The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-08-03
Frederic Haskin's Letter
Arnaageddor, Again.

take Megiddo was like takins .
thousand towns, since all the in,
poFtant chiefs of the country We.
inside it, and he proceeded to sfavve
out the city by guarding every nos.
sible entrance. Finally, Megiddo
surrendered The princes and war.
riors filed kout of the gate ana
agreed to pay Thotmes yearly trIh
ute. The city was then sacked npr
haps burned, and valuable works ~
art and the jewels and gold nf =
remarkably wealthy city carried ~
to Egypt, as well as such trophias
as the scepter, royal tent. and fnr-
, niture belonging to the King .,
kedesh. Thotmes had it all recor5'
ed and went on to other uneoB.
quered regions.
This was only one of the numsr.
Gus battles fought at different times
at this strategic spot.
Some years ago, 1908, a German
Palestine society sent an expedi.
ton to the city, now ruin. to e.
plore the old foundations and SEA-
if any relics of the battles were Isft
| buried there. For nearly thros
years the scientists worked. win
! the result that traces of seven cities
were found in different strata he
low the present surface. The old
est city, they believed, fiourisbes
back in the neolithic. or stone
period. Prices of walls, skeletons
! temple and palace ruins, a seal
marked as the property of "Shena
/ the servant Of Jereboam," king of
, Israel, all helped to identify the
times when different civilizations
held the important fortress.
Ruins Still Hold Secrets.
The expedition had to give up its
work before the possibilities OF the
site were exhausted. And later the
war put a stop to any hut utilitarian
digging in the near east. So the
ruins of Armageddon are looked I'D
on as still holding many secrets.
The reference to Armageddon in
the book of Revelation has been
taken by some scholars to mean
that the last war of the world is TO
be fought in this old traditional
battle-ground. The book, written as
if the events prophesied had al
ready happened, says that the kings
gathered together in the place call
ed HaT-Mageddon.
But of late years the term Arma-
geddon has been taken more as
symbol. Some students of the mys-
teries of Revelation still hold that
the recent war was the prophesied
war of Armageddon, and that Bel
GUM, where the fighting was be-
gun, met the conditions of being the
Armageddon referred to in the
prophecy.
Some of the interpreters have
been able to apply almost every
mysterious reference in the book TO
the recent war, even to naming the
beasts of the visions as the nations
in the conflict, and comparing the
reference to blood up to the brides
of the horses to the fact that the
dead were sometimes piled four and
five deep, about the height Of
Bride, after some battles in the
World war They found it Signii-
cant to point out that the verse
about haIlstoneS weighing a tai
ent-the heaviest measure of weight
known in bible days-coming down
from heaven upon men could be ap-
piled to the heavy bombs and shells
of modern warfare
However, other scholars disagree
with this and insist that the Arma-
geddon described is a spiritual con-
f1ict Here again they disagree and
some think the prophecies refer to
events expected TO happen soon aft
er the book was written. and others
insist with equal positiveness that
the era described has never come.
Disarmament is a step toward q
new, warless age. Whether it Will
be a permanent success, leaving the
World war; indeed the last war, or
whether the world is to be the scene
of. battles for years to come, there
seems to be no modern prophet to
foretell.