Some time ago Mr. and Mrs. Ralph C. Norton, J Directors of the "Belgian Gospel Mission," visited Rome. While there they were granted an audience with Premier Mussolini and presented him with a copy of the .Scofield Bible. The interview, which was scheduled for ten minutes, extended to an hour as they spoke to him of Rome's place in Prophecy and of the revival of the Empire.
The nations of Western Europe are being driven together for mutual protection against the menace of the Central Powers whose separation from those of the west is becoming more clearly defined. The Rhine and the Danube are again recognized as the dividing line of Europe, as was the case in the days of the old Roman Empire. Coupled with' this is the revival of the Papacy which is defined in Scripture as a woman sitting "upon a scarlet-colored beast," and who is ever alert to seize ecclesiastical power. Recent happenings in Europe are leading in the direction indicated by Bible prophecy.
NEW AUSTRIAN CONSTITUTION. "By the new Constitution which Chancellor Dollfuss put into effect at Easter, Austria becomes one of the most autocratic States in Europe. It is to be an anti-democratic, clerical, Fascist State, known as the 'Federal State of Austria' instead of the 'Austrian Republic.' Its laws emanate, not from the people, but from God Almighty. The Roman Catholic Church is made a privileged, established church. A new concordat with the Vatican will give effect to the religious and educational articles of the Constitution. There will be no freedom of the press …or the radio. These are placed directly under the control of the Government."
"In the same spirit Dr. Richard Smidtz, named Mayor of Vienna.. .decreed a new municipal Constitution for the Capital which removed the last traces of self-government. Councillors and Aldermen are abolished. There will be no elective representation of citizens.. .Instead sixty-four persons, headed by three Roman Catholic clergymen and including one Protestant and one Jew, will be nominated to sit as a kind of advisory body. They can be dismissed either singly, or as a body, and replaced by others at the will of Dr. Smidtz who was appointed Mayor by Chancellor Dollfuss"-Current History. The close alliance of this new Austrian Government with the Papacy, with a slight tolerance for Protestant and Jew, is noteworthy. Austria successfully withstood the German attempt at annexation, and now this more recent "concordat with the Vatican" places her virtually under the control of that religious system. Some other nations of the coming confederacy have never been entirely free from this yoke, and it is apparent that when the ten-horned Beast of the Prophetic Word comes into being, the woman is ready to spring into the saddle and assume the ecclesiastical control (Rev. 17).
SPAIN is seething with unrest. Since the Republic was formed three years ago the radical element has been ' very active. Recently a new amnesty bill has released about 9,000 political prisoners who favor the restoration of the Monarchy, the radical prisoners being still confined. Sometime ago the law which took teaching out of the hands of the monks and nuns was repealed, and there is evidence of a swinging back toward Rome.
"GERMAN" PASTORS REPUDIATE THE SWASTIKA. A determination to stand together in refusing obedience to Reichsbishop Mueller has been voted by 600 German pastors and laymen, bitter foes of the Bishop's dictatorship in Protestant church affairs. Calling themselves a 'free synod,' the dissidents approved resolutions declaring their adherence to Holy Writ alone, that the German Swastika emblem has nothing in common with the cross of Jesus, and that worshiping the god of Nazi 'world philosophy is plain idolatry."-"Prophecy."
RUSSIA, SOME FACTS AND FIGURES. Russia covers an area forty-seven times as large as that of Sweden and harbors a population twenty-seven times as great… During the ten-year period just closed, the foreign commerce of little Sweden was equal to that of vast Russia."
"In 1929, at the beginning of the Five-year Plan, there were in the Soviet Union more than 270,000,000 head of livestock.. .At the close of 1933 only 118,000,000 domestic animals were left. Recorded history knows no such mammoth destruction of livestock.. .It bears witness both to the nation-wide resistance of the peasant population to the Bolshevist experiment and the catastrophic shortage of fodder which resulted in the wholesale loss of cattle."
"Instead of 34,000,000 horses, Russia now has 16,500, 000. Instead of 68,000,000 head of horned cattle (oxen), there are now only 38,500,000 left.. .It is conservatively estimated that more than 20,000,000 natural horse-power was wiped out… .To what extent has the much advertised tractor replaced the horse? According to Stalin, the Soviet Union possessed at the opening of the present year 204,000 tractors, with a total horse-power of 3,100,000."
"Due to inefficient organization, demoralized transportation… .and the shortage of draft animals, the wastage in the fields every year has been stupendous. Take the case of the 1932 crop in the Ukraine, in southern Russia…the Communist report revealed that 'a third of the entire crop perished because of late and negligent harvesting.' In that once fertile land enough grain was wasted in the fields to feed 14,000,000 people during a whole year."
"The northern half of European Russia lies in a zone climatically unsuited for agriculture, as illustrated by the fact that Moscow lies 700 miles and Leningrad 900 miles north of Montreal."
"There are less paved roads in all of the immense Soviet Union than in any one of a dozen American States."-From "the world's vastest legend,"
Saturday Evening Post.
CRIME is said to be the greatest economic problem with which the American people have ever had to contend. General Pershing has characterized the situation as a "crisis as .great as the crisis of the World War." There are a number of contributing causes. One potent reason is unbelief of the Scriptures as a revelation from God, and the consequent disregard of divine institutions, as the home, and family relationships and responsibilities. This has resulted in the break-down of parental stewardship, denying to children the knowledge of the Scriptures which are able to make "wise unto salvation."
A generation has grown to maturity without the training imparted in some little measure to former generations. Parents have lost the sense of responsibility to teach and discipline and exact obedience from their children. The Lord's Day has become a holiday for which the only thought of the family is to "please themselves." For example, a bulky Sunday newspaper comes into the home. The comic section is seized by the children, and instead of making their way to a Sunday School where the Word of God and the fear of God are taught and impressed upon the conscience, the time is wasted upon trivial nonsense. In too many cases the parents also spend a large part of the day with newspapers and secular magazines, to their eternal loss.