p. 8 | A VAIN HOPE by C. M. S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 24, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 17.

A VAIN HOPE.

By C. M. S.

Notwithstanding the fact that politics is becoming more corrupt every day; that the laws of the land are being systematically nullified by those sworn to enforce them; and that municipal governments have become a synonym for protected crime of every kind, the majority of the religious people are holding on to the vain hope that somehow, in some way, these things are going to work out satisfactorily, peace be restored, the good laws of the land be enforced, and tranquillity and good government hold sway in the earth. That is what ought to be; but it is what will not be until the Creator has renovated this long abiding-place of sin.

That this is a fact is shown by the following scripture, which has been quoted in these columns many times, but which is always applicable when this subject is under consideration: “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3:13. That work, the increase of wickedness, will be in full swing up to the very time that God declares, “It is finished.” The time referred to in the above quotation is plainly indicated in the first verses of this chapter: “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, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”

With these declarations of Holy Writ in mind, we have only to turn to the Saviour’s own words in regard to the last days, to see that there is to be no lessening of the evil until Christ puts a sharp and sudden end to the tragedy of sin: “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26, 27. There was no period then of a return to the ways of righteousness; neither was there before the destruction of Sodom. See verses 28 and 29. But Christ declares to His twelve disciples, and thru them to us, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

There is, therefore, no grounds for the hope or expectation that a human remedy will be found which will rectify the terrible evils existing on every hand; no ground for believing that there is to be a reaction of the race against the downward drift of the tide of sin. Individuals will be saved as brands from the burning, or be plucked one by one out of the flood; but the wickedness which is increasing to-day will continue to increase to-morrow, evil waxing worse and evil-doers multiplying “until the day that” the righteous enter “into the ark;” for, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” It is Christ Himself who is telling us that. Then what right have we to look for a time of peace, tranquillity, righteousness, before He comes to reward the righteous and punish the wicked?

That we are now in perilous, deplorable times many are willing to admit. The Homiletic Review for April gives a resume of these times under the caption “The Reign of Anarchy,” from which we take the following:—

“A crisis has been reached in the misrule of our American cities. Often the worst elements are in control, and officials are in league with the scoundrels. The potent lords are thieves, gamblers, and

the creators of drunkards, of delirium tremens, of idiocy, of poverty, of disease, of vice, of crime, and of a heredity which means degeneracy and contains the seeds of corruption. Men are elected to office with the distinct pledge that they will perjure themselves by protecting law-breakers and sharing the profits of their infamous gains.”

“This is glaring anarchy. The law is purposely set aside, and its functions are usurped by anarchists. The evils are aggravated by the fact that men appointed for the very purpose of enforcing the laws are the most conspicuous violators of the laws, and therefore the worst of the criminals. Their example is a premium on crime, and so long as their dominion continues, crimes will flourish. . . . So dire is the disgrace stamped on official life that decent men shun office. Children of Christian parents are placed in an environment of filth; they are ensnared by the tempter and ruined. The whole tone of the community is degraded, and the atmosphere itself has the contagion of vice. The standard of religion is lowered, the church robbed of its power, and the preacher’s best efforts are frustrated. Whether this reign of anarchism will lead, no one can tell.”

But the Lord has told. He has plainly declared that these things would be; that they would be in the last days; that as wickedness of every kind was rampant on every hand right up to the day that Noah entered into the ark, we could expect the same things right up to the day that He should come. The writer of that article, however, pretends to find in an awakened Christian conscience and in Christian politics a positive remedy for the corruption which exists. This for instance: “Let the people but determine to support only good men for office, and the thing is done.” Now, if the writer of that understood what these things portend, or believed what God has said concerning them, he could not have made this statement. The thing will not be “done” in the way he expects. It will be done when God declares: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:11, 12. We see that injustice, unrighteousness, filthiness continue until the end, and that sentence is the death sentence of the sinner and his sin. “The thing is done,” then, and done for all eternity. It is followed “quickly” by the personal appearance of the Lord in glory. So let us not pin our faith to vain and groundless hopes, and be among those who are overwhelmed in the deception of the perilous days upon which we have already entered.

C. M. S.