Sighs of the Times

On 3^rd July 1914, it was reported in The Times:

“The domestic servant problem is one of the most serious problems of the present day”.

It went on to explain that it had helpfully arranged a panel of ‘lady experts’ to assist the country's matrons in hiring the right kind of household staff. In the correspondence pages later that month, ‘the motor-horn nuisance’ was much discussed by their irate husbands.

Across the Channel, as tensions between France and Germany escalated, an eagle was observed soaring over Paris. Some thought it was a symbol of the feared Hohenzollern dynasty, headed by the German Kaiser, whose troops would soon pour over the border. Others thought it the spirit of Napoleon Bonaparte, that great Frenchman of proud, martial memory. The former interpretation spelled doom, the latter offered hope of French deliverance. It turned out to be a vulture that had escaped from the Parisian zoo.

While the French were seeing extravagant portents and mysterious omens in the sky, the English were engrossed by trivia. The following month, both nations would be plunged into the world’s deadliest war.

We do well to look at the signs of the times, but we must not assume that all events are of prophetic pedigree. We must steer between a superstitious over-reading and a careless naivety, having due regard for the world’s end and Christ’s return, but not apportioning signifiance where it doesn't belong. Is this virus a sign of the end? Perhaps. Or it might be no more significant than its predecssors in 542 and 1918. Let us see. 

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