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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
December, 1936
people of a large city against bombs and gas . . . I f out of one hundred human lives, we can save one half, the efforts made and the results obtained will be a just recompense.” This is not as bad as hysterical assertions that a fleet of planes can wipe out London or Paris, but it is bad enough. Every other person a fatality! It is no wonder, then, that the governments of virtually all Europe are hastily fum bling with preparations for the worst. If such was the state of mind through all Europe a year ago, what must the state of mind be today? Is this a world o f men, or is it a world of ferocious beasts parading in the skins of human beings? Think of the peoples of a whole continent tossing at night on their beds, wondering how best to protect babies on their mothers’ breasts from being horribly strangled to death by gases that cause fatal hemor rhages— agonizing death! N o wonder that G od ’s own photograph of the Gentile nations is that of cruel, rapa cious beasts with jaws afoam and dripping with the blood of men, women and tender babes! Consider the fullness of the picture in Daniel 7. Unless a just God has abdicated His throne in the heavens, a judgment, as just as it will be terrible, awaits the nations of the earth! And how fares the world beyond the boundaries of this arsenal known as “ Europe” ? In Afric-land— in Ethiopia, Egypt, the northern Moslem states, and elsewhere— with such tools as they have, they are busy carving their instru ments of death. Across the Red Sea,- the sons of Jacob and Esau are shedding each other’s blood upon the sacred soil of their father Abraham. And this is the most portentous blood letting of the hour, of which we cannot say more now. On the other side of the great Asiatic continent lies Japan. Last year, Japan’s aggressive militaristic forces drained an already overtaxed people of $402,000,000— a bewildering 70% of all government revenues. This year, while the nation’s harassed business men gasp, General Juichi Terauchi smiles and calls for an increase of only 27 % ! Japan’s 27,000,000 tax-crushed peasants also sur render every year 600,000 of their sons between the ages of twenty and twenty-two, into the maw of the Mars- worshiping forces of the empire. In China, military training has been ordered in all high schools. Hu Shih, China’s leading philosopher, writes: “ Even I, who have been twenty-five years a pacifist, now think that if China is forced to a war with Japan, I will support it. Japan is forcing China to fight-—I can see no other way.” From the. Rio Grande south, the Western Hemisphere is seldom without the smell of powder in the air. North of the Rio Grande lies the United States. . Our last Con gress voted to its naval forces alone the largest peace time naval appropriation in our history-4|jn excess of $600,000,000. A report to the Northern Baptist Conven tion, convened in St. Louis several months ago, called the United States “ the most militaristic nation in the world,” basing its assertion upon the government’s “ expenditures for militarism.” “W e , the citizens,” the report declared, “ never were subjected to so much military propaganda, except during the W orld War, as we are now.” Th e world was warned on M ay 21, at no less a place than Geneva, by no less a personage than Harold B. But ler, Director of the International Labor Office, and in no less a document than the Director’s Annual Report to the International Labor Conference— that the fear of war, imminent or remote, was blighting every transaction based upon a calculation of the future. He reported: In every continent, preparations for war on the largest scale are being pushed with feverish energy under the spur of panic. Nor is it merely colossal expenditure on armaments
which is involved. In addition, industrial and agricultural measures are being adopted which aim at insuring the larg est attainable degree of national self-sufficiency in foodstuffs, raw materials and productive capacity in the event of w a r.' . . . It is certainly true that the menace of a fresh outbreak cannot be conjured away. “ T h e r e A re N o S a v io u r s ” Four years ago (June 17, 1932), The Daily Express (London) printed an interview with Premier Mussolini, which, in the light of events at the present time, is inter esting and significant. II Duce criticized democracy in general, and was quite caustic in his remarks referring to the United States. A fter declaring that “ America is with out a national policy,” he smiled derisively, and said: “ Democracy is nothing. The people are nothing and can do nothing. In every country, they are weary of talk. They need men of action. They cannot save themselves; they need, saviours!" Asked where the saviours are, he re plied: "There are no saviours “What then of the future?” he was asked. “ I foresee a long series of political, economic, and mili tary wars,” was the answer. But is this new Caesar, reigning in Rome, right ? Is there nothing ahead but the awful prospect of Mars sport ing himself by churning the earth through the use of bombs and shells until the ground becomes a rotting mixture of human flesh and bone and blood and rye and wheat and stone and steel and poisoned powder smut? “ You are lucky to be an American,” said a young Austrian only a few days ago on the shore of Lake Geneva, to Wallace Carroll of the United P ress.'“ In a few years I and all my friends w ill be killed in war.” Must this horrible fear con tinue to haunt the breasts of all the world’s youth ? Is “ the god of forces” (Dan. 1 1 :38 )— Mars— to rule forever? Are there “ no saviours"? As God is still on His throne, we refuse to believe it! The dark outlook— the pessimism — the fear-Bthe hopelessness— is man’s, not G od ’s! There may be “ no saviours” of the kind that Mussolini meant, but there is a Saviour! The vision of the prophet did not end with the avalanche o f blood gushing from the ‘(multitudes” crushed into the awful “ press” of Armageddon. It ended with the vision of Judah’s Lion roaring out of the heavens, down upon the nations whose “ wickedness is great” -—Judah’s Lion, “ the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (Joel 3 :16). Verily, “ the Desire of all nations shall come,” and “ in this place [Jerusalem] w ill I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts” ( Hag. 2:7, 9 ). And when peace copies to Jerusalem, the Victor o f Armageddon, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, “ shall speak peace unto the na tions” (Zech. 9:10, R .V .), and “ neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2 :4 ). O Lord God of heaven and earth, hear quickly the prayer of Thy prophet, and "Cause thy mighty ones to come down"! Neglecting the Bible When we say we have not time to read the Bible, have we honestly faced this searching word that the real trouble is “ not want of time, but want of heart” ? Even in our crowded lives of today we do the things that we most want to do. When we have yielded ourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and are trusting Him wholly, moment by moment, we shall esteem the words of His mouth more than our necessary food, and His W o rd will be unto us the joy and rejoicing of our heart. —Sunday School Times.
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