WHILE waiting for a train at a certain railway station a few evenings ago I overheard a conversation between three young gentlemen, evidently officers, who had spent the day in the hunting field, and were now returning home. One of them said to the others, “Have you read ‘The War of 1897’?” (That is a book so-named). “No,” replied the others. “It is all imagination,” said the first; “but it supposes this country to be attacked by a foreign army, and everything going wrong with us. The book consists of about four hundred pages, but I was so deeply interested in it that I could not lay it down till I had read it through.”
Well, I, too, have heard of that book, and that it is very interesting in its way. So it may be; nor is it wholly impossible that such a war might break out, or that things might go all wrong with this country. We certainly live in strange times. Things run rapidly ahead nowadays a crisis of some kind is undoubtedly approaching; and, without alarming, it is well to warn. We read of a time when men shall say “peace and safety” these words shall be on their tongues, as the result of confidence in able statesmen, strong governments, mighty fleets, and huge armaments―but at that very moment “sudden destruction cometh”!
Now, whether this imaginary war of 1897 will take place as supposed in the above-mentioned book, I cannot, of course, affirm. Whether this year shall witness the bursting of the long-smoldering volcano, and the collision of these vast European hosts of war, I cannot say―perhaps, alas, it may be so―but certain it is that this convulsive state of things cannot continue much longer. The speed is far too great. The wheel revolves far too quickly. A collapse must come. The idea of the gradual supervention of a peaceful millennium, apart from a fearful political and national break-up, is utterly vain. Such a period will indeed come, but only after the flow of torrents of blood, and the execution of direful judgments.
True, material prosperity abounds. None would deny the growth of intelligence, science, comfort, and the like. But what does that prove? Really nothing to the point. Man is still the same. His fallen nature remains intact. Civilization may ameliorate, and Christianity may teach, but the root of failure in man, as such, flourishes in its native soil, as of old!
The days that preceded the Flood were marked by a vast amount of material progress. But sin existed, and the Flood came! So again will it be, only another kind of judgment.
No, it is not against an imaginary war of 1897 that I seek to warn you, my reader. Be that as it may. Another calamity on a guilty world approaches, and of that we can speak with absolute certainty. It is no curious hypothesis, no thrilling supposition. 1897 is a whole year nearer the coming of the Lord―each year brings that event so much the nearer. It “draweth nigh”!
But, that done, the door of mercy is closed on all who have refused the call to salvation, and closed on them forever!! Their doom is fixed. God shut in Noah, and, by the same act, He shut out the world of the ungodly. The flood destroyed them all.
And this shutting of the door is the knell of hope, and the beginning of sorrows. The seven-sealed Book of Revelation 6 is gradually unfolded in successive, and ever-intensified forms of judgment, until at the opening of the sixth seal we hear a universal wail, as the wrath of the Lamb is justly anticipated.
This is no dream, no idle tale, no clever imagination! God must deal with sin, and He knows how awful are the sins of the day!
His judgment is the thing to fear. Reader, are you never to be ready? If the country should wisely forearm against an imaginary war, should not you, the sinner, prepare for a certain judgment?
You ask, how prepare? Well, St Augustine said, “If you would flee from God―flee to God”! Good indeed! Today He is revealed as the God of all grace, and the Giver of His Son―the Lover of guilty man―to whom any are welcome; but tomorrow He will be the God of judgment, taking vengeance on the ungodly. Today! yes, today! Ah! let the dawn of 1897 find you, my reader, acting like the prudent man of Proverbs 27:12,12A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 27:12) who foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. Look ahead, be warned, be blest, be saved, and let 1897 be spent for that God, who has made you His own, through faith in the blood of His dear Son.
J. W. S.