The Mighty Titanic

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 7, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 19.

"The Mighty Titanic"

ON the evening that the Titanic went down, a dinner was served at which the general toast was, "The mighty Titanic." It is stated that at this dinner much wine was dispensed. Preparations had already been made for a great banquet in New York when the Titanic should arrive.

The Titanic's officers were cognizant of the fact that three mammoth icebergs menaced their pathway. They had received warning more than six hours before the disaster, that they were liable at any time to meet one of these icebergs. The wireless operator of the Titanic admitted, in fact, that as early as 4:30 o'clock a vessel had called him with an "ice report." But these warnings were not taken very seriously.

And after the iceberg was struck by the Titanic, her officers and crew were so confident she was "unsinkable" that they did not take the matter with overgreat alarm. And, as people were passed out to the life-boats, many of those who remained behind laughingly said that they would be safer where they were. One of the women that was saved from the wreck said, before the congressional investigating committee, that when she went into the life-boat she did it more as "a lark" than anything else.

Here was one of the mightiest achievements of the greatest men of the twentieth century. It was stated over and over again that the Titanic as she started on her maiden voyage was "the last word" in ship-building; and yet this greatest achievement of man is ground to pieces among some of the very smallest forces of nature. Those icebergs were very large, it is true, when compared with the Titanic, but how small when compared with the great things of nature that God has created! This age has grown very boastful of its achievements, but the failure of the Titanic under such circumstances should cause men to place the veil of modesty over their faces. If the Titanic had been driven against this iceberg in a furious storm something might have been said in her favor. But when the sea was the calmest, and the sky was the clearest, she met her doom.

How such things as this should impress our minds with the fact that, after all, the greatness of mankind is only in proportion to his connection with the Infinite One! If he recognizes and accepts the fact that he is a son of the infinite God, then he becomes truly great. But otherwise man, with his mighty achievements, is very insignificant.

There is another wonderful lesson in the sinking of the Titanic. After she struck that iceberg, she represented in a very marked way the condition of this whole world. The sins and the crimes of men in this time have given the death-dealing blow to this world, and she is doomed. The only hope is in launching the life-boats; and the only chance for rescue is for those who will accept of the help thus proffered. The people of this world, like the voyagers on the Titanic, are calling her the "unsinkable," and saying that she can not go down, and that she is growing better and better; whereas those who closely observe the facts, and especially if they observe these facts in the light of God's Word, know that she has already reached the place where she must soon sink to her everlasting doom.

We need to study the conditions of this time, in order that we may understand them in their true light.

The "ice report" from the prophecies of the Bible has been given, the dangers ahead have been pointed out. There can be no mistake in regard to the signals. Without doubt the doom of this world lies just before, and without doubt the men of this world are seeking to do everything in their power to shut away from their vision the facts of the great issue.