The times we live in are anomalous to any that have ever preceded us. For some years there have been universal and active preparations for war, and almost universal peace. To secure the greatest efficiency of armed forces for defensive and offensive purposes, has been the prime consideration of government, especially so, as far as the Old World nations are concerned. Europe echoes to the tread of vast hosts of war while the nations are driven to their wits’ end to provide for their support. It is well known that these costly preparations are not for show; and the hearts of men quail in view of the culmination which, though delayed, must soon be reached. But while the temple of Janus is closed as far as international strife is concerned, and angel hands are holding the winds of war (see Rev. 7:1‐3), internal strife and dissension are rending the vitals of the great nations of earth. Within the confines of its own border, each of these nations is cherishing elements of the deadliest nature. Trouble is brewing that has for the people far more terror than foreign complications. For some time the ominous mutterings of an oncoming storm have been heard in every land, and it requires no remarkable acumen to discern the rapid approach of the crisis. The apostle James strikes directly at the matter in a prophetic glance and exhortation in the following language:— “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your 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 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 which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” James 5:1‐6. The apostle locates the circumstances he here refers to in the last days. He denounces the rich men who have heaped together treasures, the rust and canker of which will be a witness against them. They live in pleasure and wantonness while the cries of those whose wages they have kept back enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.