THE PICTURE STILL CHANGING.
By T.
In the passing scenes before us to-day the picture is indeed changing rapidly, and he who is viewing things closely can not fail to observe that the shades are getting darker. For who can simply read the head-lines to the daily papers without being deeply impressed with the fact that crime and general lawlessness are becoming alarmingly present everywhere? Drunkenness and debauchery, bands of pilferers looting our houses both by day and night, bold highway robbers, and daring assassins, are causing the hearts of many to sink within them. They hardly feel safe for a moment. They pick up the morning paper and on every page and sometimes in almost every column are such lines as the following:— MYSTERY PERPLEXES THE POLICE. Burglary in a Market-Street Lodging House. EVIDENCE POINTS TO THE WIFE. Mystery of the Murder of Game Warden Hotchkiss. And so the list might be continued. The knowledge of such crimes so constantly occurring very naturally suggests the question, What does it all mean? And every day one is met with the query, “What are we coming to, anyway? And if this ever-increasing crime keeps on, where will it finally land us?” To all such there comes a very clear answer, and the great marvel of it all is that these questions were anticipated and answered nearly two thousand years ago: “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24 : 37. From the same ancient authority we are told how things were in “the days of Noah.” “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Gen. 6 : 11–13. So then it becomes very evident in the light of these scriptures that we are in the time just before the “coming of the Son of man.” For truly the “earth is filled with violence,” and the one bright gleaming through all is, that our divine Master is seeking to have all see these “signs of His coming” and be ready to meet Him in that day. He is indeed our gracious and sin-pardoning Lord. And He desires to deliver you from all that load of guilt that makes you dread His coming. Will you let him?