"I did not know that I had committed myself to either side," returned he. "But I will say this much: While I am not pessimistic as to the outcome of this struggle going on between God's and Satan's forces in the world, yet we should not overlook the fact that the devil is fearfully active in these times. While I have admitted all that Will has said, yet there is another side to the question. Let me call your attention to the fact that there never was a time when there was so much rum and tobacco used in the world as to-day. The amount consumed per capita is increasing tremendously. Remember that with every missionary there are sent in the same ship from seventy-five to one hundred gallons of intoxicants, and tobacco galore. Never has this world seen so vast preparation for war. The people of all Europe are groaning beneath the taxation imposed upon them for the support of vast armies and navies. At no time has money been piled up in the hands of the few as at the present. Hundreds of millions in many instances are held by a single individual. By no sort of philosophy can he be entitled to it, and by no system can he come into possession of it without robbing thousands of his fellowmen. And as to inventions: surely no man delights more in the splendid achievements of our age in this direction than I do. But I declare to you that I believe labor-saving machinery to be a mighty curse to mankind, because the laborer is being driven closer and closer to the wall by the innumerable inventions that are driving him out of every field of labor. The great money kings are taking advantage of every such invention, and what the end is to be I do not dare predict. Ignatius Donnely's fearful picture in his work, Caeser's Column, I hope and believe to be terribly overdrawn. And, as I said before, I am not pessimistic as to the final outcome; but let us beware of crying 'Peace! peace! when there is no peace!' The fact is, gentlemen, I cannot help thinking that St. James referred to these very times, when he said in the fifth chapter of his epistle: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped up treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth." See James, 5-4. I cannot, in the light of these prophecies, see that the world is growing essentially better rapidly, if at all." "But, Doctor," said Will, "you cannot deny that the children of these times are incomparably better clothed, have more and better books, live in more comfortable homes, and are enjoying privileges never known to children of former generations."