever be.