The End of All Things

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12008, 10 December 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

The End of All Things

Date Uncertain, Bttt Neap

By o-

J. Liddell Kelly.

The road is morp than joy or anguish Than lives or lives that languish An end-—an cui-r-afid hn end of ajl. > ' i , — Swinburne. >

It must not bo supposed flint,, the liquid and alliterative swinburne-fa ta bo clashed with those dismal prophets of tho near end of the world,. fqwiHie end of which he wrote vfUsf itSqrbty death—“tho poppied sleep, nil.’* It is quite a (tifl-ereitlt with which may prophets of tO-MSy are coneerumg themselves—different, that is, from the end of the world (which may be millions of. years, oh;, or ithe end of the individual’s life in the World (which is taking place every moment). It is the end of the present nap or dispensation that so many thinkers and writers are busy about—“tins end of all things,” only in the sense that all old or existing things on earth are to pass away and that eveiy tiling :’s to le transfor;: cl or ‘'made new.” The latest contribution* to human knowledge or epepolaticni on the subject comes from * French priest arid astronomer, tho l ' Abbe Mouveux of Bourges Observatory' —who fixes 1927 as the approximate * date of a great coming event close'y associated with the end of our age. The good Abbe, who has a theory of sun spots and “solar curve” (whatever the latter may le),.claims to have fore-, told’the world-war of 1914, four years before it broke out, by reading the signs in the sun; and he now warns us to expect critical events, in 1927 probably another greet war'—on aecourit of the “solar curve” reaching

its peak about that time. , - New, all interpreters of-,,,Scripjtiird proffcecy aro agreed tbat we are living in tjie Time of the End, and that the end will be preceded by a world convulsion, called the Battle of Armageddon, which is to be fought in Palestine. The, fixing of the date of that battle is a matter of difficulty, and it will be noticed that the Abbe, Moveux is careful pot to call by the name of Armageddon dbe coming conflict of 1927. tVari? ous interpreters have, however, made abstruse calculations in order to determine the date, and it is noticeable that tboy' all arrive at a date approximately hetvfeeu the years 1925 and 1934. Considering the diversity of methods employed. it is surprising that there should be only nine years of difference between the earliest and the latest date.

Leaving aside the erroneous Conclusions of Dr Gumming and earlier interpreters, based upon mistaken readings of Scrip--ture, let us stirt by noticing the inore careful and scientific research of Dr Grattan Guinness, who published tv book a good many years ago, founded chiefly on ; astronomical observation and a theory regarding astronomical phenomena. Unlike the Abbe ovhux, he re? lied ~on planetary and stellar conjunctions, and interpreting the tho starry heaven a; he named 1925 as a date when an extraordinary event would take place on earth, and he fixed 1934 as the year when the final consummntion ’of the present age would take place. Another careful inquirer was Professor Totten, an American, who based his conclusfims on Scripture prophecies, including She time prophecy of Daniel, also on we facts of history, and-on a deep atudjf of chronology. Iq'fvejiy ting'style he showed that,,f*ine ena of these things” as revealed to Daniel hy angels, would be in the... year 1928,. Totten’s conclusions were practically those accepted by me in the series of articles I wrote in, 1912 on “The Time of the End” (I had not then read Totten nor Dr Guinness), and the year 1928 was . named by me as the culmination of the Armageddon campaign, to be followed shortly after by the Second Coming of Our Lord, the reunion of Judab and Israel and Palestine under ontjkirife and‘the subsequent events-pf the Alif-, lonnjura. There has been an almost continuous succession of interpretations and forecast* since I took up the study, not only by Christian .people, but by people of other religions. In the year 1918, it was stated in a cable message from London that the Rev. H. W. Webb. Peploe, Piebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral, had “caused consternation

at a church gatlioring by predicting the end of the world on December 31st. V>>23.” That gentleman is since dead; so also is. Dr. Moule, Bishop of Durham, who that he believed ,14)0 end of the ago was. v.ery near. Dozens of pamphlets and booklets, <joot.es of articles, and hundreds of eermans have dealt wit hthe' subject during- the last .few years—none of them of. the old alqrmhft ‘ character, but rather pointing with' joyful anticipation to the nearness of the Millennial Age. Very few of them name ade finite day or year, as the late Prebend ary Webb-Peploe did, but all agree tha* the signs of the end being at band carnot be mistaken. _ While it is important and impress:!to find .-such agreement among Ohri: tjafisi -of til denominations, and to have -tltetr-conchisions supported by as tronSSfiSSl observers, there is still room #*! 'doubt whether the actual date of ‘the end has been definitely ascertained. There is less of the scientific than of the occult ip conclusions based upon stellar and planetary conjunctions, of upon the solar curve’s influence on the “temperament of nations.” Those Who rely oh Scriptural prophecy would do well to remember the declaration ’ of Christ that of “that day and that hour” only the Father had knowledge Jfo also informed His. earnestly inquiring apostil# that it Was. not given to -them, to know about* “times, and seasons.” So it may not be for us to krilril; fdr “it is the glory of God to conceal p tiling.” The attitude of the worldly . arid indifferent on the subject will no doubt resemble that of the Irishman of fiction, who, on bis voyage across the Atlantic, asked:—• , i “Captain, dear, have you a Zadkiel’s Almanac on board?” . “No.” . - “Och, then, we’ll just have to take the whether as it comes 1”Whether Or not modern astronomers end interpreters of propheoy are to be classed along with weather prophets, there can be no harm in preparedness for “any fate”—-for cataclysms -. of woathei*, liestileh.ee, earthquake; and war. such as are predicted. “In such an hour as ye know not,” disasters

such as the Greet War, the Japanese earthquake, or the more deadly influ-, enaa * epidemic may again shake the ' article in Auckland “Star;” - '