p. 8 | The Outlook and the Uplook by Francis M. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 31, 1914

The Outlook and the Uplook

By Francis M. Wilcox

THE date of this number of the REVIEW marks the close of another year, a year which will be recorded by the annalist as one of the most striking of all the years of history. Who would have predicted one year ago that the close of 1914 would have brought the world into such a condition as we find today—more than one half of it engaged in deadly mortal combat. Thousands have hugged the delusive hope that general war was impossible; that the spirit of Christianity, of society, of commerce, prohibited it; that the immense navies and large standing armies would forever safeguard the peace of the nations.

But all these theories have failed. The pent-up spirit of war has burst forth, and it has been demonstrated that human nature today is the same as in all the ages of the past. The dissipation of these pleasing theories of peace has brought to many a lessening of Christian faith, and many today are stumbling over what they consider the failure of Christianity. But Christianity has not failed. The vaunted civilization of the twentieth century, in which men have trusted; the fancied security of armed peace; the power of international treaties and alliances; human ingenuity and devisings,— these have failed, but God still lives.

Jesus Christ, the Saviour of man, still sits enthroned at the right hand of power. He is as abundantly able today as ever in the history of the church to save unto the uttermost all who will come unto God by him. His power to change the human heart, to work miracles of saving grace in the lives of sinners, is not without many witnesses today. In this hour of fearful trial which has come upon the world, when men's hearts are failing them for fear, and when in their mistaken zeal the professed followers of the Nazarene do despite to his teaching and bring disgrace upon his holy name, in every nation and in every land are sincere, trusting children in whose lives is manifested the power of the gospel of Christ.

The apparent failure of Christianity has been the failure of the human agent in the redemptive scheme,— the failure of men and of the rulers of men to submit their lives and their ways to the principles of the Word of God. As never before in the history of the world have men the opportunity today of demonstrating in their lives the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the mission to which God calls the readers of this paper in the year to come. In his grace we have been made the conservators of a message which is to go to all the world; a message of warning, of admonition, of reform; a message which calls men away from the worship of sin and self to the worship of the Creator of the heavens and the earth; a message which exalts the commandments of God above the precepts and traditions of men. This message calls for surrender and for sacrifice, for consecration of heart and life to divine service.

In these days when uncertainty is possessing so many hearts, may God give to us a clear and living testimony of his grace in our lives. Above the strife and the darkness and the confusion God is today keeping watch over his own. His eye is upon every faithful believer. He will show himself mighty in behalf of him whose heart is set to do right. We need not fear for the future. The outlook in the world is dark, but the uplook is bright. God is above the brightness. Let us look upward. F. M. W.