p. 340 | Power Needed

Signs Publishing Co. · Melbourne, Victoria · May 31, 1920

FromAustraliasian Signs of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 22.

Power Needed

THIS is an age when more power of one kind and another is needed, and is being used, than ever before. The water courses have been harnessed to furnish earth’s inhabitants with light, heat, and power. The winds have been harnessed to furnish their quota of power for the same purpose. Even the lightning itself, that bright power of the upper space, has been forced to declare the secret of its energy, and to turn the mill wheels of our world. In this same age we see a demonstration also of moral and physical and spiritual powers such as no age before has witnessed. The bloody grappling of the powers of the nations was a demonstration of the physical force of this age; but now in the realm of the spiritual a power has come in which is binding the intelligence of the world to the chariot wheels of the prince of darkness, and in millions of homes scarce a night passes without the subtle play of Satanic influences upon minds groping in the darkness for a vanished hand and a renewing of the ties that death has sundered. The Great War has sent a tidal wave of Spiritualism around the world, and through its subtle and deceptive influences millions are turning their feet into the paths that lead to the pit of ruin. But God has His forces and His powers also working in this age of power. While the insidious agencies of the realms of darkness are seeking to captivate the minds and the souls of the people, the mighty power and influence of the Spirit of God are also manifesting themselves to thwart the designs of the evil one. Concerning this great problem and this playing and interplaying of the forces of this world, Mr. Frank Lenwood makes the following interesting comment in “Social Problems and the East”:—

What hope is there for society unless we can lay hold on power to redeem what Kipling calls “the legion of the lost ones”? We cannot ignore the lost. They are a blot upon any fair scheme of life renewed, they are carriers of an infection more easily communicated and more destructive than physical disease. Above all, they are human souls in need, their fate is more crucial for society, more interesting in the eyes of God than that of the ninety and nine who fit into our seemly organisation. It is in this power to recall men from the depths that our Master stands alone. Some of us have good cause for being certain (cause which might surprise those friends who know only the respectable surface of us) that Jesus Christ can redeem. We are in His service because He is putting sin beneath our feet. It is so in every country where He is known. But for the touch which has healed the leprosy of sin, this modern world of ours would be a lazar-house from end to end.

The danger in this age is of linking up with the wrong source of power. There is one Guide Book whose counsels and warnings and encouragements will enable us to find and keep in constant touch with that source of power which will strengthen us for the personal conflict with the forces of evil. That Guide Book is the Bible from heaven.