A Time for All Things by Jos. Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1875

A Time for All Things.

By Jos. Clarke

“To everything there is a season.” Eccl. 3:1.

How true are these words. See the various kinds of grain and fruits, and all the varied products of the earth, how each observes its proper time to mature. Notice the instinct of the birds, also, in their unerring migrations; how true they are to nature in all its changes. Notice, too, the wild beasts of the forest, how timely are their arrangements for the cold of winter.

Man made in the image of God, has a peculiar sensitiveness on this point. He loves to see order and regularity in all things, and to see everything done by rule, and in its proper time. Who would think of nominating a president, canvassing for him, and holding the election, a year before election was necessary? Men would say, Wait till near the close of the term of the present incumbent, then elect the next one.

So, now, just at the close of time, is the very time for such a warning message to go forth as is contained in the third angel’s message. Often, when people hear the present truth, they are surprised at its novelty, and they exclaim, “Why have we not heard this before?” We reply, It was not properly applicable to any generation before the present one, from the fact that this generation is the identical one which is to witness the sublime and terrible events of the last days. This generation must see the close of all earthly things; it must witness the seven last plagues, the first resurrection, the coming of the Saviour in all the glory of his Father with all his holy angels, and the translation of the righteous, and their ascent to worlds on high. Some must see the earth as it is desolated of its inhabitants. All must stand for or against this message. No one can be neutral then.

To such a generation, living on the confines of time, witnessing its closing scenes, looking each way into the past and the future, with the blazing light of the nineteenth century illuminating the darkest corners of the earth, to such a generation is this light given.

Could anything be more timely, more appropriate? Everything in nature, everything in science, everything in art, everything in revelation, points to this very generation, to this very time, in which probation is about to close and the Judgment about to begin in all its awful and decisive splendors.

Do men really think that God is jesting with them? Dare puny man contradict the word of Jehovah? Are such things as prophecy indicates as forerunners of the second advent to be passed lightly by? Shall we dare to slight the beacon lights of Heaven?

But we refer again to the common question, “Why have we not heard of this before?” We say in reply, Because it was not proper for God to warn our fathers of events which were to take place in the days of their children; but to us is this word preached, because we are to view these scenes, and to stand or fall in the great day of the Lord. JOS. CLARKE.