The Shaking by Wm. Leask

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1875

The Shaking.

By Wm. Leask

There is so much to be shaken and removed out of the way before the kingdom of God can be established in the earth, so many gross superstitions and hoary systems of error to be leveled with the dust, and so many mock Christianities to be unmasked and driven to confusion before the melody of universal praise can arise from a renovated world, that we must expect tumult, confusion, and carnage as the gloomy heralds of a brighter day. We are forewarned. “Be not ye terrified” is the consoling word of our Lord. The times will be terrible enough, but, instead of being a terror to those who are “ready”—the believing, looking, waiting ones—their message to them is one of joy and gladness. “Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” But surely that man is very dull of hearing whose ear catches no unusual sound at this time. The Lord is speaking in a language which ought to be understood. The cry rolls over all nations, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!” Is the prophecy being fulfilled—“A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations; he will plead with all flesh”? Is the time at hand for the angel of the Apocalypse to set his right foot upon the sea, and his left on the earth, and swear by the Ever-Living One that there shall be delay no longer? Is the era of the unparalleled tribulation coming upon us with great rapidity? Are we of this generation the destined witnesses of the last throes of a groaning creation before the Master shall grant it the promised deliverance? Are the times of the Gentiles nearly fulfilled, and is the testimony of the church about to close?

Of course we are quite aware that times of great public excitement are nothing new in the world's history—that convulsions, commercial panics, ecclesiastical commotions, national revolutions, civil war, and destructive pestilences, have often occurred before; and that questions very similar to those we have put have been put at intervals for centuries past. Again and again the end of the age has been supposed at hand; and no sooner were the awakening events that led to the supposition removed than the world returned to its old way with a sense of relief, and asked its usual skeptical question, with its old sardonic laugh, “Where is the promise of his coming?” But surely it is better to be occasionally aroused by the possibility that the great event is at hand than to sleep on in utter unconsciousness that the owner of this globe is about to return to take possession of

His inheritance. It is better to expect Him though he come not, than to be asleep when he comes. That “he will come” is settled, not by us, but by himself. It is no theological induction, no critical inference from words that seem to imply but do not expressly affirm it, and no fond longing to which the heart is driven by an overwhelming sense of helplessness in view of the terrible chaos of churches and nations.

This sense of helplessness and this yearning of the heart are felt, and have been long felt, by many of the most spiritually-minded men, who wish for a world such as inspired prophets repeatedly describe in language as sublime as it is cheering, and as emphatic as it is sublime; but we have no authority to translate the longing of the soul into a positive doctrine. It is not for us to say that such a thing will be, simply because we think its actual occurrence will remove the evils we deplore. If our Lord himself is coming to the rescue, it is for him to say it; and he has said it.

Now, therefore, all we have to say regarding the present shakings of nations and churches is this—They may be the last of the long series of convulsions which our Lord told his apostles would take place as forerunners of the fearful tribulation that is to mingle earth and sky before the nations shall bask in the serene light of creation's happy Sabbath, or they may not. They may be the rough sputterings of that tremendous tempest of thunder, fire and hail, which is to sweep the devil and his angels from the heavens and the earth, that the place of the Great King may be built, and the provinces of his empire may be rendered healthy and happy regions for his loyal subjects, or they may not. Dogmatism on this weighty theme would say a good deal for our presumption, but not much for our wisdom. But under the light of a certain fact we may venture on a truism which—trite though it be—would be of great service to many professing Christians just now if they would but admit it. The certain fact, about which there is no controversy, is that the final tempest will come some day, and the truism is that it will be heralded by commotions which will strike fear into men's hearts. It is wise, therefore, instead of saying, “All things will go on for ages as they have done for ages past,” to say, “There is every probability now that the last sands of the dispensation are running out.”

These shakings are to be continued with probably much essential sameness, but with ever-varying phenomena, until the return of the Lord. God will “overturn, overturn, overturn,” until the advent of the chosen King, and he will get the kingdom. It is clear, therefore, that these shakings are just the heavings and tossings of the old terrific shock—the groanings of creation, as if the globe were an intelligent living creature protesting against the enormous load of wickedness it has been compelled to bear—the inarticulate cry of the world to the Saviour—“O come, and save me!” The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews refers to the trembling of the earth at the giving of the fiery law, quotes a prophecy of Haggai, and then gives his own inspired comment as follows:—

“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven; whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.”

The great truth that runs through these scriptures is almost too obvious to need naming. It is briefly this: There will be no rest until the kingdom of God and his Christ is established in the world—the KINGDOM, mark you, not the CHURCH. Until then the shakings continue, whatever smooth words of “peace, peace!” may issue from senate or sanctuary. The world is too deeply smitten to be healed by skill of ours; neither royal nor “reverend” hands are strong enough for this case; and therefore we wait for the Lord from Heaven to do this thing for us. We are sure that he alone can, and we wish him to have the glory of effecting the beneficent restitution.—Wm. Leask.