I THOUGHT it might help to emphasize the soul-winning work we have been studying, if we should take a brief view of the things that are just ahead of us, and study a few scriptures which portray the time of trouble.
The first scripture is Haggai 2:6: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.”
There have been earthquakes which have shaken small sections of the earth. There have been disturbances in the heavens of a certain character from time to time, but here is a time foreshadowed when the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land will all be shaken. At that time a man will want something that is firm to stand on.
In Dan. 12:1 we read: “At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
Other kings had been standing up, or reigning. They, with their subjects, had passed away. But here is a time when Michael is to stand up, that “great prince which standeth for the children of thy people;” and there is to be a “time of trouble such as never was” since nations existed. There have been some troublous times back in history; some times of terrible distress among nations. There have been times of trouble and famine so great that mothers devoured their children. But this scripture speaks of a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. We shall want something then besides a mere theory of the truth. We shall need an indwelling Christ, and we shall need to be rooted and grounded in him and anchored to the rock of scripture. We believe that, do we not? And really the way things look, this time is about here. I do not know how much worse it needs to get, or how much wider the war cloud needs to spread, to fulfil this prediction.
In another scripture God promises “to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thess. 1:6-9.
I am glad there is rest for the troubled soul. Even in this time of trouble such as never was, a man can rest. There is comfort in that.
It will be a terrible time. I think we ought to take these texts and study them prayerfully. We read them and pass over them too lightly, I fear. It will be an awful hour when Christ comes with all his angels, to take vengeance on them that know not God.
Here is another scripture found in Jer. 30:5: “Thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?”
Do you get this picture? All faces turned into paleness. I do not know what imagery or what figure of speech the inspired writer could use to picture distress and sorrow more vividly than it is pictured in these verses. Paleness on all faces! Men, great and mighty, sitting around, and their faces white because of the awful scenes and distress. The color from their cheeks has fled, and they sit pale with terror. There is some terrible thing happening at this time. In my judgment, when we get down there God's true people will all love one another. You will not find a man sitting around in the crowd talking about his brother behind his back.
The next verse says: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” Jer. 30:7.
The day is great; none like it! Never since man was created has there been a day like this. And we are the people, brethren, some of us, that are expecting to live until that trying hour. I do not wonder that the prophet said, as he looked down through the ages and saw this time of trouble, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” These words have a deep significance.
Here is another scripture. 2 Peter 3:10, 11, says: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”
“The day of the Lord will come.” My heart is glad that the day of the Lord will come. There is something that is sure about the statements of the Lord; we can build upon them; the foundation is sure. Time has been long drawn out. Prophets have looked down through the ages and prophesied of the end of the world and the coming of Christ. The saints of God in all ages have looked for it. It has apparently been put off. Some of us have perhaps thought the coming of Christ would be in five or ten or twenty years, or a little longer. But it has tarried, and it has seemed as if it never would come. But the Lord said, “The day of the Lord will come.” Brethren, it will come. The promise is sure.
Look up into the heavens and see how sure the heavenly bodies are. Every star appears on time. I was reading some time ago of some astronomers who went to Aiken, N. C., to observe a transit of Venus. They built their foundations and put in their concrete, got everything all ready for their circles and sextants, and made their observations. Then they said, “We will let these things alone, and in the year 2004 whoever is living can come and see the transit again.” Kings and dynasties might pass away, but they knew that there was a certainty with the heavenly bodies upon which they could depend. Things are sure up in heaven.
Notice some of the statements of God, and see how accurately they have been fulfilled. Take the promises made to Abraham in reference to the children of Israel:—
“He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
“And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
“But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” Gen. 15:13-16.
Abraham went down into the tomb, and in the course of time Israel went down into Egypt. Four long centuries rolled by, and when the time came for them to come out, it looked as if it never could be. A king was on the throne who knew not Joseph, and when Moses spoke to him about Israel's going, Pharaoh said they could not go. But Pharaoh was not dealing with a few weak slaves in Egypt; he was dealing with the people of Jehovah and with the word of God. The Lord said for them to come out, and when it looked as if there was no possible chance for them to do so, the Lord took the matter in hand. Plague after plague was sent, but Pharaoh would not relent. When at last the Lord touched the first-born, the Egyptians said, “We be all dead men.” The Lord would have taken Israel out of Egypt if he had had to slay every Egyptian. The record says that they came out “the self-same day.” They came out when it looked as if there was not the least prospect for them to do so. And, brethren,7although it may grow dark, and may look as if there were no prospect of finishing the work of God in this time, it will be done. The same God who delivered Israel from Pharaoh's army lives today to deliver his people now and to finish his work.
Look at the history of the Jewish people,—the nation that God made the depositaries of his law, to whom he gave rich blessings, and set apart as his special, chosen people. Looking down through the ages, the Lord said they would become a byword among all people, and would be no more reckoned among the nations. Today they are scattered; they are merchantmen and tradesmen in all lands, and drink out of all rivers from the Ganges to the Mississippi. Scattered all over the world, a byword and an astonishment, they stand as the fulfilment of God's word.
Look at Egypt. The Lord said Egypt would be the basest of nations. Anybody who will go there will see that God told the truth. As I went through the land once and looked at the old tombs and mummies, I thought, “What a difference between Moses, who was down there once, and those old mummies!” I tell you it pays to cleave to God. He fulfils his word.
The Lord said that Babylon would go down; and also Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. All has taken place as the Lord foretold. Now God says, “The day of the Lord will come,” and surely it will come. All the terrible things that his Word predicts, brethren, will come to pass. And they are now at the door; they are right upon us.
We are told further that “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Everything here is passing away; decay is written upon all things. We are exhorted in 1 Cor. 7:31, to “use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.” The most enduring things that man can make pass away.
“What family is there that cannot attest it? what parish, what village, what city in the empire, that cannot speak of the ebb and flow and mutation of the things that are about it? Today a home rings with the music of glad voices; tomorrow it is hung with the drapery of sadness. Today a bride is given to her rejoicing husband; tomorrow orphans are desolate, and widows weep. Today a babe is born; tomorrow a gray-haired patriarch, the support and pillar of the house, is carried to his grave. Year after year as we go along we perceive companions, friends, relatives, brethren, weary with the march of life, drop down and disappear. The house that knows us today will soon know us no more; the houses that knew many yesterday know them no more forever. New ties are formed; old ties are dissolved; and the life of the most illustrious noble in the land is but as the vapor that appeared for a little time, gilded for an hour by the golden beams of the setting sun, but, like the vapor that is a symbol of the lowliest life, to be dissolved and to disappear and to attest what all see—‘the fashion of this world passeth away.’”
Your home changes, and so does mine. Your friends change, so do mine. Our brethren pass away. We greet them at this meeting, but perhaps we shall never see some of them again. We little thought, when dear Brother Salisbury, whom we loved, was with us a few days ago, with his pleasant smile, that we should look on his face no more. But that is the way all things are here. These things shall be dissolved. “Dissolved” is a strong word. Crowns, monarchs, and thrones will all disappear. Courts of justice and judges will be no more. All the great implements of war that men are manufacturing, the cannon, the ships, and the ammunition of destruction, will all be dissolved. The cities of the nations shall fall. The day draws on apace. And before they fall, they must hear the message. The time is coming when Boston will go down, New York City will be in ruins; when trains cannot get through the subways; when those great skyscrapers, that lofty sky line, will be leveled to the ground. What a time of distress that will be!
Further, the time is coming when all commerce, all buying and selling, will cease. Did you ever notice how many times the words “no more” are used in Rev. 18:21-24? “A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more at all in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”
All commerce and business of every kind ended! Brethren, this will be a terrible time. The picture is beyond human imagination. All the nations make a great stir now about the stagnation of business caused by war; there must be an open channel, they say. But the time is coming when there will be no business, no movement of ship, no commerce. All that to which business men have given their lives will be destroyed—and they without hope in God. At that time a man will need God.
In Isa. 2:20, 21 we read: “In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”
Here they are piling up gold and silver. Men will do anything for money. Why, all the investment they can make with their gold and silver then will be to cast it to the moles and bats, creatures of darkness. They will cast it into the street; they will have no use for it. There will come a time when money will not be worth much. I read that when the “Titanic” was sinking, a man down in his cabin took up a bag of gold he had, threw it on the floor, and picked up a life belt. What did he care for gold when the ship was sinking? Man will care nothing for it when the Lord comes. All he has he will cast to the moles and the bats, and he will hide in the clefts of the rocks. How much better to be hidden under the shadow of the Almighty!
Then did you ever think of what a terrible time it will be during the thousand years? Did you ever think of how this old world will look?
“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.” Jer. 4:23-27.
All the cities of the earth have been broken down; ruin and desolation beyond all the power of mind to portray is seen everywhere,—a fearful commentary on the work of sin. Here is the home of the devil and his angels for a thousand years, and all they can do is to wander around here among the dead bodies of the impenitent, lying on the earth unburied. Satan will wander around among them for a thousand years.
Isa. 13:19-21 reads as follows: “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.”
While this scripture may have had application to ancient Babylon, I believe it has application to present Babylon. All the castles of the rich and the great palaces of pleasure will be full of briars and thorns and owls and satyrs. This will be a great change; it will be an awful time.
When I think of all this, I feel that when God's people leave this earth, I want to go along. That time is just ahead of us. Here is a statement that says the day of God is stealing upon us:—
“I am bidden to say to you that you know not how soon the crisis may come. It is stealing gradually upon us, as a thief. The sun shines in the heavens passing over its usual round, and the heavens still declare the glory of God; men are still pursuing their usual course of eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage; merchants are still engaged in buying and selling; publications are still issuing one upon another; men are jostling one against another, seeking to get the highest place; pleasure lovers are still attending theaters, horse races, gambling hells, and the highest excitement prevails; yet probation's hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided.”—Special Testimony.
It will come “as a thief in the night.” There is danger that it will come as a thief to those who claim to be watching. How is it tonight? Is it not true that now every case is about to be eternally decided? And in view of this, what is your responsibility, and mine? What manner of men ought we to be? We ought to be tremendously in earnest.
Again we read: “There will soon be a sudden change in God's dealings.” What kind of change?—“A sudden change.”
“The world in its perversity is being visited by casualties,—floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, famine, war, and bloodshed.” But God's forbearance will not always continue. The question is asked, “Who is prepared for the sudden change that will take place in God's dealings with sinful men?” Are you prepared?
The present war situation came on very suddenly. One day we heard about the assassination of somebody, and suddenly the most terrible war of earth's history was upon us. It also looks as if a sudden change in God's dealings had come. “Every case is about to be eternally decided.” If we could only understand what that means, it seems to me it would inspire us with energy to do our best during the time that is left.
The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew brings before us the signs of the coming Christ. Some exhortations to those living near the end are given. In chapter 25 the church is represented by the sleeping virgins. This evidently had an application in 1844, but I think it may have another application.
Where is Christ now? Has he not gone in to the marriage?—Yes, he went in about seventy years ago. In the Eastern marriage custom you will remember the bridegroom would have a number of his friends watch. When he went in to the marriage at the home of the bride, his friends would wait until he came out, and then go to his own home with him. They could not tell what hour he would come, but they must watch. Here they are represented as watching, but some of them went to sleep. Who went to sleep?—Why, not the enemies of the bridegroom, but his friends, his choicest friends waiting for him to come from the wedding. Waiting—but they went to sleep; and when he actually came, some of them were not ready, and were shut out.
Is there not some lesson in this for us? Is there any danger, as we wait for the Bridegroom to come, and he tarries longer perhaps than we thought, that we shall become somewhat sleepy and be lost at last? Some of these days the Bridegroom will surely come, and I greatly fear that some of us will not be ready. O, if ever there was a time when we ought to wake up, it is now! And we who are here should not only be awake, but we should go home and wake up every sleeping soul. If I have any conception of our responsibility, it is that we must return home to the friends of the Bridegroom and say, “Wake up, the Bridegroom is coming.” And we must not only wake up our own people, but every other sleeping soul within our reach must be aroused. I wish God would help us to measure the responsibility of this hour at this time.
I think of the other company,—the lost who are brought to view in verse 46. Speaking of the lost, those who did not do his will, Jesus says, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” “These shall go away.” Who?—The lost. My brethren, look at them. Look at that awful procession. What a dead march that is! A funeral procession marching to eternal perdition! It constitutes the most of the human race. In that company, brethren, I fear we have many loved ones. In that dead march to everlasting punishment, there are many dear ones that we love. There will be some parents of children who are saved. There will be some children of parents who are saved. Some of our own blood relatives are in that march. And, brethren, they are in there today, on the road. I have some blood relatives and some friends I grew up with in boyhood who are in that funeral procession, or will be unless they change. I would that God could somehow give us a vision and a burden, that we might do our best to save all we can. Is it not our work now to reach out to save them before it is too late?
The point I want to emphasize tonight is the responsibility that rests upon you and upon me to awaken to the responsibility of this hour, that we might be what God wants us to be,—laborers together with him, in the salvation of men. Lost people are everywhere. They are all around us. They are in our homes. We meet them on the street, without hope, without God, and somehow I feel that I do not care as I should. The burden does not rest on me as it ought. I seem to take it too easily; but O, there ought to come from God upon us all a great burden for lost people! That is what the church needs today,—a burden to save lost men and women from that dead march that is just ahead of us.
I had an experience once, which is ever with me. It taught me something I have never forgotten,—what a man might do if he had his eyes open. I was riding one time on the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Buffalo to Washington. Just after leaving Buffalo, I noticed a gentleman sitting across the aisle from me. I think he had four children. He was a nice-looking man, somewhat gray, sitting there alone with the children. I looked at him occasionally and wondered where he was going with four children. I thought a man's judgment wasn't very good to start off alone with so many children.
I thought possibly he was not going very far. But he rode along hour after hour, and two of the little girls ran about the aisle and came to my seat, looking as if they would like to get acquainted with me. But I had no time; I was a preacher, and I must read. The father tried to care for the children as best he could. I felt as if I did not want to be bothered with them. I wanted to read. I thought if he didn't know any better than to leave home with so many children, I didn't know that I was under any obligations to help him take care of them.
As we rode on, I got tired of reading, and thought I should like to know where this man was going, so I went to get a drink, and when I came back I stopped and spoke to him. He responded very quickly, so we talked a little. Then I spoke to him about his children, and about his having to care for them all alone, and how much nicer it would be if they had had the mother along. I shall never forget how he looked as he said, “O, the mother is along, but she is riding in the baggage car!” I learned more that minute than I had learned all day in any book. “Traveling in the baggage car!” Then he told me that he was taking her back to bury her, back where, when they were young and in the vigor of life, he had won her for his wife. “Now,” he said, “she is gone, and I am taking her back to bury her in the old family burying ground.” Then the tears began to steal down his cheeks.
I felt like crying too, and thought if I was only at the beginning of the ride, I might help him take care of his children. In a little while the train pulled into Baltimore, and he took the children out as best he could. I got out to see where he went. The pine box was taken out of the baggage car, and he went away. I have never seen him since. But I lost an opportunity to help him. I lost my chance, but I learned my lesson.
Brethren, we elbow people like that every day. We ought to do something to help men. We ought to let the Spirit of the Lord overshadow us, and a burden for souls take possession of us. May the Lord help us to realize the time in which we live, and may he transform us into real missionaries, and send us out through the years to come as the greatest soul-winners on earth, is my prayer.