Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/238

 should arrive by telling us, that at that time "many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold."

Now, could we have a more striking prediction of what so remarkably characterizes the century we are living in? If there be one feature more than another that distinguishes it from all its predecessors, it surely is that most wonderful increase of communication between the most distant parts of the earth, and the most distant nations. The application of steam to locomotion has, as if were, annihilated distance, and the whole human race seems bent on passing from one country to another; while the other fact is no less remarkably fulfilled, "and knowledge shall be manifold."

Was there ever an age in which human knowledge was so diversified, and so generally diffused? It would be useless to enlarge upon such a fact as this; it is an unmistakeable fulfilment of the Prophet's words, and no one would call it in question; its existence is the boast of the nineteenth century.

But if this be so, what else can we conclude but that we are close upon the wonderful period announced by the Prophet, and that, if our days are spared a little longer, we may very probably witness the tremendous conflict of all the secular powers, so often predicted by the