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What Is the Remedy?

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 10, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 28.

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What Is the Remedy?

By MRS. MARY D. MC KEE

MRS. MARY D. MC KEE
The Lord is revealing the fearful condition of the world in order to refute the declaration of many that “the world is growing better.” The frightful revelations of the white slave traffic and the wickedness of public officials in bribery, graft, and in being allied with sin in various forms for money,—all this is a sickening picture of the corruption that results from sowing to the flesh. The alarming increase of divorce shows the decay of the home life, and with the going of the home life the nation will go. There are in the United States today 1,258,000 “divorce orphans,” children without homes because their parents have separated. The increase of criminality among children and the youth shows the lack of religious influences in their homes. The new apartment-houses have done away with the real home idea, and the congested conditions are causing our cities to fester with crime and evil, in pernicious associations.
The home was intended by our Creator to be the bulwark of society, but the home has lost its power for good over the children, for the reason that the fashion-plates are studied more intently than the Bible, and the family altar has been supplanted by the moving-picture show for the children, and the club or lodge for the parents. When mothers allow their daughters to wear cobweb stockings and low-necked and short-sleeved dresses in winter weather, there is something wrong with their education or with their mental or moral make-up. The example which many professed Christian women are setting before younger and unconverted women in fashionable dress is now being criticized, and that justly.
When the study of God’s Word is set aside in the home for the follies of sin and the pleasures of the world, what can be expected? There is an awful day coming soon, when parents will wail aloud because of their neglect of religious duties in their homes. It will be too late then. The preparation for “the time of trouble” cannot be made in a day. Now, O, now, what is your custom in your home, my sister, my brother? Are your children united to unbelievers, contrary to the teachings of 2 Cor. 6: 14, 15? Did they have “the whole counsel of God” given to them? Where is the young man in the most of homes who prays that God will choose for him the companion of his life? Where is the young woman who seeks on bended knee for God’s choice of her husband? Too often, this generation repeats the saying of Samson, “She pleaseth me.” If people were married “in the Lord,” and husbands and wives understood Eph. 5: 21-33 and 6: 1-4 as God purposed their relations, what a different world this would be!
Where are the parents who teach their children not to love the world or the things of the world lest they be enemies of God? 1 John 2: 15-17; James 4: 4. Instead, the baby must wear a gold ring; if a girl, she must have a bracelet. She is told to see her “pretty shoes,” “pretty dresses,” and to admire finery rather than beauty of character, sweetness of temper, or purity of heart.
Home was intended to be the dearest, most sacred place on earth, and the two things most surely God-given in Eden were the Sabbath and the home: one man for one woman, the place they were to live, and love, and work. Sin has for a time marred God’s plan, but it will be his purpose to restore all that was lost; and our business is to get into line with that eternal plan. The question is asked by some who see existing conditions, “What is the remedy for all this evil?”
Vice commissioners are investigating, and are bringing pressure to bear upon transgressors by the hand of the law, to clean up the morals of the people. But what will that do for the hearts of men and women, “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”? No man-made laws can make people good, but rather there will be added to their sins the sin of hypocrisy, and under more secrecy and deceit will the evil in their hearts be lived out.
We are told that woman’s suffrage will be a means of purifying the world of its evil. While it is true there are some noble women who desire to accomplish this worthy object, yet the Lord never intended women to be politicians, but to be home-makers, and builders of character in the realm of home, where they might be powerful in influencing their husbands, sons, and brothers to strive for the better and the nobler things of life. Outside of that sphere God’s blessing cannot attend her.
The times show that every force is coming into action for the fulfilment of prophecy that foretells the end of the world and the setting up of God’s everlasting kingdom “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Are you glad? Are you planning to be a resident in that kingdom? The King’s business requireth haste, and obedience, and faith. Are you a “faithful servant” now? We see that events are shaping rapidly and with a fierceness and an intensity that are remarkable.
What a pitiful condition the great world is in! but O, how blessed the hope of the Christian! The vision of the future as it is in Jesus’ promises in his Word lifts the believer above the terrible situation of the world, and fills the heart with courage to “wait patiently for him.” The words of the apostle are true today: men are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness,” but no power to keep from sin. There is only one remedy, and that is the giving of the third angel’s message. Rev. 14: 9-16. That message, attended by the power of the Holy Spirit, will be the last call to the people of this world to turn away from the snares of Satan and come out from the world, which now “lieth in wickedness.”
Is it true of us that our church and the world walk hand in hand? Where will our dear Master find his chosen remnant standing in the day when his final test is given? They who are truly his will be clothed in his righteousness, without fault, blameless, and waiting and watching.
Are you ready, dear reader? Are your children ready? How about your household? Awake! arise! and let the glory of the Lord be seen by the putting away of sin, the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Then the closing work of the gospel of the kingdom will go with power, and the harvest of the earth be reaped. Then Jesus will come, our Saviour. God help us to discern the signs of the times, and to know the day of our visitation!
Byron Center, Mich.