“WATCHMAN, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night.” Isa. 21: 11, 12.
In the days of the prophet who wrote these words, it was customary to enclose cities with high walls, as a protection against the assaults of invading armies, as well as to protect the inhabitants against thieves and robbers. During the times of anticipated danger, watchmen were stationed on the walls, whose duty was to watch the approach of the enemy, and at the very first appearance of signs of danger to sound the alarm to the inhabitants, that they might arm themselves for defense. From this familiar scene the prophet Isaiah draws the dramatic inquiry, “Watchman, what of the night?”
To us as a people has been committed a great work. Since the days of Noah, no warning message of such tremendous magnitude has ever been committed to a people as that which God has committed to Seventh-day Adventists. For more than sixty years this warning message has been proclaimed, the leading thought being the second personal coming of Christ, and the destruction of sin and sinners.
In the very time in which we live, when the work of the gospel was soon to close, Christ himself saw danger when he spoke these words:— “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 24: 42-51.
It will be easily seen from this warning of Christ that the cares of this life, the love of worldly gain, the acquisition of riches, constitute the stumbling-block to the people of God. The servants of God are warned against being drunken with the cares of this world, and in their hearts saying, “My lord delayeth his coming.” The love of worldly gain paralyzes the activity of God’s people in spiritual matters. It deadens the spiritual sense so that those who are infected with this dread malady fail to realize the times in which they live. It disqualifies them to give to the world God’s warning message to prepare a people for the coming of Christ.
It is impossible for any man to preach the second coming of Christ with power when in his heart he does not believe that event near. When such a one is asked, “Watchman, what of the night?”12he can but give the people an answer of peace, assuring them that he sees no sign of immediate danger. Benumbed with the cares of this life and the love of the world, the watchman fails to appreciate the signs of his Master’s return. This is the danger the Saviour saw would threaten his remnant people.
Let us ask ourselves the question, Do we see in the events of our day unmistakable evidences of a soon-coming Saviour? The world and the people of God see the same events. To one these things present no warning of the coming of Christ; while to the other they are evidence that the coming of the Saviour is near at hand. Let us ask ourselves, “Watchman, what of the night?” Do we see signs of the soon approach of the Son of man?
Christ said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Is this prophecy in a state of fulfilment, assuring the people of God that the end is very near? Do the open doors inviting the missionary to preach the gospel to all the nations of the world point to the soon coming of Christ? Has the translation of the Bible into more than four hundred fifty languages of the world, enabling the great mass of men and women of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people under the whole heaven to read the Word of God in their own vernacular, any warning portent of the coming of Christ? Why has the gospel gone with such wonderful rapidity during the last one hundred years? What has stirred all the various religious organizations of the last generation into such activity in foreign mission work, if it be not to preach the gospel to all the world? More has been done in the extension of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the last hundred years than was done during all the preceding centuries back to the days of Christ. There is scarcely a nation to-day where the gospel can not be preached.
“Nation Shall Rise Against Nation”
In the Gospel of Luke we find these words: “Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.” Luke 21: 10-12.
The events foretold in this prophecy are a precursor of the coming of the Son of man. The time when nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, when there are to be earthquakes in divers places, etc., is to follow the great papal persecution when the people of God were to be delivered up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for Christ’s sake.
This great persecution ceased near the close of the eighteenth century. After that we are to look for nation to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Is it a fact that nation is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, in our day? We have only to let our memories run back a few years, and we can readily recall notable wars involving many of the leading nations of the world. In 1894 and 1895 the kingdoms of China and Japan were in deadly conflict. Scarcely had the treaty of peace been signed when the United States declared war against Spain, and again the world was alarmed, and said that this was likely to involve all the leading nations of Europe. Scarcely had the smoke of battle lifted when the world was shocked by the outbreak of a terrible war in South Africa. Thousands of lives were sacrificed, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent. Hardly had the dead been hidden from the gaze of man when the world was again startled by the declaration of war between Russia and Japan. It is not our purpose to discuss the righteousness or the unrighteousness of these wars, only to call attention to the fact that the whole atmosphere seems surcharged with the war spirit. When Russia and Japan went into this great struggle, many believed that this would involve all the nations of the world.
A RUSSIAN OFFICER AND FAMILY: ALL SABBATH-KEEPERS
The last twelve months have been, perhaps, as war-threatening as any in the history of the world. One can hardly read a daily paper without seeing the war spirit between nations permeating nearly every page. The great armies of the world, the unbelievable expense in navy equipment, the awful struggle for supremacy on the sea, are all leading to one of the most intense conditions among nations recorded in history. Certainly rumors of war fill the air as at no other time in modern history. If the present is not a fulfilment of the prophecies uttered by Christ, what may we expect when that prophecy is fulfilled?
Around the Bosporus, the magazine of Europe, events have been rapidly developing during the last twelve months. The internal revolution in the Ottoman empire, dethroning the aged sultan and installing a new régime, has thrown the whole civilized world into a state of feverish excitement concerning the future. Then there is the daring stroke of Austria in annexing the provinces of Herzegovina and Bosnia to the Austrian empire.
The Increase of Earthquakes
Not only is nation to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, but there are to be earthquakes in divers places. How literally is being fulfilled before our eyes this prophecy of Christ! The prophecy says there shall be earthquakes in divers places. From 1,700 years before Christ to A. D. 96—1,796 years—there is recorded an average of one earthquake in every 112 years. From A. D. 96 to 1850 there were 204 earthquakes, or an average of one earthquake in eight years during the period of 1,754 years. From 1850 to 1865, a period of fifteen years, there are recorded fifteen earthquakes, or an average of one earthquake each year. From 1865 to 1868—three years—there are recorded fifteen earthquakes, or an average of five in one year; while in 1907 there were recorded throughout the world, by the seismograph, over 5,000 distinct earthquake shocks.
Think of the destructive upheavals of St. Pierre, Formosa, San Francisco, southern Mexico, Kingston (Jamaica), Calabria, then, Dec. 28, 1908, that awful catastrophe at Messina, destroying, according to conservative statistics, not less than two hundred fifty thousand lives, besides countless millions of dollars’ worth of property. If these fre-quent earthquakes, with their awful destruction of life and property, are not a direct fulfilment of the prophecy uttered by Christ, we wonder what the earth will come to when that prophecy is fulfilled.
Scientists and leading meteorologists have thought they were able to mark out the route of earthquakes, and have believed their coming could be scientifically foretold. In Harper’s Monthly of March, 1896, in an article entitled “The Lands of the Earthquake,” we read the following:— “Will the earthquake in all its terrors ever visit us? Is New York ever to be humbled? . . . or Pittsburg and Chicago? . . . Must San Francisco become a new Callao? . . . If we ever have for a moment entertained such fears, history at once reassures us. History, mother of science, points to the unchangeable unity of nature. . . . The laws of nature are immutable. . . . The stars rise and set as they did of old: the seasons come with their wonted regularity; and summer keeps us every year as it fed the Assyrians and the Greeks; the ocean keeps its appointed bounds.
. . . Hence history assures us that even the terrible earthquake is bound by the unchanging laws of nature to a single path, from which it is not permitted to diverge. And history marks out upon the map of the world where that path lies. . . . Rome and Naples, for example, lie close to the path of the earthquake, and have been subject to slight shocks for centuries, yet they are probably as safe as London or Paris; . . . yet San Francisco is as safe as Rome or Florence, and the north Pacific shore as the coast of England. History, in fact, assures us that ours is not one of the lands of the earthquake; that our exemption from its terrors is as certain as that the seasons will not vary, or the summer fail to come; that maternal nature has sheltered us from the destroyer that we may enjoy her gifts at leisure and unfold her vast resources by incessant toil, and that he who holds the earthquake in check has ordained that we may do his work unimpeded by the perpetual horror that broods over other lands.”
Was ever false assurance more completely overthrown by the record of events than this false prophecy concerning earthquakes? Think of San Francisco. Surely the present has no parallel in history in the frequent recurrence of this destructive visitation of God. We certainly can not close our eyes and say that earthquakes are not a sign of the soon coming of Christ.
“Scoffers, Walking After Their Own Lusts”
In 2 Peter 3: 3, 4 we find this prophecy: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” This prophecy is almost daily fulfilled, and one has but to recall the utterances of clergymen and laity, wherever the truth of God is preached, to find a literal fulfilment of this saying of Peter.
A little over a year ago the writer was in Minneapolis, attending the Northern Union Conference meeting, when one of the leading papers published the following:— “Minneapolis citizens do not agree . . . in the belief that the present generation will see the end of the world. Several citizens, interviewed to-day, refuse to take the matter seriously.” The article starts out with flaming headlines:— “MAYOR DOESN’T FEAR END OF THE WORLD; NO ONE SEEMS TO
“Mayor Haynes: Ever since I arrived at years of responsibility, I have heard these same proofs presented and the same arguments made in favor of final dissolution, but the world goes on just the same.
“WHAT CLERGYMEN SAY ABOUT THE COMING OF WORLD’S END
“Rev. Wm. Wilkinson: These statements regarding the end of the world have been made ever since the days of the apostles, but I do not think you or I will see the end of the world. If the world will not end until the gospel has reached all parts of it, the end is far away, for many of the people who go to church have not been reached by the gospel.
“Rev. Andrew Gillies: The Seventh-day Adventists have been disappointed on this matter dozens of times, and I believe they will again. ‘The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night, and no man knoweth the hour.’
“Rev. W. H. Jordan: I see in the accumulation of wealth by the trusts, and the strife between capital and labor, no indication of the end of the world. They are simply different phases of civilization.
“Rabbi S. N. Deinard: The proposition
tion is ridiculous. I have nothing to say on the subject.
“John W. Thomas: I do not think anything about it. I am content to leave the matter with the Lord.”
How could a prophecy be more literally fulfilled than this of Peter? Everywhere the ministers and leading educators are quieting the fears of the people concerning the events that are to take place on the earth.
Heaping Treasures for the Last Days
Take the prophecy of James, the fifth chapter, giving the warning against the accumulation of riches in the last days. Never in the history of the human race has there been such an accumulation of gigantic fortunes as during the last half century. When such men as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Rogers, and others can accumulate in a single lifetime fortunes aggregating from fifty to seven hundred million dollars; when to be a millionaire is nothing to be thought of, and in order to attract attention one must be a multimillionaire, we can but wonder if this prophecy of the apostle James will ever meet a more literal fulfilment than it has at the present time.
Catholicism and Religious Legislation
Catholicism is attracting almost universal attention, and perhaps was never so popular since the days of Martin Luther as at the present time. The Catholic Church boasts that she is making more progress in conversions than all the Protestant churches together. To-day the Catholic Church largely controls the public press utterances concerning religion. But few of the large dailies dare lift their voices against the mighty power of this church, and Catholicism is wielding a great and almost incomprehensible influence in State and national politics. Within a twelve-month a president of the United States gave utterance to the hope that the day might come when even a Catholic might occupy the high office of president of the United States.
The federation of churches that is taking place before our eyes is another sign of the speedy fulfilment of Revelation 13 and 14. The combination of all the working elements in the various churches in this country to bring about religious legislation and to enforce a better observance of Sunday as the Christian sabbath, should certainly lead us as a people to appreciate the times in which we are living. There were introduced in the Sixteenth Congress of the United States ten distinct bills pertaining to the better observance of Sunday as the Christian sabbath, or proposing a religious amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Even in heathen countries the propriety of Sunday observance is seriously discussed. One of our missionaries in Korea writes: “In one village where a woman had started to observe the seventh day, a native preacher told her she might as well give it up, and let the Adventists alone; for the time would come when laws would be made, and they would be killed. We13were startled as we realized that in a heathen land where the third angel’s message is just entering, we are required to give the people the light on the union of church and state. Doubtless we shall have exactly the same issues to meet here that you do in the States.”
As we study the times in which we live, and interpret them in the light of prophecy, well may we ask ourselves, Watchman, what of the night? Are there signs of the day dawn, when the morning-star is to arise? Are we nearing the end? Are there omens on every hand of the soon coming of Christ to this world? Surely God’s people have every reason to take courage and rejoice, because from every standpoint from which we can reason, the end is very near. The morning cometh, and also the night,—the morning bringing light and immortality and eternal happiness to the people of God,—the night of sorrow, ruin, and eternal destruction to those who are not prepared to meet their Lord.
Knowing the times in which we live, and clearly seeing the dangers coming upon the world, is it not our supreme duty to give our lives and all there is of us to the spread of the third angel’s message, that a people may be gathered out who shall receive their Lord with gladness at his coming?
