October 21, 1897

“Signs of the Times in the Business World” American Sentinel 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

“Present Truth.” London, Eng

It is an age of confederacies and “trust.” The rich form them to add to their riches, and the poorer are joining together for common action against those holding the means of production. In it all, the rights of the individual are not considered, and the tendency is toward the tyranny of the combination over the individual. The Scripture foretells the troubles that will come in the last days because of the rich heaping together their riches. In the end they will be for “booties” unto the oppressed, Habakkuk warns them, and the prophet James pronounces the woe upon them for their covetousness, at the same time showing that all the Lord’s people will keep clear of both sides in the controversy, and wait patiently for the coming of the Lord.AMS October 21, 1897, page 647.1

The signs of the coming struggle are apparent everywhere, but in America they are most plainly to be seen. An American correspondent of the National Review says that the commercial world is—AMS October 21, 1897, page 647.2

“full of rumors of the creation of new trust so gigantic and so far-reaching in their cope that those trusts already in existence are mere pigmies compared to them.”AMS October 21, 1897, page 647.3

One trust now controlling the oil, iron ore, and sugar industries of America, purposes adding several other businesses, having so great an income that it can easily buy the industry. Thus business and wealth in the United States are coming more and more into the hands of a few. The National Review says of this:-AMS October 21, 1897, page 647.4

“It is difficult to see what the end will be an when this process of absorption will end. There are perhaps two solutions which may be looked forward to during the next quarter of a century. One is a universal trust with a few men controlling all the industrial activities of the United States, and with the bulk of the American people its employees. The other is a repetition of the French Revolution, but the revolution of 1825, if it comes, will be more terrible in its consequences and more destructive in its results than that of 1793, because to-day the people are more numerous, more determined and more intelligent, and their power to work good or evil has increased tenfold since the days of Robespierre and Danton.”AMS October 21, 1897, page 647.5

The one thing that would hold in check these elements of violence, both as to the lawless greed of the capitalists and the lawless covetousness of the poor, is the Gospel. But the world does not want this generally. And too often the churches-and this is the general tendency in America-distrusting the power of the Gospel, are going in for political reform. But the more the churches enter the arena of political strife the less power of God for righteousness will they have to wield for peace. One of the signs of the Lord’s coming was to be the “distress of nations, with perplexity.” We see it in more directions than one, and men’s hearts are alarmed as they look into the future. It is a good time to persuade men to put their trust in God. He has a care for the individual.AMS October 21, 1897, page 647.6