FOLLOWING the events of September 11 one USA minister was heard to declare, "We (the rich of America) have been living in Eden... We have just been evicted."

And are not those words spot on?

How is it that we are in the year 2002, yet there are soup kitchens? How is it that there are storehouses, jam-packed with food, yet millions are dying of starvation? How is it that many buildings stand empty and derelict when millions walk the streets homeless? How is it that medicine has made the greatest advances ever known, yet millions are on sickbeds?

How is it that we have more hospitals than Florence Nightingale could count, and yet people come out of hospital with things they never went in with? How is it that machinery has enabled mankind to escape the drudgery of previous generations, yet mankind grows more and more discontented as the days go by?

How is it that children (of the west) have every advantage regarding education, yet many leaving school who can neither read nor write basic English?

Is it not evident that something is very, very wrong? We may prefer to turn on our heels and close our eyes to the present situation but the lightning flash of glaring truth is seen to grow to a deafening thunderclap.

September 11 was the herald of the coming storm. It is time to batten down the hatches for we are in for a rough ride.

Our situation is much the same as in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said, "No man seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment." (Mark 2: 21).

Let politicians and religious leaders do what they will to bail the water out of this "sinking Titanic" -- but it will be to no avail. The message from heaven declares, "Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting."

What many do not realise is that the new world is on its way in -- and Praise be to God -- the old is on its way out. Ah, yes! God's kingdom has arrived. Behind this dark cloud just ahead there shines a glorious silver lining -- if only folks would take the time and effort to take a look.

R Page,

Kingsmede,

Blackpool.