before it, to the bottom of the sea. And what depths of human hatred were concealed under all that fair show of human amity! One squadron was French, and its officers were panting to avenge on that exultant Emperor the dismemberment of their country. Another was Russian, and its Admirals must have been conscious that their great foe and rival was the Power they were so ostentatiously honoring, and had only the day before broken naval rules to compliment the Emperor's most persistent and dangerous foe. A third was Austrian, whose master has been driven out of the dominion which has made the canal, and jockeyed out of his half-right in the province through which the canal in its entire length winds its way. And there were ships from Denmark, from which Holstein had been torn by its present owners, and from Holland, where every man fears that some day or other Germany will, by another conquest, acquire at a blow, colonies, commerce and a transmarine career. The Emperor talked of peace, the Admirals hoped for peace, the newspapers of the world in chorus declare that it is peace but everything in that show speaks of war just past, or, on some day not far distant, to arrive. Never was there a ceremonial so grand in this world, or one so penetrated through and through with the taint of insincerity.' The New York Evening Post commented as follows:"In the very gathering of war-vessels there is manifest a spirit the reverse of peace-loving. Each nation sends its biggest ships and heaviest guns, not simply as an act of courtesy, but also as a kind of international showing of teeth. The British navy despatches ten of its most powerful vessels merely as a sample of what it has in reserve, and with the air as of one saying, 'Be warned in time, O ye nations, and provoke not the mistress of the seas.' French and Russian squadrons, in like manner, put on their ugliest frown lest host William should presume upon the jollification to make too friendly advances. Our own American ships join the fleet with the feeling doubtless animating many an officer and sailor on board that it is time the haughty Europeans learned that there is a rising naval power across the sea which they had better not trifle "An especial air of bouffe attaches to the presence of the French and Russians. As lovers of international peace, especially as lovers of Germany, they are truly comic. Fury over the thing in some parts of France is great. . . . "But the most striking insincerity of all is to be found in the opening of the Kiel canal itself. It is dedicated to 'the traffic of the world.' Hence its international significance, hence all the rejoicing and glorification. But what do Germany and France and the other continental Powers really think about the traffic of the world? Why at this very moment, as for twenty years past, they are straining every nerve to fetter and hinder and reduce as far as possible the free commercial intercourse of nations. . . . Until this proscriptive spirit of commercial hostility and jealousy passes away, or wears itself out through sheer absurdity, you may open as many inter-oceanic canals as you please, but you cannot persuade sensible people that your talk about their significance for international good feeling and the general love of peace is anything but a bit of transparent insincerity." The Chicago Chronicle said: "It is the purest barbarism, this pageant at Kiel. Held in celebration of a work of peace, it assumes the form of an apotheosis of war. Mortal enemies gather there, displaying their weapons while they conceal their enmity behind forced friendliness. Cannon planned for war are fired for courtesy. The Emperor himself eulogizes the display of armaments. 'The iron-armed might which is assembled in Kiel harbor,' he said, 'should at the same time serve as a symbol of peace and of the coöperation of all European peoples to the advancement and maintenance of Europe's mission of civilization.' Experience controverts this theory. He who has a gun wishes to shoot with it. The nation which is fit for war wants to make war. The one serious menace to European peace to-day is the fact that every European nation is prepared for war. "The digging of the Kiel canal was a distinct service to civilization; the manner of its celebration is a tribute to barbarism. It was dug, theoretically, to encourage maritime commerce, and most of the vessels gathered to cele brate its completion were of the type known as commerce destroyers." According to The St. Paul Globe, royalty and privilege rather than industry, were on exhibition at Kiel. It said:"What is the place of a fleet of ironclads to-day in the advancement of civilization? What pirate fleets are there to be swept from the high seas? What inferior and savage nation exists to whom we might convey an illuminating influence of modern civilization by casting upon it the searchlights of a squadron of war-ships? There is but one assault at this moment in which the nations might unite their forces heartily on the plea that they were working for modern civilization. Yet not one of the governments represented at Kiel would dare to propose an armed alliance with the others for the purpose of chasing out of Europe the hideous and cruel Turk. "Would a conflict between the splendid ironclads, or any two of the nations represented at Kiel, aid in any way the cause of civilization? Are not these armaments, on the contrary, the relics and witnesses of surviving barbarism? The most savage features of any nation are its munitions of war. The purpose of most of those which Europe provides in such profusion by taxes upon a burdened people is to keep those people themselves in humble subjection to the powers above them." 66 The Pageantry of Oppression," is what The Minneapolis Times called the Kiel naval pageant, upon which it commented as follows: "The fact that the opening of this magnificent waterway is valued more for its military than for its commercial advantages, and that it was celebrated by the booming of ordnance from the assembled war fleets of the world, is an indictment of civilization. For if the so-called 'civilized' nations of the world need such vast enterprises for military operations and such enormous navies as are now maintained at the expense of the people, then the human nature of the Caucasian race has not improved in the least since the time of Columbus or by the great discovery he made. If such navies are necessary, then liberty is impossible and despotism is a condition necessary for the human race." This loud and united cry of the nations, through their representatives, of "Peace! Peace! when there is no peace," calls forcibly to mind the word of the Lord through the Prophet Jeremiah, who says: "From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one practiseth falsehood. And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people very lightly, saying, Peace! Peace! when there is no peace. They should have been ashamed because they had committed an abomination; but they neither felt the least shame, nor did they know how to blush: therefore shall they fall among those that fall; at the time that I punish their sin shall they stumble, saith the Lord."―Jer. 6:13-15. This great international proclamation of peace, bearing on its very face the stamp of insincerity, is a forcible reminder of the words of the poet John G. Whittier which so graphically describe the present peace conditions: "Great peace in Europe! Order reigns "Go lay to earth a list'ning ear; The tramp of measured marches hear, "Stern herald of Thy better day, Before Thee to prepare thy way Repent! God's Kingdom draweth near." CHAPTER VI. BABYLON BEFORE THE GREAT COURT. HER CONFUSION-ECCLESIASTICAL. THE TRUE CHUrch, Known unto the Lord, HAS NO SHARE IN THE JUDGMENTS OF BABYLON-THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION OF CHRISTENDOM PRESENTS NO HOPEFUL CONTRAST TO THE POLITICAL SITUATION.-THE GREAT CONFUSION.-THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CONDUCTING THE DEFENSE DEVOLVES UPON THE Clergy.— THE SPIRIT OF THE GREAT REFORMATION Dead.-Priests and PeoplE IN THE SAME SITUATION. THE CHARGES PREFERRED THE DEFENSE -A CONFEDERACY PROPOSED.-THE END SOUGHT.-THE MEANS ADOPTED.-THE GENERAL SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE.-THE JUDGMENT GOING AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTENDOM. "And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant."-Luke 19:22. WHILE we here consider the present judgment of the great nominal Christian church, let us not forget that there is also a real Church of Christ, elect, precious ;— consecrated to God and to his truth in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. They are not known to the world as a compact body; but as individuals they are known unto the Lord who judges not merely by the sight of the eye and the hearing of the ear, but who discerns and judges the thoughts and intents of the heart. And, however widely they may be scattered, whether standing alone as "wheat," in the midst of "tares," or in company with others, God's eye is always upon them. They, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High (sanctified, wholly |