Signs of Our Times in the Medical World — What Does the General Decadence Signify?
By H. J. HOARE, M. D.
Men of olden time asked, and men of to-day demand like them, a “sign of the times.” To those who in Christ’s day questioned both His divine origin and His mission to the earth, fulfilling the prophetic forecasts, He put the question, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” The query certainly reveals the fact that in the divine providence, signs of the times are given whereby men may know with exactness where their particular generation stands in relation to the unfolding occurrences of God’s great redemptive purpose and plan. Accordingly we find the Saviour responding to the earnest inquiry of the disciples, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” with a detailed specification of signs which would be so definite that, if they were heeded, the children of God would be saved from deception and destruction.
SIGNS WILL BE GIVEN
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.” Will there be any signs of the times in the physical tendencies and habits of earth’s peoples, and in the fruitage thereof in heightened or lowered vitality, in increased or shortened longevity, in subduing or being overcome of unnumbered diseases that afflict the body in its various parts or entire, and also the mind?
A logical and satisfactory answer to this question can be given from direct and indirect statements of Scripture, and find confirmation in statistical and other reports from authoritative sources.
THEY SHALL WAX OLD
After passing the age of maximum physical attainment, where the individual manifests the greatest muscular and mental energy, the universal experience is a decline, which, though exceedingly variable, is nevertheless measurable and certain. Coincident with the decline, and in fact a part of it, is the lessened power of resistance to external forces and influences. Now an obvious analogy between the life of an individual and that of the world itself would not refute this experience, and put the world and its peoples on the ascending plane of increasing powers and resistance.
The Scriptures declare: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands: they shall perish, . . . and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.” This statement and figure are plain, and the application is obvious.
A CAUSE OF IT ALL
Since “the curse causeless shall not come,” a cause must exist for the effect we all see.
The first and last cause of death is sin; for “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” If sin is the one and only thing responsible for death, then it likewise must be the cause of the diseases and physical afflictions that are experienced as the result of lessened vitality and resistance, which is but the beginning of the process that culminates in death. Therefore we would conclude that in direct proportion to the existence quantitatively of sin, there would prevail a lesser or greater amount of suffering, disease, and death.
PART OF THE DAIRY HERD BELONGING TO THE COLLEGE OF MEDICAL EVANGELISTS AT LOMA LINDA
If it can be shown that sin will increase as the world ages, then the harvest, disease and death, of which sin is the seed, will also be greater than at any previous time. Can this be shown? Let the Scriptures answer:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be
Lovers of their own selves,
Covetous,
Boasters,
Proud,
Blasphemers,
Disobedient to parents,
Unthankful,
Unholy,
Without natural affection,
Trucebreakers,
False accusers,
Incontinent,
Fierce,
Despisers of those that are good,
Traitors,
Heady,
High-minded,
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” This is the picture of the moral status in Noah’s days: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
RESULTS MUST FOLLOW THE CAUSE
As shown previously, there can be only one result of this condition; and both the cause and the effect find eloquent treatment in the following words from the book of Isaiah: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws”—and transgression of the law is sin (1 John 3: 4). “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate.”
Again it is written, “The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it [the world]; and it shall fall, and not rise again.”
Do the findings bear out the truth and application of the scriptures quoted above? If so, then we have in the physical condition of mankind, a sign of the times, which is consistent with specific signs in earth, sea, sky, and the affairs of nations.
AUTHORITATIVE FACTS OF DEGENERACY
The following facts relative to the evidences of racial degeneracy and the increase of disease are gathered from authoritative sources, and can be readily verified:
1. There is a steady falling off in the number of persons who attain even fifty years of age. Various states and countries report a marked increase in the death rate of men over thirty and forty years of age. These facts clearly evince declining powers of resistance, and therefore degeneration.
2. The diminishing birth rate in this country and in nearly all other civilized countries is another evidence of racial deterioration. The gravest concern has long been felt by certain governments with respect to this matter.
3. Another significant fact is the inability of an ever increasing number of mothers to suckle their babies. This applies not only to the well-to-do, but also to the women of the so-called working classes.
4. The alarming increase of cancer is a cause for grave anxiety. The statement has been made that if the death rate from cancer increases in the future as it has increased in the past ten years, it will soon exceed the death rate from any other one cause. More than seventy thousand people died in this country last year of this disease. It is estimated that one in every seven women and one in every eleven men who have passed the age of thirty-five will die of cancer.
5. A very rapid and disquieting increase in organic diseases of the heart has occurred in this country during the past ten years. Fifty per cent increase is the estimate.
6. Along with the increase in organic disease of the heart, although outstripping it five times, is arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the blood vessels. This condition occurring in the younger years is a certain indication of premature old age, and therefore physical degeneracy.9
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7. The mortality rate from Bright’s disease and nephritis for 1913 was 102.9 per hundred thousand, as contrasted with 89 in 1900. (American Journal of Surgery.)
8. What are the facts in regard to mental conditions?—Insanity has increased more than three hundred per cent during the last fifty years. There are now three hundred thousand insane persons confined in asylums in the United States, and one hundred and thirty-five thousand in England and Wales. The opinion has been expressed by competent men, that unless some radical change occurs, the whole race is destined to become insane. The unfortunate confined in the asylums do not, however, represent the unnumbered hosts of mentally defective that exist. Thousands upon thousands live on the outside of institutions.
WILL REAP WHAT THEY SOW
Many more diseases might be mentioned, and among the number, those due directly to intemperance, perhaps the greatest and most prevalent sin of these days. Men and women are everywhere giving themselves over to the indulgence of appetite, of every character; and the inexorable law, “Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” is proved true in the woes of various and increasing kinds from which people of to-day suffer.
Our conclusion is this: When men, from whatever cause, have a lessened and lessening regard for the law of God, whether moral or physical, they voluntarily choose the path of disobedience; and “the way of the transgressor is hard”—which is but another way of saying that there is a sure penalty attached to such violations. And as this course is pursued more and more as we approach the end, it can logically result in nothing else than what we see around us—decadence, degeneracy, decay.
So in the physical deterioration of the race there is a consistent sign that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
