Behind the Times | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 30, 1883

Behind the Times.

THE Christian Statesman has an article in a recent issue, entitled, "Gradual Decrease of Crime." It must be that the Statesman does not receive the daily papers, or has not read them for the past year or two. At the close of the article it says:— "We insist constantly on this steady march of the world toward a better state, because it is a fact to which so many eyes are blind, a fact which illustrates and proves the healing power of the Christian religion, and a fact the recognition of which has much to do with the zeal, persistency and self-sacrifice of Christian philanthropists." From this we conclude also that the Statesman has not read lately 2 Tim. 3, especially verses 1–5 and 13. The apostle Paul, it seems, did not believe in "this steady march of the world toward a better state," and yet he was a model of zeal, persistency, and self-sacrifice. The natural tendency of the world toward evil is a most powerful incentive to activity in Christian work.