LAST DAY SIGNS by John Taylor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 10, 1867

LAST DAY SIGNS.

By John Taylor

First Sign. “Prepare war,” etc. A New York paper, in a leading article, says: “A French General maintains, in a pamphlet just printed in Paris, that France can place five separate armies of one hundred thousand men each in the field; that her war power is of amazing proportions; and that it would require a European coalition of ten powers, furnishing one hundred thousand men each, to conquer her.”

The New York Post of July 5th, in an article headed—“Preparations for War,” says: “M. Lemonnier demonstrated in a recent lecture at the Athenaeum, that Europe persists in devoting seventh-ninths of all her income to the expenses of war and preparations for war. He declares that the conference at London did not establish a peace, but a truce, since the plenipotentiaries agreed in according full permission to each nation represented to continue its endless preparations for fighting in case of necessity. The arsenals were at this moment everywhere animated by a feverish activity, and the new law proposed for France would summon eight hundred thousand men to the swollen ranks of the standing army. Nothing has changed in Europe. The equilibrium resembles more and more Swift’s house, which was ready to crash to the ground by the weight of a sparrow perched on a tile. Lemonnier regards as among the most potent an habitual disrespect for the observance of treaties. From the famous treaty of the Amphytronic League among the States of Greece in 1496 B. C., to the treaty of Zurich in 1859, there have been 8,697 of these solemn engagements formed, and among them only one has not been broken.”

This seems to fill Paul’s picture well of “truce breakers.” Only think of it—8,697 treaties solemnly made, and out of this number 8,696 were broken, and only one kept!

Second Sign. The world versus church. The following extracts show that if the church is not more in earnest than it is now, instead of converting the world, the world will convert the church. Rev. John Angell James, in his work “Church in Earnest,” has the following dark picture of the present condition of a part of the world, and a very small part, too, viz., the great missionary country of England. And he is one who firmly believes in the final conversion of the world. But hear him:—

“It is now more than three centuries since the Reformation, and more than one century since the labors of Wesley; forty-three years since Sunday Schools and tract societies were established. The Tract Society alone has sent out over five hundred millions of books and tracts. The Bible Society alone has sent out over twenty millions of Bibles. Look now at the moral and spiritual state of our country. The moral, or rather the demoralized condition is beyond the conception of those who have not been inquisitive into the subject. The depths of iniquity which is poisoning the souls of the people, are neither known nor conjectured, by those who are ignorant of the statistics of the kingdom of darkness. But a more fearful relation still remains now, if we sum up the entire yearly circulation of the different kinds of popular but pernicious literature (of England), ten stamped papers—circulation 11,702,000; six unstamped—circulation 6,200,000; worst class of plain and colored pictures (of obscene pictures), circulation 520,000. Total, twenty-eight millions, eight hundred and sixty-two thousand copies. Circulation of Bibles, Testaments, tracts, etc., periodicals all told, 24,418,000, leaving a balance of 4,443,380 in favor of

the worst class. There are also in London twelve places where infidel meetings are held weekly, to discuss and bring into contempt and derision the Christian religion. Let the minds of all Christian people be fixed upon these facts; ponder upon this awful state of things, and ask what can be done to arrest this tide of ruin, this awful cataract of perdition, which is dashing over the precipice of infidelity into the gulf of the bottomless pit. Hell is in earnest in ruining men’s souls. If the church is not in earnest in saving them, the enemy will come in like a flood. Infidelity and immorality are invading us. Beacon fires must be kindled on every hill of Zion.” France, he says, “is shared between a revived popery and a rampant infidelity.”

In view of such a state of things existing, well might the Presbyterian assembly of Rochester-vote that “the first week of January, 1868, be observed as a week of special prayer for the conversion of the world.”

Third Sign. “Form of godliness.” The New York Post of June 26th, 1867, on the removing of the churches from the lower part to the upper and more fashionable part, says: “Unless the missionary churches are maintained in the lower part of the city, before many years elapse there will remain scarcely a church in the six lower wards to indicate to an emigrant landing at the Battery that New York is inhabited by a Christian people.”

Round Table, of May 25th, on the American Press, says: “A daily paper affecting a religious cast would be unsatisfactory.”

Latest church fashion styles. The Tribune of July 10th, of New York, says a correspondent of the Christian Era has the following upon New York Sunday fashions: “Two young ladies were attendants, the one at the aristocratic Grace church, and the other at the humble St. Paul’s. The former, one Sunday morning, sent a request to the latter, her friend, that she would go to church with her; to which she replied that she would have been happy to do so, only that she was dressed for St. Paul’s.”

The Boston Journal has the following from “Burleigh,” now in England: “The Presbyterian communion is held once in six months. Monday is kept as a holiday. The following was used for the communion season: Two dozen of port wine, one dozen of Sherry, five bottles of whisky, three bottles of brandy, and eight pounds of cheese.” Taking the above into consideration, well may the church lose its influence on society.—JOHN TAYLOR, in World’s Crisis.