TOO PLAIN TO BE DENIED

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, February 24, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 8

TOO PLAIN TO BE DENIED.

Our Saviour very distinctly described certain features which should characterize the last days. Corruption, depravity, and every species of crime new and old, were to reach an alarming degree of development, strange phenomena would appear in the physical world, and all the signs would give to the future so ominous an outlook that the hearts of men would sink within them through fear of what might at any moment come upon them.

These features are all brought out in bold and startling relief at the present time; so much so that multitudes who do not believe at all that we have reached the last days, cannot shut their eyes to these facts, and are compelled to acknowledge that they correspond exactly to what the Saviour declared would occur in the last days. The following from the Christian Statesman, of Feb. 5, 1885, is a case in point:—

“The situation of the civilized world corresponds closely to one feature in our Saviour’s prophetic description of the last times: ‘Men’s hearts failing them for fear of the things that are coming on the earth.’ The serious damage done ten days ago by an explosion of dynamite in the Parliament Houses in London, has alarmed the whole nation. All public buildings are being vigilantly guarded; railroad and other public corporations are redoubling their precautions for safety; the police force is being multiplied, and men go to sleep each night as on the crater of a volcano.

“The nervous tension of the public mind in London was illustrated last Sabbath by a startling natural phenomenon. A storm of wind and rain had raged all day, and at 7:30 P. M., it culminated in a terrific peal of thunder. The report startled the whole metropolis, and it was rumored that the General Post-office had been blown up. For a long time there was great excitement, and a great crowd collected about the office.

“Early in the morning of the same day, a dry goods store in Grand Street, New York, was badly shattered by a dynamite explosion. The crime is charged upon some clerks who, had been dismissed, and whom the proprietors had repeatedly refused to reinstate, although various labor unions had interested themselves in their behalf.

“The ease and cheapness with which this or similar terrible explosives may be manufactured, is a cause of general anxiety. A socialist orator said on a recent Sabbath in Chicago: ‘A little hog’s grease and a little nitric acid make a terrible explosive. Ten cents’ worth is sufficient to wreck a building.’ His words may be an exaggeration, but they refer to what is a striking and unquestionable fact. When taken in connection with the discontent of the working classes, the waste of drink, the pressure of poverty, the demoralization and brutality and readiness for crime which are widely apparent, the prevalence of atheistic sentiments, the contempt into which government has fallen through the corruption and selfishness of politicians and their palpable disregard for the public good, it is evident we have all around us the materials for fearful social developments.”