The plant of the Southern Publishing Association where THE WATCHMAN
MacaziNE is published, one of the 57 printing establishments throughout
the world that are engaged in printing in 133 languages the message that
God is sending to the world through Seventh-day Adventists
some wisdom greater than the men who brought
about these wonderful inventions of the past century,
that worked through human instrumentalities to
bring about these inventions for some great purpose,
or we would not see the great growth and discovery
that has taken place in the past hundred years.
THE CONGESTED CENTURY
PRIvaNG with movable types is only a little
more than 300 years old. The first newspaper
advertisement was published in 1652. ‘The first
sewing machine was invented in 1790, though it
did not come into common use until Howe's machine
appeared in 1846. The first successful steamship
did not appear until 1807, and the locomotive was
developed in 1814. Wireless telegraphy began to be
investigated about 1842. Electric lights were not
in use commercially until 1880. The automobile,
while invented during the last ten years of the
:
Our publishing house in France
PAGE FOUR
nineteenth century, did not come to
successful operation until the early part
of this century. The airplane is only
twenty-five years old, and modern
radio broadcasting was unheard of
until after the world war.
Were Abraham Lincoln to come
back to life now and walk down
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington
on Inauguration Day, he would wonder
if he had not been transferred to some
Chinese colporteurs
carry their loads from
our Shanghai publish-
ing house by wheel-
barrow and back-pack
Utopia he had never been
able to envisage in his mo-
ments of wildest imagination. Should George
Washington suddenly find himself standing again
on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia
and viewing the immediate vicinity of the historic
spot where our nation was given birth, his amaze-
ment at the picture he would see is almost beyond
comprehension. ’
‘The movements of the world in the past hundred
years have sped on at ever increasing velocity until
today even the most reactionary skeptics of two
decades ago frankly throw up their hands and admit
that nothing is now impossible to modern industry
and science.
Any serious thinking man recognizes that all
these events have some positive significance, whether
he can understand them or not. Many centuries
ago the prophet Daniel, the prime minister of
Babylon, then a world empire, wrote out a book of
prophecies under the direction of God on the future
history of the world. Thoughtful Bible students
everywhere agree that he accurately forecast the
outstanding movements of world history, the rise
and fall of temporal and ecclesiastical powers,
clear down to the present time.
As Daniel finished his work, the guardian angel
Gabriel, who directed his writing, said: “Shut up
the words, and seal the book, even to the time of
the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased.” Daniel 12: 4.
Along with the prodigious growth of scientific
knowledge and invention during the past century,
has come a tremendous awakening interest in the
study of the Bible and particularly the prophetic
‘books of Daniel and The Revelation, both of which
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