TEXT: “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.” Haggai 2: 6.
There have been earthquakes that have shaken small sections of the earth. There have been some disturbances of a certain character in the heavens from time to time. But here a time is foreshadowed when the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, will all be shaken. At such a time, men will need to have something that is firm on which to stand.
In Dan. 12: 1 we read: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
Mere Theories of No Use Then
Other kings had been standing up, or reigning; but they, with their subjects, had passed away. Here is a time when Michael is to stand up, that “great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people;” and there is to be “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.”
There have been some troublous times in history, some times of awful distress among nations. There have been times of trouble and famine so great that mothers ate their own children. But here we are told of a time of trouble “such as never was since there was a nation.” We will want something then besides a mere theory of truth; we will need to have an indwelling Christ, and to be rooted and grounded in Him and anchored to the rock of Scripture. From all indications, this time is about here. I do not know how much worse matters need to be, or how much the war-cloud needs to spread, to fulfill this prediction; but the present struggle has the appearance of being the forerunner of Armageddon.
“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” 2 Thess. 1: 7-9.
I am glad there is rest for the troubled soul. Even in this time of trouble, such as never was, a man can rest. There is comfort in that.
We ought to study these texts prayerfully. We read them and pass over them too lightly. It will be a solemn hour when Christ comes with all His angels, to take vengeance on them that know not God.
The prism of God’s word throws another beam of truth across our path when we read Jer. 30: 5, 6: “For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?”
A Vivid Word Picture
All faces are turned into paleness. I do not know what imagery or what figure of speech the inspired writer could have used to picture distress and sorrow more vividly than they are pictured in these verses. Paleness on all faces! Men, great and mighty, with their faces white because of the awful scenes and distress in the earth!
The next verse says: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
The day is great. “None is like it.” Never since man was created has there been a day like that. And we are the people who may live until that momentous hour. No wonder that the prophet said, as he looked down the ages and saw this awful time of trouble, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”
Consider another scripture. 2 Peter 3: 10, 11 says: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”
Is Surely Coming
“But the day of the Lord will come.” My heart is glad that the day of the Lord will come. There is surety in the statements of the Lord. We can build upon them. The foundation is sure. Prophets have looked down through the ages, and prophesied of the end, and of the coming of Christ. The saints of God in all ages have looked for it. Some of us have perhaps thought that the coming of Christ would be in five or ten or twenty years, or a little longer. But it has tarried, and there have been those who have wondered if it never would come. But the Lord has said, “The day of the Lord will come;” and His promise is sure.
AFTER THE MESSINA EARTHQUAKE
Notice the statements of God in regard to other things, and how accurately they have been fulfilled. We look up into the heavens, and see how surely the heavenly bodies are placed. Every star appears on time. I was reading, a while ago, of several astronomers who went to Aiken, North Carolina, to observe a transit of Venus. Some of them were from Germany. They built their foundations, putting in concrete, got everything ready for their instruments, and made their observations. Then they said, “We will leave these things here; and in the year 2004, whoever is living can come and see the next transit.”
Kings and dynasties might pass away; but they knew that with the heavenly bodies, there was a certainty upon which they could depend. Things are just as sure up in heaven.
Read the word of God in relation to other things, and see how it has been fulfilled. Take the promises made to Abraham in reference to the children of Israel:
“And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” Gen. 15: 13-16.
Abraham died; and in the course of time, Israel went down into the land of Egypt. Long centuries rolled by; and when the time came for them to come out, it looked as though they never could be emancipated. A king was on the throne who “knew not Joseph”; and when Moses spoke to him about Israel’s going, he said they could not go. But Pharaoh was not dealing with a few weak people, mere slaves in Egypt, but with the people of Jehovah and the word of God. The Lord said they would come out; and although there appeared to be no possible chance for them to do so, the Lord took the matter in hand.
Plague after plague was sent, and still Pharaoh would not relent. At last God touched the first-born; and then the Egyptians said, “We be all dead men.”
The Lord would have taken Israel out of Egypt if He had had to slay every Egyptian. The record says that they came out “the self-same day.” They came out when there was not the least indication that they would do so.
The God Who Spoke Will Do
And although the outlook may be dark, and there may be no prospect that the work of God will be finished in this time, it will be done. The same God who delivered Israel from Pharaoh’s army lives to-day to deliver His people and finish His work.
Look at the history of the Jewish people, that nation which God made the depositary of His law, giving them great blessings, and setting them apart as His chosen people. Looking down through the ages, He said that if they disobeyed Him, they would become a byword among all people, and would be no more reckoned among the nations. To-day they are scattered in all lands, and may be found on every continent and in most nations. Scattered everywhere, a byword and an astonishment, they stand as the fulfillment of God’s word.
Look at Egypt. The Lord said that Egypt, as the result of her despisal of God, would be the basest of nations. Anybody who will go776there will see that God told the truth. As I went through the land once, and looked at the old tombs and mummies, I thought what a difference between Moses, who was down there once, and those old mummies. It pays to cleave to God. He fulfills His word.
The Lord said that Babylon would go down, and also Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. All has taken place as Divinity foretold. Now God says, “The day of the Lord will come;” and surely it will come. All the terrible things that His word predicts, will come to pass. And they are now at the door. They are right upon us.
“No More”! It Is Passing Away
In specific reference to these tokens, we are told that “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Everything here is passing away. Decay is written upon everything. We read in 1 Cor. 7: 31, “The fashion of this world passeth away.” The most enduring things that man can make, pass away.
Did you ever notice how many times the words “no more” are used in Rev. 18: 21-23? “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.”
All commerce and business of every kind ended! That will be a terrible time. The picture is beyond human imagination. All the nations put up a great stir now about the prospect of stagnation of business following the war. There must be an “open door,” they say. But the time is coming when there will be no movement of ship or train. All that business men have given their lives to, will be no more. And many will have no hope in God. At that time, a man will need God.
Giving Gold to Moles and Bats
In Isa. 2: 20, 21 we read: “In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”
Now men are piling up gold and silver. They will do anything for money. But all the investment of their gold and silver possible then will be in the moles and the bats, creatures of darkness. They will cast it into the street. They will have no use for it. There will come a time when money will not be worth much. I read that when the Titanic was sinking, a man down in his cabin took up a bag of gold he had, and threw it on the floor, and picked up a life belt. What did he care then for gold? The sinner will care nothing for it when the Lord comes. All he has will be cast to the moles and the bats, and he will hide in the clefts of the rocks. How much better to be hidden under the shadow of the Almighty!
Oh, if we could only grasp the fact that “every case is about to be eternally decided,” it seems to me it would inspire us with tremendous energy to do our best the rest of the time.
Not Ready for the Bridegroom
The twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew brings before us the signs of the coming Christ, and brings us right down to the coming of the Saviour. Some exhortations to those living near the end are given. In chapter 25, the church is represented by the sleeping virgins. This has had an application in the former history of the church, but I think it may have another.
You will remember that in an Eastern marriage, the bridegroom has a number of his friends to watch; and when he goes to the marriage at the home of the bride, his friends wait until he comes out, and go to his own home with him. They cannot tell what hour he will come, but they must watch. Here they are represented as watching, and some of them went to sleep. Who went to sleep?—Not the enemies of the bridegroom, but his choicest friends, who were waiting for him to come from the wedding; and when he actually came, some of them were not ready, and were shut out.
Is there not some lesson in this for us? Is there any danger that as we wait for the Bridegroom to come—wait longer, perhaps, than we thought—we may become somewhat sleepy, and be lost at last? Some of these days, the Bridegroom will surely come; and I greatly fear that some of us will not be ready. Oh, if ever there was a time when that we ought to wake up, it is now. If I have any conception of our duty, it is, to go to the friends of the Bridegroom, and say: “Wake up! The Bridegroom is coming.” And not only to wake up our own people, but every other sleeping soul within our reach. I wish we could measure the responsibility of this hour.
Relatives and Friends in the List
I think of the other company, the lost brought to view in verse 46. Speaking of the lost, those who did not do His will, Christ says, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” “These shall go away.” Who?—The lost. Look at that awful procession. What a dead march that is! A funeral procession marching to eternal perdition! It includes most of the human race. In that company, I fear, we have loved ones. In that dead march to everlasting punishment, there are dear ones that we love. There will be some parents of children who are saved. There will be some children of parents who are saved. Some of our own blood relatives are in that march. And they are on the road to-day. There are in that funeral procession friends I grew up with in boyhood. I would that God could somehow give us a vision and a burden, that we might do our best to save all we can. Is not that our work now, to reach out to save them ere it is too late?
The point I want to emphasize to-night is the responsibility that rests upon you and upon me to awaken to the duties of this hour, that we may be what God wants us to be, laborers together with Him in the salvation of men. Lost people are everywhere. They are all around us. They are in our homes. We meet them on the street, without hope, without God. And we do not care as we ought. The burden does not rest on me as it ought. I seem to take it too easily. There ought to come upon us all an unwonted burden for lost people. That is what the church needs to-day,—a burden to save lost men and women from the dead march that is just ahead of us.
“I Lost My Chance”
I had an experience once, which is ever with me. It taught me something I have never forgotten,—what a man can do if he has his eyes open.
I was riding on the Pennsylvania Railroad from Buffalo to Washington. When I boarded the train, I noticed a man sitting across the aisle from me. I think he had four children. He was a fine-looking man, getting gray. I looked at him occasionally, and wondered where he was going with four children; and I thought a man’s judgment was not very good to start off alone with so many children.
I thought possibly he was not going very far. But he rode along hour after hour; and two of the little girls ran about the aisle, and came to my seat, looking as though they would like to get acquainted with me. But I did not want to be bothered with them. I wanted to read.
The father tried to care for the children as best he could; and I said to myself that if he didn’t know any better than to leave home with so many children, I was under no obligations to help him take care of them.
As we rode on, I grew tired of reading, so I went and got a drink of water; and when I came back, I stopped and spoke to the man. (Continued on page 14)77
The Times That Are upon Us
(Continued from page 8)
He responded very quickly, and we talked a little. Then I spoke about his children, and about his having to care for them all alone, and how much better it would be if they had the mother along.
I shall never forget how he looked as he said, “Oh, the mother is along, but she is lying in the baggage car.”
I learned much more from that sentence than I had learned from my book: “Lying in the baggage car.”
Then he told me that he was taking his wife back to bury her—back where, when they were young, he had won her for his wife. “Now,” he said, “she is gone, and I am taking her back to bury her in the old family burying ground.”
Then the tears began to steal down his cheeks. I felt like crying, too, and thought that if I were only at the beginning of the ride, I might help him take care of his children.
In a little while, the train pulled into Baltimore, and he took the children out as best he could. Then the coffin was shoved out of the baggage car, he went away, and I have never seen him since. But I lost an opportunity to help him.
I lost my chance, but I learned my lesson. We elbow people like that every day. We ought to do something to help men. We ought to let the Spirit of the Lord overshadow us, and a burden for souls take possession of us. May the Lord help us to realize the time in which we live, and may He transform us into real missionaries, and send us out as soul winners, is my prayer.
