Swords and Ploughshares.
By J. Buffum
In an editorial article in the Independent of Feb. 6, 1871, entitled “The Alexander,” occurs the following remark: “The multiplication of wars and fighting, indeed, of these latter days, would seem to favor rather the belief of the followers of the late Mr. Miller, that the end of the world is at hand.” It is somewhat encouraging to those who expect the speedy coming of their Lord, to find that any who have so persistently insisted on the world’s conversion are beginning to see that the signs are not favorable to their theory. Many of us remember that some twenty-five or more years ago a “World’s Convention,” so called, was held in Exeter Hall, London, and was attended by many of the evangelical doctors of divinity and other clergy of this and other countries. Many were present from the United States; more from Great Britain; and some from other parts of Europe. I think it was continued three days or more. Many of the sermons preached, addresses made, and essays read, were published and extensively read. The burden of these sermons, addresses, &c., so far as I can recollect, was that the millennium (meaning thereby the conversion of the world) was at hand; that the time predicted by Isaiah (chap. 2:4), when “the people” or nations should “beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,” when nation should “not lift up sword against nation, neither learn war any more,” was at hand. This was the view of the great convention; this was their understanding and application of prophecy and the signs of the times. Certain it is, that subsequent events, as time has passed, have shown that they were mistaken in their expectations, and even at that time a few Bible students thought them mistaken. One of the greatest civil wars the world has ever known has taken place since then—to say nothing of the numerous smaller ones which have occurred in various parts of the world; while the Franco-Prussian war (hardly yet ended), and the present condition of the nations of the earth (even as acknowledged by the Independent in the article above quoted from) do not warrant us to look immediately for the time of peace, so fondly anticipated by the Exeter divines—at least not in the way they expected; yet I have never seen or heard of any acknowledgment of mistake, on the part of those who took part in that convention. A superficial view of the prediction in the second chapter of Isaiah, may seem to favor the idea advanced; but a more careful reading of the prophecy will show what is meant. This prophet says: “In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains. . . . And many people shall go and say,” &c., and a part of what they shall say is, that “the nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”—the very things “many people” did say at Exeter Hall Convention, and which “many people” have said and preached ever since we could remember, i. e., a time of peace—the world’s conversion is approaching. Is not Isaiah a true prophet? Has not his prediction of what “many people” should “say in the last days” been fulfilled in our hearing? Now, in contrast to what the “many people” should say “in the last days,” let us see what the prophets have recorded as the Lord’s utterances upon the same subject; viz., the nations and their “swords and ploughshares.” The prophet Joel, who was contemporary with Isaiah, speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, says: “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [that is, to us, for we are Gentiles]: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen [Gentiles], and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; and the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” It is worthy of notice, that in both these chapters, viz., the 2d of Isaiah and the 3d of Joel, the prophets speak of the last day, the terrible “shaking” of the earth, and the coming of the Lord to judgment. It is well to read these portions of Scripture together, and see how different God’s purposes are as made known unto us by Joel, from the sayings of the “many people in the last days,” as made known unto us by Isaiah. How much we need the admonition of our Heavenly Father with which this second chapter of Isaiah closes, “Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils.”—J. BUFFUM, in Advent Herald.