p. 16 | Signs of the Times, December 5, 1916 (12/5/1916)

Earlier text: Destructive Earthquakes in the Christian Era

Four Routes East!

SUNSET ROUTE: Along the Mission Trail, and through the Dixieland of song and story. To New Orleans via Los Angeles, El Paso, Houston, and San Antonio. Southern Pacific Atlantic Steamship Line, sailings Wednesdays and Saturdays, New Orleans to New York.

OGDEN ROUTE: Across the Sierras and over the Great Salt Lake Cut-off. To Chicago via Ogden and Omaha; also to St. Louis via Ogden, Denver, and Kansas City.

SHASTA ROUTE: Skirting majestic Mount Shasta and crossing the Siskiyous. To Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle.

EL PASO ROUTE: The “Golden State Route” through the Southwest. To Chicago and St. Louis via Los Angeles, Tucson, El Paso, and Kansas City.

Oil Burning Locomotives

No Cinders, No Smudge, No Annoying Smoke

Unexcelled Dining Car Service

FOR FARES AND TRAIN SERVICE ASK ANY AGENT

SOUTHERN PACIFIC

Write for folder on the Apache Trail of Arizona

Federate to Enforce Peace

IN his Cincinnati speech, President Wilson said, “This is the last war that involves the world, that the United States can keep out of.” He assigned as his reason for making this statement, that “the business of neutrality is over,” and that “war now has such a scale that the position of neutrals sooner or later becomes intolerable.”

Any man who stands at the head of a great nation like this, in times such as these through which the world is passing, is in a position to feel the pulsations of war as perhaps few of us can appreciate. With his opportunities to observe the trend of events throughout the world, Mr. Wilson reaches the conclusion, as announced at Cincinnati, that if a large part of the great nations of earth again become involved in war, it must spread to take in every nation on earth.

Mr. Wilson has never, so far as we are aware, made any utterances that would indicate that he was especially studying the prophecies of the Bible; but it is certainly very remarkable that several of the strongest prophecies that the word of God presents are those which tell of this earth’s closing its history, at the second coming of Christ, in a war that will involve every nation. All nations, according to the prophet Joel, are to be drawn to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, showing that their center of contention will be in the Holy Land; and in its last phases, this war of Armageddon will be a religious war.

Mr. Wilson, as a statesman, points out that the next war must be universal. Joel and John, as prophets, hundreds and hundreds of years ago pointed forward to the same thing. The predictions of ancient times and the conditions of to-day so perfectly fit together that we know that Armageddon cannot be far ahead; and Armageddon, when it is reached, will involve every nation on earth, and Christ’s coming then is right at hand.

In the same address, President Wilson stated that the nations of the world must get together, and say, “Nobody can hereafter be neutral as respects the disturbance of the world’s peace for an object which the world’s opinion cannot sanction.” This also presents a demand for world federation, of which several of the prophets had a view. For instance, the prophet Micah tells us what “many nations” “in the last days” will do in order that they may bring the world into the condition where “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Micah 4: 3.

The war in Europe, which broke so suddenly upon the world, and which has continued with such indescribably awful slaughter for well toward three years, is making the world shudder with horror as nothing that has ever before entered into its history has done. And men to-day will seek expedients, through federations and combinations, that will render war an impossibility; but this dream of peace can never be realized until the coming of the Prince of peace in the clouds of heaven, as He has promised. Hence these strong efforts of the world in these “last days” to federate to overcome war will merely be the fulfillment of prophecies which show that these great international movements will take place, yet that they will come to naught.

In these turbulent and strenuous times, there is much danger that the mind may become confused and terrified; but we need to stand under the strong light of divine truth, so that we may know the meaning of the things that are transpiring, and thus avoid becoming bewildered through fear.

ON November 1, an earthquake shock occurred in northern New York which was sufficiently severe to throw dishes from the shelves, and pictures from the walls. No serious damage was caused. New York is said to be out of the earthquake zone; but unusual things are happening in these times, in very many parts of the world. One way to seem to get out of the difficulty is, to blind our eyes to facts, and say that these things mean nothing. A more sensible way is, to face the facts squarely, and earnestly ask, What do they signify?

Prohibition Gaining

MICHIGAN, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska joined the prohibition states as a result of the election November 7.

Our temperance people in California, with a strong, united front, made a hard fight for prohibition in this state. This is the second recent state-wide campaign we have had in California for prohibition, the other one being two years ago.

CAPTURED SUBMARINE MINE-LAYER, AT TEMPLE PIER, LONDON

Big gains were made this year by the temperance forces over the vote that was cast two years ago. Plans are already under way for another prohibition campaign two years hence, at which time, judging from the progress already made, there will be no question but that the state will join the dry ranks. At least, we will all vigorously work to that end.

Will White and Yellow Clash?

REFERRING to “the yellow peril,” Bishop Bashford, of the M. E. Church, says, “Let us exercise such moral influence as will save the nations from a race war which, if it comes, will desolate our globe.” The bishop presents statistics to show that if the white races do not deal justly and more humanely with the yellow race, there is a possibility within the century of bringing the yellow races of the East in desolating hordes against the white races of the West.

Men are so mad in their greed for commerce, that they are likely to overlook these things, and allow such warnings as this one sent out by the bishop to go unheeded until it is too late to provide a remedy. But those who are awake to the situation in the world are aware of the fact that the second coming of Christ will provide a remedy for all these evils, regardless of the failure of all human expedients, speculations, and prophecies.

SAYS Sam Johnson, “Chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” This is a saying that we would do well to ponder.

Her Staggering Expenditures

IN introducing a bill in the Reichstag on October 27, asking for a new war credit, Count von Roedern estimated “the total expenditure of all the belligerents at $59,500,000,000, exclusive of property destroyed.” He said also, “The monthly German expenditure has risen to about $520,500,000.” That would be about $17,350,000 a day as the war expenditure of Germany alone.

On October 11, Mr. Asquith asked Parliament for an additional vote of credit, which brought the appropriations in England for the conduct of the war during this year up to $6,750,000,000. “The aggregate,” said Mr. Asquith, “since the outbreak of the war, sanctioned by thirteen votes, amounts to $15,660,000,000.” Continuing, Mr. Asquith said: “It is difficult, of course, to grasp the meaning of such a stupendous total; but it may perhaps make its significance clearer if the committee is told that since the outbreak of the war, Parliament has been asked to vote in votes of credit alone, without taking into account peace expenditure or debt charges, a sum which is rather more than the aggregate of national expenditure for the twenty years which preceded the war—the years 1894-1913—a period which included the South African war.”

Such facts and figures are staggeringly significant.

FROM the story of creation, we read the divine decree: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Gen. 1:11, 12.

The same soil, in the same climate, and with identity of both sunshine and moisture, will produce both sour apples and sweet; it will produce both black grapes and white; it will produce either oats or rye or barley; and all of this is because of the decree of the Almighty put into the seed itself. What a wonderful thing it is that so much character and individuality was placed in the tiny seed of wheat or of corn or of tree, so that it would ever tend to “produce its kind”! The facts throughout the world, and the statement of the Creator in His divine word, are in simple and clear accord.

Examine the Foundations

DR. R. A. VAN DER LAS, pastor of the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Seattle, in a recent discourse, appealed to “modern Christians to examine the foundations of their faith, and be sure they are not being undermined by doubt.” Among other things, Dr. Van der Las said: “Ours is an age of doubt, an age of criticism. Men are questioning and dissenting.” “Faith in nature has developed into a passion, while faith in God, with many, has degenerated into a cold, questioning speculation. The spirit of doubt is abroad. It is brooding over many of our youth.”

These statements by the doctor are an affirmation of what is commonly recognized everywhere. By the side of these statements, place the question of the Master, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18: 8. Or examine the statements made by Paul (2 Tim. 3: 1-5) concerning the formalisms of religion that will make the last days perilous.