The Generation by C. P. Bollman

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 23, 1916

The Generation

By C. P. Bollman

C. P. BOLLMAN

“VERILY I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matt. 24: 34, 35.

Everything foretold by our Saviour in this line of prophecy as signs, that is, all the natural phenomena belonging unmistakably to probationary time, has been fulfilled; and to those who would be in a position to recognize these things as signs, our Saviour says: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [“he,” margin] is near, even at the doors.” Verses 32, 33.

It is true other signs are mentioned, but they run into the event itself to such an extent that it is difficult to tell where the signs end and where the event foreshadowed by them begins.

“There is a line by us unseen That crosses every path, The hidden boundary between God’s patience and his wrath.”

This is true of individuals, and it is true of the world as a whole. That line is the close of probation, whether of the individual or of the world. The world will cross it sometime, but the Lord has not revealed the time; it is this event that steals upon a careless world “as a thief in the night.” The Lord did not give the signs of his coming in such a way as to enable any one to locate even relatively the close of probation. The knowledge of “that day and hour” has been wisely withheld from us. But we are commanded to know that the Saviour is near. This we may know, and this we

must know if we would meet him in peace. To refuse this knowledge which he has put within our reach, is to be disloyal to our Lord.

As all those things that we know to be signs have already occurred, the coming of the Lord cannot be a matter of indifference to us, for Jesus has said of the generation that would be in a position to learn “a parable of the fig tree:” “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Truly —

“We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time; In an age on ages telling — To be living is sublime.”

The writer recalls hearing, years ago, as a boy, a number of Presbyterian ministers discussing informally in his father’s home the question of how long it would take to finish the work of giving the gospel to all the world. All who participated in the discussion were in their prime, but not one expected to live to see the work accomplished. In those days no well-informed person hoped to see the speedy finishing of the gospel. Indeed, only thirty years ago — to be exact, in the Northwestern Christian Advocate of Dec. 3, 1885 — Bishop Foster said: “Our children’s children for ten generations to come must labor harder than we are doing, to accomplish the conversion of the world.”

Of course the good bishop had in view something the Scriptures do not promise; nevertheless the fact remains that he did not believe the end to be possible inside of ten generations from his day. But he lived to see practically the whole Christian world adopt as its slogan, “The gospel to all the world in this generation.” Why this change? Is it not because we have reached the generation that is to see this work finished, the generation that “shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled”?

Think of the wonderful changes that have taken place in the world within the last century. A hundred years ago a large part of the world was closed against the gospel. The interior of Africa was practically unknown; Japan, Korea, and China were for the most part sealed books. India was locked, bolted, and barred by heathenism, entrenched in the caste system. In Turkey, Mohammedanism barred the way. The Greek Church seemed an impassable obstacle to the giving of the gospel to the millions in Russia. In Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, and Belgium, Roman Catholicism sternly forbade the preaching of the gospel, as it did also in South America, and in many of the islands of the sea. Even Mexico, our near neighbor on the south, was unapproachable.

But a new day has dawned, and now there is scarcely a corner anywhere into which the light of the gospel truth has not penetrated. Bible societies are printing and circulating the Bible by millions of copies every year. All who will, may buy a copy of the Scriptures at a price within their means, while to those who have nothing, the Bible in whole or in part is freely given. The meaning of it all is that God has set his hand to the work; that the task of giving the gospel to all the world is soon to be finished, and then comes the end, “the end for which we sigh.”