WHAT IS THE PROSPECT? by M. C. W.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 3, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 21.

WHAT IS THE PROSPECT?

By M. C. W.

THOUSANDS are looking forward for the dawning of that promised, golden day, commonly known as the “Millennium”—a time when the gospel will prevail and wicked men and sinful nations will yield to its control. Many hold the view who have no idea of just how or when it is to be brought about, but believe it is soon coming, somehow. Vague ideas have been gathered from the theology and hymnology of the Whitbyan school, certain texts of Scripture have appeared to harmonize with these ideas, and the theory has been accepted because pleasing to the human heart. We would that it were so,—that the world might be converted by the preaching of the gospel. We would that the old wreck could be so renovated that it might sail into port a new ship, laden only with fruits of righteousness, decks clean swept, and every spar and stay and sail well in place, bearing no marks of its sixty-century conflict with sin and Satan; not manned with crew of blood-stained heroes, with gory swords and smoking guns, but strong and stalwart Christians, blood-washed and guilt-free. We would that all this might be sometime true, aye, in the near future. Did it rest in God’s willingness to save, it would be accomplished; but it does not. God in his infinite wisdom drew round mankind the circle of free-will, and into that domain even Deity will not enter. Life and death, blessing and cursing, have ever been set before man, but he must make free choice. And we have only to look over the history of the past six thousand years to learn what the choice of the majority of the race has been. God in his mercy has warned, entreated, and manifested his love in every way it was possible for Deity to do. Christ, the Creator of worlds, came to die to save mankind; but how few in every generation have responded to God’s wondrous love! He has also threatened, and divine justice has fallen upon many who have despised his messages; but the careless, selfish world go on thinking that God is altogether such an one as themselves. Some have believed, have obeyed, have given their lives for the truth’s sake; but the mass trample upon their graves heedless of the truth for which they died, or garnish their sepulchers, and despise their teaching. Says the apostle Paul, after speaking of his own

sufferings: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:13. Not for his time only was persecution to be rife, he holds out before the people of God no flattering earthly prospects. However desirable a converted world might be, the apostle presents no such spectacle before them. In holy vision, the future had revealed, as recorded in the verse following the one above quoted, that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Certainly, these texts do not indicate a converted world.

And this is not the condition of the unregenerate world alone. In the first five verses of the chapter from which the above quotations are made, we have a list of eighteen different sins held, “in the last days,” by those who have a “form of godliness” but deny its power. Our Saviour, in referring to the same time, says: “And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matt. 24:12. Every base desire, every unholy passion, every fiendish act, finds its origin in those principles and in that condition of things so graphically portrayed by the apostle. The fact that this condition of things exists in the religious world, is what makes the times perilous. In times of fierce persecution from without, the church of God has put on strength. The conflict has purified her, even though thousands have died martyrs to the truth. They died, but they died a conqueror’s death—“made white and tried.” But when iniquity is within the church, woe be to her children. Evil is called good, darkness is set for light, error proclaimed for truth, deception found everywhere, and while great love is professed for the Bible and the Christian religion, the truths of the Bible are held but loosely. Some of those duties necessary to a life of godliness are considered of but little account or are ignored altogether. The form of godliness is held in theory, but its power is denied in practice. The prophecies fulfilling in our time, those rays of sacred light pointing out our present duty, are lightly regarded or entirely ignored by the leading religious journals and teachers. Ministers find it almost impossible to awaken the moral sensibilities of professed Christians in regard to truths plainly taught in God’s word. The people plead that “the Lord is not particular;” that certain practical truths are not consonant with Christian liberty (license, is the proper term); and that sins of ignorance in the past will excuse open, flagrant sin now. Just as if the passing of a counterfeit note for years, rendered it genuine and its use legitimate! In thus loosely holding the truth of God, in ignoring many of the practical duties found in his word, lies the peril of the church. Moral sensibility is thus blunted, purity of motive is corrupted, and true spirituality becomes extinct. Real, vital godliness is sadly wanting. The church, like Ephraim of old, has mixed herself “among the people,” is actuated by worldly principles and motives, “strangers devour her strength,” and she knows it not. Children are begotten, but in a month they are not found. There is a willingness to do, but not in God’s way.

Is the picture overdrawn? Is the view too pessimistic? We would that it were so, but we see nothing to warrant it. That it is not universally true, we gladly record. Thank God there are those in all denominations “that sigh and that cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof;” who are seeking for light in the dimness and thickness of the moral darkness that prevails; that still cling to the word of God and labor in his grace to perform every known duty. We appeal to our readers, to faithful ministers of the word, if these things are not true. And what is the prospect of a change for the better. Look at the Christian Governments—so called—to-day. Slumbering underneath them all are mines as deadly as dynamite fiends can invent, revolutions as subversive of all good as was that of France in the last century. Communism, Socialism, Nihilism, Fenianism are rife for revolution. Witness the dynamite explosions which have already taken place in our own country and in Europe, which the diabolical concocters boast are but the forerunners of what is to come, and that isolated attempts will be rare from henceforth. Men who hold human life of so little worth pause not at trifles. Some may be executed, but the morbid, unsatisfied mind of the ignorant and ill-disposed will consider them martyrs to a good cause, and their places will be more than filled. When will it end?

As regards each other, the true condition of European Governments is but very little better. Friendly and sympathetic, when not interfering with selfish interests; greedy, grasping, oppressive, jealous, and envious where selfish interests are concerned. Earth-hunger blinds their eyes to the suffering poor in their midst, while foreign wars and standing armies are grinding the faces of the toilers and burdening the Governments with still heavier debts. There never was a time when there was more for man’s necessities, nor a time when his needs and sufferings were greater. When will it be better? Who, or what, is to bring about that “better day”? Will the church do it? Is her divided and torn condition likely to effect such a revolution? Jesus, in praying for his disciples, utters the following petition: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:21. If the world is to be converted, is not that union necessary? Not unity in diversity, which so many prate about; not unity which ignores the truth of God; but unity in God and in his truth. A unity that springs from conversion to God through Christ, and a practical belief in the whole truth of God, would, at least, convert souls to Christ, and silence the boasting infidel in regard to the unity of that book. Tell us not that God did not design his followers to believe alike. The prayer of our Saviour is an emphatic denial of the false claim. The teaching of the great apostle to the Gentiles is against it. The divisions, and the effects of division, in the Protestant church are against it. And is this divided church to convert the world? No one would claim it who did not have a theory which he wished to maintain at all hazards.

Again: The plain, positive statements of the apostle above quoted, the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt. 13:24–43), the likeness of the days preceding the second advent to the times of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:26–30), the prophecies of Daniel and Paul and John concerning the Papal and persecuting powers of earth, the general tenor of Bible language,—all forbid the world’s conversion in the gospel dispensation. We believe in “that better day” most heartily; but it comes not till wickedness shall be destroyed by the execution of justice upon those who have despised God’s mercy. The proclamation of the gospel will then be past. It has accomplished its work. It has gathered that great throng which no man can number out of all kindreds and tongues and peoples and nations. Their robes have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. The earth, which has groaned so long under the curse, has been renovated and peopled by that requisite number of requisite character. The glory and knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” His justice has been satisfied, his truth vindicated, and from the fair face of his creation, sin has been blotted out. Where the trail of the old serpent left sin, disaster, death, and seemingly irretrievable ruin, it is said, “And there shall be no more curse.” Hail, happy day! Dawn, long-looked-for morning! Even so, come, Lord Jesus. But in the meantime, mercy waits and pleads with the lost. Probation still lingers. God is still merciful. He appeals to us with all the hoarded love of the centuries to come to him. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” M. C. W.