Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 27, 1910

Behold, He Cometh!

From Brother Claude Maybell, of New York, we have received a clipping from the New York World, of Sunday, Dec. 19, 1909, giving a striking review of the signs of the coming of the Lord. Of Adventists, it says:—

The idea of a new coming of Christ to-day is an influence, if not an obsession with countless millions of people in all parts of the world. With all Christians it is a thrilling thought, or a devout wish. With some it is a faith and a prophecy. The Adventists, under their various denominations — Evangelical, Advent Christians, Seventh-day, Life and Advent Union, and others — look for Christ’s return at an early date within the present age, according to the same Hebrew prophecies which forecast his birth at Bethlehem of Judea. There are in the United States alone 2,544 Adventist churches, with an aggregate of one hundred thousand communicants.

Lo Here, and Lo There!

Of voices raised for the false coming of Christ the article says:—

The Behaists, or “Truth-Knowers,” whose cult, a modern offshoot of Mohammedanism, has made remarkable headway in Europe and America during the past decade or two, believe that the re-incarnation of the Master has already taken place in our time. . . . The Theosophists, whose “Universal Brotherhood” was founded by Mme. Blavatsky in 1875, and of which Mrs. Annie Besant is president, with headquarters at Adyar, Madras, India, believe the incarnate appearance of Christ in this world to be imminent at the present moment. Mrs. Besant herself, who is now in this country, says in her lecture on “The Coming Race and the Coming Christ,” that the Jesus of our faith, even now incarnate but not manifested to man, will take a new body, manifest himself visibly, and lead mankind in the evolution of a higher civilization, an epoch of Christian socialism.

Signs of the Times

The article goes on to give the following very clear review of our position:—

Although we “know not the day or the hour,” yet the time when the Lord’s coming is at hand is not altogether hidden from us. The signs which are to precede and usher in his coming are plainly and abundantly set forth in Scripture, and we are exhorted to watch for them and know that the time is near. All these predicted signs in the social, moral, political, civil, ecclesiastical, and spiritual spheres, declare the Adventists, are now either fulfilled or fulfilling.

In the New Testament the third and fourth chapters of 2 Timothy and the twenty-fourth of St. Matthew are regarded by many as forecasting the present condition of Christendom. We are living in the divided state of the decadent Roman empire. The nations are torn with strife and contention, and are supporting millions of men in arms in anticipation of vast wars in the near future. Such was the condition of the world at the time of Christ’s first coming. ‘In the last days, perilous times shall come;’ men were to depart from the faith and go in devious ways. Atheism, infidelity, Socialism, and anarchy have risen in a great wave that is eating at the very foundations of our religious, political, and social life.

In the way of physical portents it is estimated that there have been more earthquakes within the last century or so than in all previous times in the recorded history of the world. What do these signs of the times, heavenly and earthly phenomena, political and religious upheavals, mean? To the Adventists they mean that Christ is coming again, and soon.

It is cheering to find great newspapers spreading the warning cry, and such an article suggests how earnestly we should watch for opportunity to call the attention of men in the newspaper world to the significance of these signs of the times.

What Remains to Be Done

The last century has witnessed wonderful progress in the cause of foreign missions. Earnest heralds of the cross have gone out to many of the dark corners of the earth, and the Lord has abundantly blessed their labors. We have only to consider, however, a few figures to realize that a great work remains to be done; but instead of this proving in any sense discouraging, it should be an additional incentive to the church of God in prosecuting missionary operations still more zealously. The following comparison is published in the January number of the Missionary Review of the World, and indicates something of what still remains to be done in the world’s evangelization:—

One third of the people of the world are nominally Christian, but in reality not more than one in thirty has an intelligent knowledge of Christ and his salvation.

Dr. Zeller, director of the Statistical Bureau in Stuttgart, Germany, estimates that there are 1,544,510,000 people in the world, of whom 534,940,000 are Roman, Greek, and Protestant Christians, 175,290,000 are Mohammedans, 10,860,000 are Jews, and 823,420,000 are heathen. Of these last, 300,000,000 are Confucians, 214,000,000 are Brahmans, and 121,000,000 Buddhists, with other bodies of lesser numbers. This means that, out of every 1,000 of the earth’s inhabitants, 346 are nominal Christians, 114 are Mohammedans, 7 are Israelite, and 533 are of other religions.