The second advent of the Saviour is an event freighted with eternal interests of weal or woe to every soul. The long-promised day-dawn will brighten time’s dark horizon sometime. Somebody will be living when the Archangel’s reveille shall waken the slumbering soldiers of the Cross from their dusty beds. And just as the first advent of Christ was heralded by the voice of the forerunner, so the second advent will not break upon the world without due warning. Some of God’s people saw in the work of John the Baptist the fulfilment of what the prophecies had predicted, and were led to that preparation which enabled them to welcome the Messiah. Even so some of God’s children will see in the unfolding of events foretold in prophecy the heraldings of His advent in glory, and be led to a preparation to meet the coming King.
In the last chapter of Daniel, the prophet was instructed to “shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end.” And then the angel added: “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” This language clearly indicates that the book of prophecy would lie comparatively dormant until near the end of time, and then be unfolded to the understanding of those seeking for light. We may know from this scripture that when the great prophecies of the Bible, especially those of the book of Daniel, begin to come to light, we have reached the time of the end.
True to the instruction of the angel, we find the prophecies of Daniel, and nearly all the prophetic portions of the Bible, lying under the accumulating dust of ages until almost within the last century. During the last hundred years the dust has been brushed from the prophetic page, and men have run to and fro in search of light until to-day we see many converging lines of prophecy centering their shafts of light upon the scenes in which the present generation is acting its part. We have certainly reached “the time of the end,” for this wonderful increase of knowledge in the hitherto unexplored fields of prophecy has been going on during all the lifetime of the present generation.
This wonderful increase of knowledge has not been confined to the field of prophecy alone, but during the last century there has been a corresponding increase in all departments of knowledge. If our ancestors of one hundred years ago could see and hear some of the sights and sounds so common to us to-day, they would no doubt think they were visiting some other planet. If Noah of old could have been permitted, after a lapse of over three thousand years, to see the “Mayflower” in which the pilgrim fathers crossed the Atlantic, he would not have seen anything very far ahead of the vessel in which he and his family were borne upon the waters of the Deluge; but if the pilgrim fathers, after a lapse of less than three hundred years, could see just one of the battle-ships of the American fleet after its tour around the world, they would be amazed beyond the power of the imagination to picture. If Daniel the prophet could have stepped forward into the home of Benjamin Franklin, he would have found it little better lighted by night than his own humble dwelling of over two thousand years before; but if Franklin could step forward just a little over one hundred years into the Edison laboratories of to-day, his bewilderment would be beyond comprehension.
In all those departments of knowledge which enables men to accomplish the greatest possible results in the shortest possible time, there has been greater progress during the lifetime of a man seventy years old to-day, than in all the previous history of the world. It can not be because men are naturally wiser to-day than ever before, for in literature and art the ancient Grecians were far ahead of their modern copyists. The great tendency of modern progress seems to be toward the annihilation of time and space. This tendency is in direct line with the predictions of prophecy. In the last days, just before the coming of Christ, there must be a great world-warning work done in a very short time, and the facilities for doing that work have increased to such an extent that the work will be done before we realize it unless we hasten our steps to join the ranks of the heralds of the coming King. In Matt. 24:14 the Saviour gives us a sure token of the nearness of His return to the earth: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.” Even the idolatrous nations of the far East are emulating our efforts to secure the means of rapid transit and communication. The recent wars in the far East have been the means of opening new doors for the entrance of the King’s heralds, and it only requires a few more pioneers in the darkest places of the earth before the work is finished.
When a few hundred arc lights are properly distributed, it requires only the turning on of the electric current from the lighting plant to flood a large city with light; and just as soon as God’s light centers are properly placed and prepared, He will turn on the current from the great white throne, and the world will be flooded with that light which will be the last witness to the world before the appearing of the Son of Man on the white cloud to gather the harvest of the seed sown in the preaching of “this Gospel of the kingdom.” The mountain peaks of time are fast kindling with light from the sunrise of eternity.
Even now o’er dark horizon
Shine some beams of glory bright,
“Rosy fingers of the morning”
Pointing to the land of light.
