December, 1933
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
423
most ominous crisis which has ever threatened the world in times o f peace. The whole world looks to us as it has never looked at a conference before, to find an agreement which will help to put an end to its distress,!” Yet that conference adjourned—getting nowhere. Consider: the Master knew perfectly the conditions which would exist, the exact state o f men’s minds, their hates, their loves, and the foundation o f all—knew it and caused it to be written as truly as any pen could write it today— told it all nearly two thousand years ago. Are we to be accused of suffering from a pipe dream if we shall now believe Him further, and when we ‘‘see these things begin to come to pass,” believe that “ the kingdom o f God is nigh at hand” (v. 3 1 )? Remember, the signs are not complete until some “ SEE these things.” Thank God for the eyes that see. The Nations Threatening Each Other “ The sea and the waves roaring” (v. 25). “ The sea and the waves”— always typical of the rest less nations, sometimes lashing each other in their fury, at other times a bit more peaceful, but never still! “ The waters which thou sawest. . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15). “ There is sor row on the sea; it cannot be quiet” (Jer. 4 9 :23)-., “ Behold, a people shall come from the north . . . and many kings . . . They shall hold the bow and the lan ce th ey are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea” (Jer. 50:41, 42). Every day’s newspapers tell us the story— the nations o f the earth, bloody “ beasts’’ (Dan. 7 :3, 12) that they are, gnaw away at their bare bones( and with hunger pangs becoming more and more acute, they growl and glower at each other from the recesses o f their ill smelling dens. It is no longer a question as to what is going to happen. It seems to be only a question as to which frothy-mouthed brute is going to have the courage to make the first rush, when instantly the whole hungry pack will be tearing out each others’ vitals! Yea, they will “ take peace from the earth . . . and . . . kill one another” (Rev. 6 :4 ). Lest we be considered unduly pessimistic, may we re mind you that practically every statesman o f earth has ex pressed a terrible fear that the world will be at war again within the next few months. So recently as November 12, President Philip Curtis Nash, o f the University o f Toledo, and until recently a director of the League o f Nations Association, told a gathering of the Toledo Council for the Cause and Cure o f War that: Mankind, not wise enough to capitalize the victory ! o f fifteen years ago, is now apprehensive that another war ten times more horrible than the last, is sure to come. Everywhere the statesmen o f earth are echoing the words of Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Britain during the World W ar: There is an economic war between all the nations, the worst the world has ever seen, and actual war is preparing. They are marching to the battlefield with the dove of peace embroidered on their banners . . . Now you can hear, if you listen, the rumbling o f the cannon under ground, getting louder and louder. This is the world we have to deal with. What is going to happen? A W orld o f Failing Hearts “Men’s hearts failing them fo r fear, and fo r looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (v. 26). That awful haunting fear o f “ what is going to hap pen” is literally terrorizing the hearts of men and women o f every class in every nation. Physicians are taking note of the abnormal number o f sudden, diseaseless deaths. “ Heart failure,” they say, “ much of which is superinduced by fear.” Fear o f financial failure— fear o f loss o f a job — fear o f poverty— fear o f nervous breakdown— fea r!
fea r! fea r! Some fear to live. More fear to die. The whole earth is feverish with a miasma o f fear. The man of the cap and gown fears as he recalls the fate of his ilk at the hands o f the proletarian hordes of Russia. The modernistic pulpiteer fears the result o f his own bloodless creed, as the world’s youth plunge-into athe ism, and on into cynicism— that philosophy from which the youthful world now suffers— nothing matters anyhow, and conduct needs no moral censor. The poor reformer, wet and aghast, fears the result of the moral collapse of the masseswho enthrone the captains o f unrighteousness up on the seats o f the mighty. The poor rich manffl-the capital ist— troubled on every side, fears that what the N.R.A. fails to punch from the depleted purse in his hip pocket, taxa tion will get, or inflation will finish. His fears were not allayed when Secretary o f War Dern in a speech before fourteen American governors, said: “ If the N. R. A . fails, something more radical will have to be tried.” Is the cap italist to be blamed for wondering just what that “ some thing more radical” may be? Nor are the fears of any o f these men, intellectualist, pulpiteer, reformer, or capital-: ist, quieted in the least when they see the President o f the United States “making love” with the emissary of Bolshe vik Russia, knowing well that Bolshevism fertilizes its soil with the blood and bones o f such as they. Little wonder that the head o f the economist becomes a whirligig be neath the dark clouds of unemployment, debt, and poverty. Frankly, their fear o f communistically inclined “ brain trusts” is great, and they are saying so. In America, sup posedly the most enlightened land on earth, the confidence o f the people in human government is at extremely low ebb. Even the hitherto most peaceful o f her elements at this moment are wandering about over Iowa roads with clubs in their hands. James P. Cox, ,of Pittsburgh, who in the past has been considered real presidential timber, has just made the statement that “ unless the N. R. A . goes through, the streets of American cities.: will run red with blood.” Fear simply haunts all breasts! International and racial hatreds everywhere grow more intense, and states men frankly confess that civilization totters, while barbar ism waits in the offing. Even mankind’s latest and most worshiped god, Science, is aghast at his own handiwork. When you send mighty ships into the air, loaded with bombs and deadly gases sufficient to turn New York into a city o f the dead overnight, no wonder your hair stands up straight. Sorrowful spectacles indeed have those wiseacres be come, who but a few short months ago were bowing God out of His universe, and were boasting with great swelling words that they were too far advanced beyond the ignorance and superstitions within “ the faith of our fathers” to longer believe in a “ future golden paradise.” They proposed to take off their coats, roll up their sleeves, and build a golden paradise in the here and now. Verily, “ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” (Psa. 2 :4 )— does laugh! The Rainbow in the Cloud Bad as they are, it is not the present sorrows o f men which are terrifying them. It is in “ looking for those things which are coming” that they become apprehensive, and toss on their pillows at night. But for the true believer, the future has no terrors. God is in the future. That is enough. The bow is in the cloud, and the bow is radiantly bright! “ He is faithful that promised” (Heb. 10:23), and He promised that the true children o f God are “ to escape all these things that shall come to pass”— these terrors of war, and famine, and pestilence, for which the children of this world are “ looking” ! Behold the rainbow in the cloud: “ When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (v. 28).
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