For “twenty-four hours a day, seven days
a week, this Gargantua of defense daily
erupts 260 tons of white-hot metal, the
lifeblood of mechanical warfare. Steel for
cylinder linings and bearings, machine
tools and airplane parts, gun barrels, and
tanks, steel to make America im-
pregnable.” And that is a picture of the
plowshares and the pruning hooks being
boiled into molten, white-hot metal, which
will be used for both defense and offense
all over the world.
®
But what about that text of Seripture
which speaks of turning all these war
machines and engines of death into agri-
cultural instruments? To what does it re-
fer? When will that day come when the
world will be released from all of these in-
terferences with our normal pursuit of
happiness and pleasure? Both the prophets
Isaiah and Micah speak of this event and
what they say is this:
“Many people shall go and say” (Isaiah
2:3); or “And many nations shall come
and say’ (Micah 4:2). What are they to
say? “Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the
God of Jacob; and He will teach us His
ways, and we will walk in his paths.
And He shall judge among the nations,
and shall rebuke many people [strong na-
tions, says Micah]: and they shall beat
their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2: 2-4.
And that 1s just what “many people” and
“many nations” were saying in fulfillment
of divine prophecy, for these prophets tell
us that this is what men will be doing in
“the last days.” (See Isaiah 2:2; Micah
4:1.)
In the midst of the thunder of war today
we hear the voices of those who speak for
peace. In the midst of the hatreds of men,
we hear them speaking of the things of
Grod, of the law of God, of Christianity,
and the need of defending it; but their
voices are scarcely audible because of the
commotion occasioned by men whose am-
bitions led them to wring the very lifeblood
from the hearts of those who stood in the
way of their selfish triumphs.
The time for turning the spears and
swords into more peaceful instruments is
not now, for God has “a controversy with
the mhabitants of the land, because there
1s no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of
God 1n the land. By swearing, and lying,
and killing, and stealing, and committing
adultery, they break out, and blood touch-
eth blood. Therefore shall the Innd mourn,
and everyone that dwelleth therein shall
languish, with the beasts of the field, and
with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of
the sea also shall be taken away” (Hosea
4: 1-3), vet eventually He will establish
His people in a land of peace.
“For, behold, T ereate new heavens and
a new earth: and the former shall not be
remembered nor come into mind. But be
MARCH, 1942
¥ For centuries the world regarded the statement, “The hand that rocks the eradie rules the world,”
as a truism. Now lhe hand that rocks the cradle is occupied in the Women's Fighting Service, as
A>
tdicated by this British photograph. Such conditions result when plowshares are beaten into swords.
NNN
7
srs
ve glad and rejoice forever in that which
I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I
will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My
people: and the voice of weeping shall be
no more heard in her, nor the voice of
erving. . . .
“And they shall build houses, and in-
habit them; and they shall plant vineyards,
and eat the fruit of them. They shall not
build, and another inhabit; they shall not
plant, and another eat: for as the days of a
tree are the days of My people, and Mine
elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands.” Isaiah 65: 17-22.
Another prophet speaks in words that
are quite similar:
“And I will bring again the captivity of
My people of Israel, and they shall build
the waste cities, and inhabit them; and
they shall plant vineyards, and drink the
wine thereof; they shall also make gardens,
and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant
them upon their land, and they shall no
more be pulled up out of their land which
I have given them, saith the Lord.” Amos
0:14, 15.
®
When will that be?—Not during the
thousand years spoken of in Revelation
20, but after. There will be no millennium
of delight upon the earth, but “when the
thousand years are expired,” and the devil
and all his host have been east into the
lake of fire and brimstone, together with
the beast und the false prophet, then will
be realized that which John said: “I saw
a new heaven and a new earth: for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed
Away. And I John saw the holy city
New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband.” Revelation 21:1, 2.
At the second coming of Christ wars be-
tween earthly nations shall cease, and
God's people will be taken from this earth
ANN a
to be with Him in heaven for the thousand-
vear period. It is at the end of that time
that He will re-create the earth. The new
carth will become the home of His people,
and they will live in peace and happiness
forever. Every man will have his own
home, free from all burdens such as are
encountered in the world today. Every
man will have his own vineyard or farm,
which will provide him with all the neces-
sary foods for himself and his family. There
will be no warmongers of the present type
or of any other, in that land. Humanity
will be free from all cares and sorrows, free
to plant and to harvest without molesta-
tion. Perfect unity will prevail, and all
will be one in Christ Jesus. There will be
no international boundaries. no Atlantic
or Pacific sea lanes to be guarded. There
will be no Eastern or Western powers seek-
mg to divide the world into certain spheres
of mfluence. Nor will trade wars find their
way into that land of peace and pros-
perity, but every man will «it under his
own fig tree and none shall ever make war
any more. Well may God's people sing
A. Cleveland Coxe’s beautiful hymn:
“Oh, where are kings and empires now,
Of old that went and came?
But, Lord, Thy church is praving vet
A thousand vears the same.
)
“We mark her goodly battlements,
And her foundations strong:
We hear within the solemn voice
Of her unending song.
“I'or not like kingdoms of the world
The holy church, O God;
Though earthquake shocks are threat-
ening her,
The tempests are abroad.
“Unshaken as eternal hills,
Immovable she stands,
A mountain that shall fill the earth,
A house not made with hands.”
Page SEVEN