SOME SOLID FACTS by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 2, 1901

SOME SOLID FACTS.

By T.

This world is filling up with murderers. If you doubt it, look at any daily paper, and see how many it records each day.

This world is full of suicides, and if you doubt this, go to the records and see for yourself.

Suicides are the result of disappointments, and distresses, and evils, that drive men to the despair of committing self-destruction, rather than to face what is before them in life. Then who can estimate the woe and misery that exist, and that are constantly on the increase, in order to produce such a large array of suicides? And since these suicides are continually on the increase, who will venture to tell what will be the end of the evil that they foreshadow?

There are multitudes of highwaymen and all sorts and classes of pilfering thieves committing their depredations day and night. These criminals are growing bolder and bolder.

In business circles there is a constantly-increasing amount of embezzlements, defalcations, and trickeries. The insane craze for money is tearing men away from the standard of integrity.

The political institutions, and particularly the government of our large cities, are under the control of political bosses, and it is generally known that these bosses control things in the interest of “boodle.” It is not the interest of the populace that is considered, but the interest is all in the direction of the money that can be extorted or embezzled thru the holding of official positions.

The amassing of great wealth is creating a strong and bitter feeling between the laborer and the capitalist. This question must come up for settlement some day before long, and when that time is fully reached, it will be a day of terror.

The amassing of wealth, and the improvements of the age, are bringing in a desire for the indulgence in luxuries that are debasing and enervating. The whole tendency of them is to weaken and destroy.

This amassing of wealth, and the consequent weakening and debasing effects of luxury, are not a thing of this country alone, but the world over is in the same condition.

This spirit of luxury and ease that comes with great wealth, is not confined to the worldly people either, but those who profess to be the followers of Him who had not where to lay His head, are taking the lead in the luxurious establishment of their places of worship, and in their manner of living. But little difference may be seen between the professed church and the world in this respect.

This condition of things existing in the church, it is not at all surprising that the pulpits of the land are too silent altogether upon the evils of this time. There are some conspicuous exceptions to this rule, but the great majority of the ministers are saying that there is no danger, and that the world is growing better and climbing higher. But their senses, unless they are stupefied by their present luxurious surroundings, would tell them that the world is tottering along the ragged and crumbling edge of a chasm of revolution and distress that will end in destruction.

The history of wealth, when it is given to the pleasures and gratifications of luxury, is that it always is a great breeder of vice. This vice may be veneered with what passes for polish and brilliancy, but it is a hideous monster, like an ugly, internal cancer, that is eating away the life.

To all of the foregoing social evils must be added the international difficulties that are keeping the nations of the world on the verge of war continually. War is in the very air. All the countries on the face of the whole earth are working to their fullest tension in preparing every deadly engine of death that they can invent. And everybody can see that a world-wide war is inevitable. It is bound to come, and it can not be long delayed.

The foregoing is an enumeration of a few of the facts in regard to the actual condition of things in the world to-day. As you read them over, you will think of many other things that are not mentioned, in regard to the appalling condition that actually and unmistakably exists in the world at the present time.

Now let us seriously ask the question, When you see the condition of things as they really are in the world at the present time, can you honestly say to yourself, or to anybody else, that the world is getting better? Is it not unmistakably and palpably plain that it is getting worse and worse, and that, too, at an appallingly rapid rate?

In this connection, hear what the Lord of heaven and earth has to say in regard to it Himself. He says, “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3:13. That statement from the Lord is plain. Any one can understand its meaning. It holds out no promise that the world will get better. And there is not another scripture in all the Bible that is out of harmony with this verse. The doctrine of a temporal millennium, in which the people of the world will all become good, is not a Bible doctrine. And those who honestly teach it should study the Word of God to find the real truth. The Lord has foretold the evil that is coming upon this world, because of the sins that men persist in committing, and the time is not far distant when it will have to be destroyed because of wickedness.

The Lord foretells the destruction that is coming, in order that men may escape from it. But it is impossible for you to make the escape if you are deluded by the idea that the world is getting better, when, in fact, it is on the brink of destruction, because of its sins. Now is the time to get ready for the crash that is coming. Are you doing it? And are you doing all you can to give the warning to others?