p. 6 | Escape for Thy Life by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Aug 27, 1903

“Escape for Thy Life”

By W. A. S.

SODOM

The angels hastened the lingering Lot out of Sodom with the warning:—

“Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.”

ANCIENT BABYLON

When the wrath of God was about to fall upon Babylon, those who had ears to hear heard the warning of the prophet:—

“My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. And let your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.” Jer. 51:45, 46.

JERUSALEM

When Jerusalem had filled its cup by crucifying the Lord and finally rejecting the message of the gospel preached by the disciples, and was about to fall, all believers had this warning message from the lips of the Master:—

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out.” “Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.”

MODERN BABYLON

And now the great world-Babylon is to go down in a ruin that will sweep all the earth into eternity. The day is even at hand, and God sends the message:—

“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”

Not in the day of Sodom, nor of ancient Babylon, nor of Jerusalem, was the message more urgent. Then life and eternal salvation depended upon heeding the warning and making quick moves. Now life and salvation are dependent upon settling this question of forsaking sin and all earth’s Babylons of pride, and making quick moves in God’s work. There can be no loitering in the way, save at the peril of the soul. We who talk of it must challenge ourselves continually with the fact that the hour is at hand when great Babylon is to come in remembrance before God just as surely as the doom fell upon those cities in ancient time. And what of the responsibility of a people sent as heralds to carry the warning quickly unto all the earth? W. A. S.