The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1915-05-15
APPROACHING
ARMAGfDDfN
The Meaning OF This World War
To the Editor:

SiySHi VI liiS IdlloliS WHdt HledHS
the beating of this fail of death on
the quivering flesh of civilization? 1t
it only step in human evolution? Is
it the wreck of civilization? Is it the
long expected Armageddon of Biblical
prophecy?
Yesterday this world was a neigh
borhood; today it is a slaughterhouse,
charnal, cyclone, cemetery. Yes
terday there was comparative peace
ard prosperity, confidence, friendly in
tercourse, and kindly ministration;
today there is turmoil and famine, dis
trust, hatred, malevolence, ruin, dis
may, and mutual desire to iniure
and to kill. Does it mean nothing to
this race but the changing of a few
rulers and the making of new boun-
Diary lines?
1t means much more. Civilization
as a guarantor of peace has proved
itself broken reed. The hand that
leaned upon it has been pierced by it;
and the innocent victims of that trust
are watering the storm swept soil
with their tears and their blood.
Centuries ago this world was warn
ed that a time would come when the
call to war would go ringing through
the earth. and the nations would re-
spond.
Certain religious leaders have been
teaching the world for years that we
were soon to enter upon a millennium
of peace. They have deluded them
selves and their hearers with the be-
lief that some of the wishes of the
human heart are the very oracles of
God. They have wanted wars to cease
and have declared that they would
cease. God has recorded their declar
alton; and then they have declared
that Gods record Of their declaration
in this matter was Gods own declara-
ton to the human race of what he
purposed should be. This utterance
from Isaiah they have thus interpret
ed:-
"And he (GodD shall Judge among
the nations, and shall rebuke many
people; and they shall beat their
swords into ploW-shares, and their
spears into pruning hooks; nation
shall not lift up sword against ma
ton neither shall they learn war
arV more :" Isaiah o.4
1t is essential that we know who is
saying this. The verse Immediately
preceding the one quoted reads:
"And many people shall go and
say, Come We, and let US 90 up to
the mountain of the Lord to the
house of the God Of Jacob; and he
will teach Us of his ways, and we
will walk in his paths: for out of
Zion shall 90 forth the law, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem"
Who says it, Many people" And
they are saying it now. And what
else are they saying ?-that "they shall
beat their swords into ploWsh&"es,
and their spears into pruning hooks"
and that nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, Leither shall
they learn war any more" When are
they saying it? The second verse of
the same chapter tells US that ''it shall
come to pass in the last days etc
Then "in the last days" we are to
hear much talk Of an epoch of peace,
tranquility. and prosperity; much tax
of regulating all human conduct by
divine law; much talk of the church
regulating all the affairs of the world;
much talk Of the speedy and perpetual
ties of this world. If we had 10 other
proof that We are living in the last
days, present-day facts fulfilling that
prophecy would be proof enough. That
scripture describes our times, and our
times fulfill that scripture.
Now what is the truth of the mat
ter? In the same chapter we learn
what the true conditions will be in the
last days. 1t portrays a condition of
terror in the world:
Enter into the rock, and hide
thee in the dust, for fear of the
Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looNs OF man shall be
humbled, and the haughtiness of
men shall be bowed down, and the
Lord alone snail be exalted in that
day. For the day of the Lord of
hosts shall be upon every one that
is proud and lofty, and upon every
one that is lifted up; and he shall
be brought low And they
shall go into the holes of the rocks,
and into the caves of the earth, for
fear of the Lord and for the glory
of mis- majesty, when he ariseth to
shake terribly the earth" Isaiah
2-10-21.
A very different condition of things
is this from the condition which
many people" are looking for; but
that scripture agrees perfectly with
what our Saviour himself declared
would be.
Their is no promise there of any
epoch of peace and safety. 1t is a
time of distress and perpleXity and
fear and terror, and it leads right into
the coming Of the Son of God. the de-
struction of the wicked and the re-
ward of the righteous.
Since Turkey has decided to throw
herself into this fray, there is every
possibility that this terrible grapple
of tha pationc of tho ,ro,Id =, 1o,l;,,r