Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1894 — A NEW DISPENSATION. [ARTICLE]

A NEW DISPENSATION.

“About this time” look out for tigns in the heavens, earthquakes, (ailing stars, a change in the moon, j utter darkness and all the tribulations foretold as incidents of the approach of the grand catastrophe that has been foretold as inseparable from the general liquidation that must take place in all earthly matters prior to the final triumph of the elect and the final annihilation of the rest of mankind.. Something is liable to drop. Some people fully believe that we are “on the stroke of the midnight hour” and that those who fail to keep coal. Soil in their campaign torches at all hours are liable to fail to keep up with the procession and lose their supper. They hold that the crisis so long foretold Is about to eventuate in a manner that will convince the most skeptical of the truth of their “figgers.” They will probably be strengthened in their belief by the remarkable experiences of the mariners on the high seas this winter, who have in several instances, both on the At>

lan tic and Pacific, encountered “higl rollers?’ of unprecedented size, whicl they are at a loss to account for 01 theories heretofore accepted. Thei are thought to have been tidal, waves but there is no explainable cause so them in mid-ocean. The ships in al reported cases were all but wrecked, and the experience was totally un looked for and frightful and ex pensive to the last degree. Thi principal cases reported were thos< of the U. S. cutter Corwin, on i forced trip from Honolulu, which, ot Dec. 28, encountered a wave tha* broke over the starboard bow, land ing a deluge on deek and sweeping away fifteen tons of sacked coal, ano the Normannia," sailing from New York to Naples, which met a tidal wave Jan. 21, 76(kmileneastof Sandj Hook and was so badly wrecked that she had to put back to New York, Whether these happenings are real] j signs of the “last days" i.r not, theji are notable events that scientists may well consider and if possible explain. Less confirmatory of these weird theories, however, is the latest news from Europe. For the pasttwc years the situation on the continent has seemed to indicate a general war among the great powers, and huge standing armies and urgent and repeated calls for larger military establishments have seemed to forecast the near approach of the time when “wars and rumors of wars” shall frighten the wicked and console the righteous with the apparently near approach of that time foretold by Holy Writ, But row comes the intelligence that the powers find their great military equipment fully as expensive and burdensome as actual hostilities, and the further information that a sentiment is rapidly growing for a practical disarmament and mutual pledges for a lasting peace that will shortly usher in that glorious time “When the war drum throbs no longef And the battle flags are furled In the jubilee of nations And the Sabbath of the world.” Our i-eaders can interpret all these “signs” to suit themselves,and if they can square them with the prophecies of those who believe a new dispensation is just at hand we shall enter no objection, but rather will endeavor to give full details of the new order of things in these columns" at the earliest practieahdate.