3. Home and Foreign Missionary Exertions.—No age since that of the apostles has witnessed such wide-spread exertions in behalf of the Jewish and Gentile nations as our own. This certainly is a sign peculiar to the present century. I do not speak of Missionary and Bible Societies as if they were to convert the world; but still I would point to the fact of hundreds of missionaries going forth to every region of our globe, millions of Bibles circulated—almost every nation having the Scriptures in their own language—and, pointing to these simple but magnificent facts, I ask, Is there not in these a most palpable fulfilment of the words of the Lord, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations for a witness, and then shall the end come”? Matt. 24:14. In our day, we have the preaching of the gospel, and its witness-bearing most manifest. The result is not the conversion of the world, but the gathering out of the election. (Acts 15:14.) And then the end comes! It is not said, And the millennium comes; but the end—the end of this present age, and the coming of the Son of man. This sign seems also referred to in Rev. 14:6: “I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his Judgment is come.” This sign will, I doubt not, become more and more visible—but still there it is already before us—a sign which foretells a coming Lord, and most distinctly intimates the impossibility of a millennium before his advent.
5. Disbelief of the approaching advent of Christ, even in the church.—It is no marvel that the world should either deride or deny that event. And it is of the world’s mocking that Peter speaks when he says, “There shall come in the last days scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” But the church also loses sight of that day; nay, refuses to credit the news of its approach. She says, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” She slumbers and sleeps. And it is just when she is speaking thus, and thus slumbering; it is in an hour when she thinks not, that he arrives. It is often said, Surely, if the time were just at hand, more of God’s people would believe it. But it is when many of them are not believing it, and are counting on delay, that the Bridegroom comes. While, then, we mourn that so many of the saints should disbelieve the nearness of that day, let us also lift up our heads; for by this sign we know that our redemption draweth nigh. 2 Pet. 3:3, 4; Matt. 24:48.
6. Human efforts at self-regeneration.—I do not say this of the church, though there are some tokens of it even in her. But I speak of the world. Man seems now to be putting forth every effort to regenerate himself without God. Amid all the modern achievements of science and of art, he has lost sight of his own helplessness and dependence on Him who created him. He thinks to be a God to himself. It is as if before God’s glorious purpose of restitution is brought to pass, man is allowed to do his utmost for the renewal of himself and of the world. He is to be put to the proof. He is to be permitted to boast himself for a little, and congratulate himself upon the triumph before him. Hence, the vain-glorious speeches we so often hear of man’s powers and man’s prospects. Political reforms are spoken of as the regeneration of the world. One party most loudly maintains that the separation of church and State is to usher in the millennium; another as boldly affirms that it is the union of church and State that is to accomplish this. Education, science, literature, philosophy, are called the world’s regenerators, and no limits are assigned to the blessings which these are to confer upon the world. It is curious, also, to observe, for some years past, how eagerly science has been putting forth all its energies in pursuit of discoveries that shall restore fruitfulness to the soil. Agricultural chemistry has shot up into a separate study. As if unconsciously prescient of the earth’s deliverance from the curse of barrenness, men are laboring to do all that science can to hasten on that day of restitution. These efforts at self-regeneration must prove abortive; for man cannot undo either his sin or its consequences. They may succeed to a certain extent, but only to prove how little they can effect. These are, however, signs of a coming deliverance; for when man’s endeavors shall prove fruitless, both in reference to himself and society, and the soil which he tills, God shall at length interpose and accomplish the work of renovation by the word of his power.
7. The spread of knowledge.—Many are running to and fro, and knowledge is increasing. Dan. 12:4. Nor is it knowledge of one kind, but of every kind, secular and sacred. It is, however, for the former that this age is specially distinguished. And Satan is putting forth his utmost resources of power and craft thus to lead men captive at his will. “He is the prince of all knowledge, where God is not known; of all power where God is not acknowledged; the bright archangel of the natural man, revealing himself in his angelic glories of natural knowledge, natural beauty, natural wisdom, and natural humanity.” Thus does he play his part in this last age! Under these radiant disguises, he is bewildering the eyes of men, and persuading them that this diffusion of knowledge is the appearing of the millennial dawn. So specious are his counterfeits that it is hard to separate the real from the false, the precious from the vile; for when he thus comes forth as an angel of light, clothed in every perfection that the natural heart loves and the carnal eye admires, who shall penetrate the deception and escape the snare, save those who “know all things,” by reason of “the unction of the Holy One”? 1 John 2:20. Most truly has the present state of the world been described by one of the world’s own poets, when picturing the gay flitter of an evening assembly, over which was thrown
“A dazzling mass of artificial light,
Which showed all things, but nothing as they were.”
So it is now upon the earth, among the heedless multitudes of the children of men. It is the world’s midnight. They are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Literature, science, art, philosophy, are all their own! Yet there is an artificial coloring, an unreal brightness over all. There is music; but it is of the siren kind. There is eloquence, too, but it is “the words of man’s wisdom,” not that which speaks for God and “winneth souls.” There is fervor, too; but it is the warmth of wild excitement, born in novelty and nursed by perpetual change. There is high thought, too; but it is often of the unhealthful cast, wrought off at the midnight lamp; not the deep musings begot in fellowship with God, and ceaseless converse with that inspired word which maketh wise the simple. And, in connection with all this, there is a proud air of independence, like that which said, “Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us?” There is a reckless determination to hold what opinions men please, unchecked and unreproved.—Signs of the Times.