p. 9 | The Time Is at Hand by F. M. Burg

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 14, 1904

The Time Is at Hand

By F. M. Burg

F. M. BURG

The saints of God in every century of the past have hoped for the glorious consummation that is just before us. Seers and prophets of all ages have by the eye of faith and in holy vision seen the glad dawning of eternal day, when the mists and clouds that have enshrouded time’s passing years shall be dissipated and dispelled forever; when the question of the ages will have been fully and finally settled.

One question, paramount to all others, and fraught with such interest as to arrest the attention of all the angels of heaven and of the inhabitants of all unfallen worlds, and to which God is seeking to direct the attention of fallen humanity by the “everlasting gospel,” has been pending from the day that Lucifer inaugurated rebellion in heaven. His persistent insinuation that God was inconsiderate, arbitrary, and unjust in not assigning to him the highest position resulted in the disaffection of one third of the angels. For the safety of the heavenly family this vast host of rebels was cast out, and banished from the presence of God.

But the question had been raised as to the character of God and his throne. The arch-rebel persisted in his evil war, and sought to instill into the minds of the innocent pair in Eden doubts concerning God’s justice and righteousness. He told Eve that God knew that if she should eat the forbidden fruit, it would benefit her, that it would lift her up, and she would be wiser for having eaten of it. It is sad beyond the power of language to express that the question as to the justice and right of God and of his throne, his government and his law, which was there planted in the minds of Adam and Eve, has resulted in such a departure from the service of God and loyalty to him that the history of mankind has been one of idolatry and rebellion, with the attendant results that beggar all efforts to describe them. And so far from the knowledge of God did the nations go, that the prevailing conception of his character in the heathen mind was often shown by the sacrifice of innocent babes to appease the wrath of gods, the deluded devotees placing their own offspring in the red-hot arms of the hideous idol Moloch. This retrogression, this departure from God, this lapse into heathen darkness and superstition, prevailed almost without exception till the star of Bethlehem announced the advent of the One whose life was the “light of men.”

However, God was not without witnesses in all the ages. Abraham knew him, and was called “the friend of God.” He kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes, and his laws. Gen. 26:5. Because of his integrity in the midst of a people where idolatry prevailed, a promise was made to him and was fulfilled, that from his loins there should spring a nation like the stars of heaven for multitude. But the history of his posterity is a sad, sad history. Though there pertained to them the “adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Rom. 9:1-4); though exalted above all others in privileges and blessings, yet their history was one of constant lapsing into idolatry and sin, like the nations around them. Still, faithful men among them maintained their loyalty to God, witnessing for him and the right till his Son was sent forth, born of woman, made “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” and “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Rom. 8:3; John 1:14. “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” 1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:19.

The gospel of Christ is to reveal God to the ends of the earth. He has sent his church on its glorious mission to be witnesses for him in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth, to be “the light of the world.” And through his church he designs to consummate his unchangeable and fixed purpose to make his name “great” from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. Mal. 1:11. It has been his aim to compass this glorious end through his people from the time that he called a people and placed his name upon them. And by the prophet he says to us: “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. . . . Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” Isa. 62:1-3. You will notice how far his glory is to be made known among the nations by his people,—“all kings shall see thy glory.” This has ever been the great aim of the gospel, the end, in the purpose of God, to be compassed by the working out of the great plan of redemption among men. Because of the unfaithfulness of the people to whom has

been given such an exalted place, and in whom such a trust has been reposed, the centuries have rolled by, and still the great purpose of God to get his name the glory due unto him among the nations seems far from fulfilment; yet the time is surely at hand for the “everlasting gospel,” the revelation of the “righteousness of God,” to be speedily given to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, till the earth is lightened with its glory. See Rom. 1:16, 17; Rev. 14:6, 7; 18:1-4. This is the purpose in, and is to be the grand culmination of, the work in which we are as a people engaged.

And so long has been the delay with us to “arise and finish the work,” that God has sent us these stirring words, which ought to cause us to bestir ourselves as never before: “Something great and decisive is to take place, and that right early; if any delay, the character of God and his throne will be compromised.” It must be clear from this that the time is here when there can be “delay no longer.” And it is a cause of the greatest rejoicing to the faithful at this time that we are assured by the oath of the angel that delay shall be no longer. “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. . . . For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Heb. 10:35-37. Then the message must go, yea, it will go, and be finished in this generation. There can be no alternative with the issue that is involved. And it will go by us, if the culmination of this long-continued controversy is salvation to us. If we do not relate ourselves to it so that it can go by us now, and be finished in this generation, it will go by some one else, and we shall lose our part in the grand consummation.

And with such an issue as this, and in view of the magnitude of the work that will give the knowledge of the Lord to the ends of the earth, it is seen at once that the call of this hour is for full and unreserved service in the work we have in hand. As all of the few loaves and fishes had to be delivered into the Saviour’s hands before he could feed the multitude, so our all, little though it be, of money, or possessions of whatever nature, must be wholly yielded to the Saviour. And when this is done by the people of God, he will as surely finish his work by us in this generation as he fed the thousands with the fishes and the loaves.

What does it mean, then, that the work languishes for lack of means; that the funds in the treasury are so low, and consecrated men and women are so few, that the brethren who are planning for the work seem handicapped in their efforts to plan for the advancement of the message? Does not all this appeal to every reader of this paper to make a complete consecration to the work of finishing the “mystery of God” (the gospel), that the day may come when the knowledge of God shall fill the earth as the waters fill the sea? May the Lord give us correct conceptions of the responsibility resting upon us at a time like this, and of the trust committed to us.