Two hundred and fifty years ago, men doubted whether the Turks
ago there were few who ever traveled beyond the bounds of their own county. Now everyone can move in every direction, and our population is like a swarm of bees disturbed. Steam navigation and railways have altered the character of society. Time and space are made nothing of. Seas, mountains, and rivers are no longer obstacles. God separated the nations in the day of Babel. Man is working hard to make them all one again. And what says the Scripture? "Close up and seal the words of the scroll, until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge!" (Daniel 12:4).
4. What shall we say to the wars and shakings of nations which we have seen in these last seventy years? The mightiest empires on earth have been shaken to their very foundations! Kings, and princes, and great men have been driven from their high position by scores, and been made wanderers on the face of the earth. There has been no accounting for it by any human reasoning. These movements have taken place in the face of increased knowledge, civilization, and desire of peace. And what says the Scripture? "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:7,8).
5. What shall we say to the drying up of the Mohammedan power? Two hundred and fifty years ago, men doubted whether the Turks might not overrun all Europe! No army seemed able to resist them. Province after province fell into their hands. When Martin Luther in his sermons wanted an illustration of boundless worldly power, he would choose for his example "the Turkish empire!" But now all is changed. Without much outward violence, the Mohammedan strength has gradually dwindled away. There has been a collapse, a consumption, a worm at the heart of all their might. In spite of all the help of their allies, the Turkish empire is like a man sick of a sore disease. He may rally for a time by the help of strong remedies, and by the admission of new elements into his constitution — but he will never again be an exclusive, persecuting, purely Mohammedan