Amongst the great inventions of our day is the typewriter. It came upon the market just forty years ago, in 1874, as a merchantable and usable convenience, after having been seven years in process of development. The Bible, we believe, marks that same year, 1874, as the beginning of the Harvest of this Age. What a wonderful forty years it has been! What wonderful blessings these years have brought to mankind! What evidence they give of the dawning of the New Dispensation, which the Bible teaches began there! Notice some of the great inventions—the telephone, electric light, trolley-car, perfecting printing press, cheap pulp paper, linotype and monotype machines, gas engine, automobile, aeroplane, talking machine, moving pictures, and a hundred other conveniences, improvements, etc., not forgetting the wireless telegraphy.
Great as are the blessings enumerated, none of them surely can compare with the great blessings that God has given to His consecrated people, who have in these same years been seeking the light of the New Dispensation in the Word of God. The blessing, joy and enlightenment which they have received is beyond all comparison and all valuation!
If any one had suggested a year ago the possibility of total abstinence being established by law in Russia, Germany and Great Britain, he would have been considered idiotic. Truly
"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform."
Men, in the interest of war, are preparing to abolish intoxicating liquors. Russia already has done this. The report is that her millions of people are blessed greatly for the better—improved mentally and materially. Germany is already discussing the matter. The Prime Minister of Great Britain and the King favor total abstinence as a war necessity because the workmen are hindered by the use of liquor from accomplishing the work necessary to be done for the [R5675 : page 127] prosecution of the war. How wonderful this appears! Is the light of the Millennial Morning breaking upon the world?
Look again! Great Britain and Germany have been fearing Socialism and every way seeking to combat it as destructive of present institutions. As we have already pointed out many of the Socialists will be identified with the Millennial Kingdom. How strange to find that the great war now raging is tending toward Socialism—that while Socialists have joined the army the Governments at war are adopting socialistic measures!
For instance in Great Britain: Speedily after the declaration of war the British Government took over the control of all the railroads of the Kingdom, to facilitate the moving of troops and war materials. Now the British Parliament has given the Government full authority to take over the entire manufacturing business of Great Britain and place it under a central management, with a view to increasing the output of war materials. This bill, which passed on March 9th, the Hon. Andrew Bonar Law declared as a measure, "probably the most drastic ever laid before Parliament." It passed unanimously.
In Germany the Government's action has been no less drastic—the Government has absorbed all power. The extreme in this direction was the seizing of all food supplies and the doling of the same out to the people according to their needs, dictating the proportions of ingredients, the quantity to be eaten and the price to be paid. Could any Socialist imagine the principle for which he contends more fully put into execution—by those, too, who have opposed Socialism in the past?
How will it be when this war shall end? Will individualism and private ownership return to the control of affairs in Great Britain and Germany? If the attempt is made to restore them, will it not bring a clash? Will it not bring the great social earthquake which the Bible declares will immediately follow the war? And will not that social earthquake lead straight on to the fire of anarchy, as the Bible indicates? We so believe: We must with patience wait, nor attempt to hasten the Lord's arrangements. However, let us remember that the Lord declares that He will hasten these things at the present time and that a short work will He make of matters.
Speedily the glorious Kingdom will be established, even though it be through blood and earthquake and fire. How, then, will those feel who are deriding the thought that Messiah's Kingdom is in process of establishment—that this war is identified with its establishment and that it will be fully inaugurated in the midst of the fire of anarchy, which it will quench by bringing in the New Order of things—the new heavens and the new earth—the new ecclesiastical and the new social order—the doing of God's will on earth.