THE CONDITION AND THE REMEDY.
By W. N. G.
The people of the United States have complained bitterly of hard times for the past three or four years, but their experience is also that of many other countries. In fact, our worst times compare favorably with the best that many other peoples have seen for centuries. Thousands of reasons are assigned for the deplorable condition of affairs generally, and many remedies are suggested. One party or class lays the blame upon another, and all classes are looking to political methods and human law to pave the way to better times. Even the religious world is invoking the power of secular authority, through the corrupt medium of common politics, to bring about better spiritual conditions and to elevate the church. Few seem to realize that the world's crisis is at hand, that the judgments of the Lord are already working in the earth, that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. This old sin-cursed earth is wearing out; the cup of iniquity of its sin-deluded inhabitants is about full. “As it was in the days of Noah, 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 Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17: 26-30. This world will not grow better. The ruling characteristic in the natural human heart is selfishness. Thus mankind in the natural state can not be united in congenial effort to ameliorate the general fallen condition of the race. The tendency is downward, and man can not lift himself up. There is no salvation from hard times, or any of the results of sin, excepting in Christ. He is the ark of safety from the impending doom. There is no salvation in politics; there is no salvation in labor unions, or any other confederacy of man's invention. A “better day is coming,” but it is only for those who take refuge in Christ. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4: 16. W. N. G.