Just as one illustration of ways in which it was sought by the gift of prophecy to forewarn of crises to be met, we may well speak of counsels that preceded the great war of 1914-18.

Without a doubt we of the Adventist Church should have been moved by these counsels to give study to the question of handling our worldwide mission operations as they might be affected by international strife.

As it was, we did not understand the urgency of the counsels that came. They seemed like words for a time afar off. When the war did break, there was no time for conferences, no time for any special preparation for the handling of work in great mission fields that depended upon the European conference organizations. Everything had to be done on the spur of the moment. And it was a great advantage to the missions in some parts that the United States was neutral for a time, after those missions had been cut off from their base of supplies in Europe.

As Mrs. White met with the representatives of other lands in the 1909 General Conference, she felt that she had a serious message for those brethren regarding conflicts to come:

"Mrs. White solemnly charged the brethren who had come to the meeting as representatives of the cause of present truth from every part of Europe, from Asia, Africa, South America, Australasia, and the islands of the sea, to prepare their hearts for terrible scenes of strife and oppression beyond anything they had conceived of, soon to be witnessed among the nations of the earth."-Life Sketches, p. 421.

She said that these conditions were to arise "very soon." These things, she told the delegates, will break forth with an intensity that you do not now anticipate." We were all exhorted to special prayer and acquaintance with God, in view of the times that were coming.

Again, in the Review and Herald (Nov. 17, 1910), the church was urged to hasten on with its work with special earnestness, in view of the scenes of strife and commotion which soon would break out among the nations. Mrs. White wrote:

"Soon strife among the nations will break out with an intensity that we do not now anticipate. The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they realize that something great and decisive is about to take place, that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis....

"The Lord calls upon you, 0 church that has been blessed with the truth! to give a knowledge of this truth to those who know it not. From one end of the world to the other must the message of Christ's soon coming be proclaimed. The third angel's message-the last message of mercy to a perishing world-is so precious, so glorious. Let the truth go forth as a lamp that burneth."

Years before this, also, the gift of prophecy had evidently forewarned of just such times as came upon the nations with the great world conflict. Of a view of coming conflict which was caused to pass before her, Mrs. White wrote:

"The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury, by having repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We shall see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by millions."Quoted in Signs of the Times, April 21, 1890.

While this earlier view, untimed as it was by any expressions in the context, may refer to the closing conflicts also, it certainly described exactly what passed before the world in those days of 1914-18. "Thousands of ships" were "hurled into the depths of the sea." The Encyclopedia Britannica, in its postwar volumes, wrote: "The dreary, dreadful tale of ships sunk and attacked is too long to give." But under the heading "Submarine Campaigns" this authority carefully set down the loss of ships on the Allied side as 5,511. Another authority gave the number of ships of the Central Powers that went down as 482. Very nearly six thousand ships make up the casualty list of those four years of international storm and tempest.

The forewarning described the situation accurately when it said, "The tempest is coming." Thousands of ships were hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies went down. Human lives were "sacrificed by millions." Some put the direct and indirect loss of life by the first world war at twenty million.

As we looked at these forewarnings casually in the years before the great conflict, this talk about thousands of ships going down and millions of lives being sacrificed seemed evidently, to most readers, a description of the very closing scenes of earth's history. Little did we appreciate as we read these things that so soon we were to pass through just such scenes of destruction. That is evidently why, in the messages just previous to the outbreak, it was emphasized that "soon" and "very soon" these experiences were to come upon us. Well would it have been for us had we realized how very soon indeed the storm was to break, for in some ways preparation might have been made that possibly would have helped greatly in the work. The words of warning were surely plain enough.