IS THE WORLD GROWING BETTER?
By Uriah Smith
ONE of the most popular because most pleasing doctrines of the present age is that the world is growing better, that through the labors of the church the strongholds of Satan are giving away, and that this work will continue until the whole world shall be converted, and the glories of the temporal millennium be ushered in. But let us see if the facts will warrant such a conclusion. How shall we judge of the advancement the church is making except by the testimony of leading men in the church? Of late the subject has been considerably agitated in the leading papers of the various denominations, and in almost every case reports have been returned of an alarming state of indifference and coldness among professors. Hear what Rev. T. De Witt Talmage in his New York pulpit says of the religious condition of the country which he visited on his recent western trip: "I asked one question in every city, and received about the same answer. 'What is the religious condition of Pittsburg?' I asked. They answered, 'Dead.' 'What is the religious condition of the cities of Virginia?' They answered, 'Dead.' 'Of Cincinnati?' 'Dead.' 'Of Lexington?' 'Dead.' Here and there a soul straggling into the kingdom of God, but the vast multitude going right on their way. An eminent clergyman of Kentucky told me during the last week, 'If some sweeping revival does not come over this country the church of God will go under.' I found beautiful churches wherever I went, rapturous music, eloquent ministers, but the old work of saving souls seems to be going out of fashion." Again, hear what a prominent writer in the New England Methodist says of the old time and present time spirit of Methodism, which applies equally well to other than Methodist people. He says:— "It is generally admitted that we as a people, are not advancing, at least in this latitude, at the rate our fathers advanced in the salvation of men and the increase of the kingdom of God. There seems to be an interregnum of that spiritual power which was manifested by the men of to-day as by those of yesterday. "I think the solution, in part, of this inquiry, lies in the apparent, if not actual fact, that the church itself, as an organization, has taken the place of Christ as a person. The machine has come to be more admired and its several parts more attended to and cared for than the objects for which it exists. Let us indicate this by a reference to the work of the minister. Is he sought after on account of his success in winning souls to Christ? Is he chosen because of the saintly character he bears? Technically, yes; practically, no! It is his administration or oratorical ability that gives him position in the church. And why is it thus? Simply because the church has changed her position from an agent to a principal. It is her interests that must be secured as an ecclesiastical body, and not simply as an evangelizing agency." Thus we might quote to almost any extent. The Examiner and Chronicle notes the fact that 408 of the Baptist churches in New York State received no accessions by baptism during 1880, and the Christian Work in commenting on the statement says: "This shows that the churches are all in the same condition—Baptist and Pedobaptist, Congregational and Presbyterian." While it may seem to some who have been looking for the world's conversion that these statements are overdrawn, we find that they are in perfect harmony with what our Lord said of this time, in Luke 17:26, 27: "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." Paul, in speaking of this very time to which the Saviour alludes says: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:1-5. Again the same apostle declares in a following verse that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." There have been those in all ages who have dared to defend this doctrine of the Bible, notwithstanding its unpopularity. Luther says, "Some say before the latter days the whole world shall become Christians. This is a falsehood forged by Satan that he might darken sound doctrine; beware, therefore, of the delusion." Melancthon says: "The true church will always suffer persecution to the time of end, and in the church itself the good and evil continue blended together." John Knox says: "It was never or yet shall be, until the righteous King and Judge appear for the restoration of all things." The celebrated John Milton in Paradise Lost says:— "Truth shall retire,
Be struck with slanderous darts, and works of faith
Barely be found. So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign,
Under her own weight groaning, till the day
Appear of reparation to the just,
And vengeance to the wicked, at return
Of Him thy Saviour and thy Lord." Matthew Henry says: "As long as the world stands there will be in it such a mixture as we now see. We long to see all wheat and no tares in God's field; but it will not be till the time of ingathering—till the winnowing day come—both must grow together till the harvest." Cotton Mather says: "Without doubt the kingdoms of this world will not become the kingdom of God and of his Christ before the pre-ordained time of the dead, in which the reward shall be given to the servants of God. They who expect the rest promised for the church of God to be found anywhere but in the new earth, or any happy times for the church in a world that hath sin in it—these do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor kingdom of God."