June, 1940
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
207
Prophetic Clouds-
Lined!
By LOUIS S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, California Columbia University, at the same time, on this side of the Atlantic, awoke •to remark: “If the moral principle is to be overcome by economic aspiration, then our children and grandchildren will not have long to wait for the collapse of what we have been ac customed to call western civiliza tion, now some three thousand years old.” Who does not know that “economic aspiration” has utterly crushed to earth all the “moral principles” for which thé world of men a few years ago still had some respect? The dictators that ride the saddles in Europe are moral bankrupts. Question: Was Dr. Butler right ? Then what of the morrow ? What are the little children of today facing? Sir Aukland Geddes broke into the chorus of gloom to remark: “In Europe we know that an age is dying.” And, perhaps—yes, probably, Sir Auk land was right—“an age is dying” ! And, possibly, it is an “age” at whose death bed we need not mourn! General Liggett, of World War fame, did not detract from the gloom of the prophets of five and ten years ago. He confessed his pessimism in saying: “The next war, I think, may see the end of our civilization, for we are only half-civilized, if that much. The World War just about wrecked this old world. The next war may do it completely—send ns into another dark age.” May we not agree with General Lig gett—the “next war” now on will “send us into another age”—but will it be “dark” ? The Englishmen above quoted might have derived a bit of cheer had they turned to their famous Poet Laureate,
M ORE than five years ago, Lord Viscount Cecil said to his fel low Britons: “It is not exaggeration to say with Mr. Baldwin that the next war will mean the destruction of our civilization. Yet to that catastrophe we are steadily moving.” “To that catastrophe” we seem to nave come! Still longer ago, ex-premier David Lloyd-George was considered as an old man talking in his dotage, when he said: “I cannot say what is going to happen to the world. I am alarmed. I will go so far as to say I am frightened at what will happen. . . . It seems to me the world is heading for a very great catastro phe.” We are no longer “heading.” Think ing men inform us that we are moving head-on toward it. A t about the same time that these comments were uttered, another well- known Englishman was likewise ex pressing himself: ‘‘I cannot resist the profound con viction that unless we in this coun try do something very drastic about . it, an explosion will take place which will wreck the whole totter ing fabric of civilization.” Apparently, nothing “very drastic” was done 'about it the “explosion” is on, and the first shot-riddled rags of the “fabric of civilization” are falling out of the gas-laden skies of Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Finland, Nor way, Holland, and Belgium. Nicholas Murray Butler, head of
Alfred Tennyson, who, many years be fore, proved to be a bit keener of eye, and wrote: “ For I dipt into the future, far as hu man eye could see, Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic sails; Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue. Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm, With the standards o f- the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm, Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, . and the battle flags were furled In the Parliament of Man, the Federa tion of the World.” Is it to be admitted that the great Poet Laureate was more far-visioned than the statesmen that followed him? And as we write these words, the heav ens are filled with the shouting of men gone mad in war, and there rains “ a ghastly dew from the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue.” And then with one farther dip into the future, doubtless, “far as human eye could see,” he actualized ‘The Parlia ment of Man, the Federation of the World.” World Federation Prophesied But the wisdom of the great Poet Laureate, great as it was, was not—is not—the wisdom of God. True, the “Parliament of Man” will come. It, we believe, must come soon. What other way will there be out, if unregenerate man is to salvage even some remnant
*Pastor , First Brethren Church.
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