It is said that the present great strife of nations in Europe is primarily due to the disregard of racial characteristics and conditions in establishing boundaries of the various nations:that this has stifled the ambitions and national aspirations of various races, and made them the unwilling and often oppressed servants of some conquering power. Out of the din and turmoil of the present awful conflict, it is announced that one great result which will be accomplished by this struggle will be the re-adjustment of boundaries, based upon racial conditions, so that each of the various peoples may pursue their ambition and aspiration for self-government and race-development. This will bring, it is thought, contentment and peace; for, it is considered, that a solid basis for peace will then have been laid, by removing those conditions which provoke its disruption-conditions which the greatest of statesmen and world-rulers have hitherto been unable to completely master or control. Then peace and safety will be everywhere, and the program of world-peace can be pushed to successful conclusion.
This may be discerned not only as the project of foremost statesmen of the day, but as uppermost in the mind of many Christians. If the world is thus to reach its desired goal, we ought to be made sure of it by God's word. In any case, it is well for us to be assured of the end in which present conditions will culminate.
It seems quite possible, and even probable, that the readjustment of boundaries, with regard to racial conditions, may be accomplished as a result of the present upheavals; and, no doubt, with the progress of democratic institutions and so-called government of the people by the people, liberty of achievement and development will come to the larger families of mankind within their own natural boundaries, thus bringing about a more equable condition, and promote a condition of larger peace and progress. If such a readjustment takes place, it is easily realized how the cry of Peace and Safety would resound through the world. It is confidently announced already that disarmament will result from such a readjustment; that progress and material wealth, delivered from the burdens of militarism, and directed into better channels, will be greatly increased.
It is not amiss to anticipate that just such results may come, and that man in his pride and boasting will proclaim Peace and Safety as the attainment of the world. Will this then commence the age of peace and good will of which men have dreamed and for which they have longed ? Listen ! " When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." This is said of the coming of "the day of the Lord." It shall come as a thief-unexpectedly-breaking up the peace and safety of the good man of the house. This simile of the thief is used particularly of "the day of the Lord" and "the day of the Son of Man," when He is revealed in power and glory.
But why break up the peace and safety which man may achieve ? Because out of it will spring up the final forms of evil, the product of satanic power and wisdom, and its decisive overthrow is by the Lord Himself acting in judgment upon the world -a judgment of unparalleled severity, from which there shall be no escape. The reason why this day of the Lord shall overtake the world as a thief in the night, is because with its boast of Peace and Safety it will be shutting out the True Light which came into it.
There is no assurance given us of the universal acceptance of the gospel to establish universal peace and blessing. This has been a false dream preached by many; and, in view of the present awful conflict, many are now saying that Christianity has utterly failed in its mission, because so-called Christian nations have plunged into murderous strife. But the mission of Christianity was never to Christianize nations, but rather to save individuals through faith in the Lord Jesus, and unite them in a divine and spiritual unity by the Holy Spirit. Such a cry is a prelude to the acceptance of that one who will come in his own name, and will be hailed as the man for whom the world has waited, but whom Scripture calls "the man of sin," the lawless one, whose coming is after the working of Satan, and who denies the Christian revelation of the Father and the Son. Then it is that the thief will break in; as in the hour of Belshazzar's impious feast the mysterious hand wrote the sentence of judgment upon the palace wall ; or, as in the days of Noah, the flood broke into the world's festivities and swept them all away. Suddenly will that day come upon the world, as the present catastrophe of world-conflict has come. One short week of strenuous diplomatic effort had scarcely passed, when men the world over were staggered, appalled, at the suddenness of development and the prospect of its awful consequences. What will it be when it is not simply the conflict of earth's armies, but the wrath of the Lamb the world will have to meet! And the events that are now marshaled before us prove to the eye of faith the truth of the Christian revelation, not its failure; and seeing them, we look up, knowing that our redemption draws nigh.
God gives us this outlook upon the future of the world that we may be delivered from its current of action; that we be not deceived or carried along with its false hope. May we be awake to the world's true condition and awful prospect, keeping ourselves clear from association with its movements and enterprises, that we may shine as lights amid its great and increasing darkness. God's people are as the salt, which preserves, while left here, from the final forms of corruption which are to be manifested; but what if the salt have lost its savor?
"Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof;" " For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." John Bloore