A DREADFUL OCCURRENCE IN THE EAST.—DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE PROVINCE.
By H. P. Ribton
In the Debarya, an Eastern publication, the following intelligence is announced:— In the far distant kingdom of Shamaym there was a fair province, most delightfully situated and enriched with nature's choicest gifts. Many years ago the king of the country had made his son prince of this province; and being desirous that after a certain time he should assume the government of it, he sent messengers announcing that his son would shortly arrive, in order that his subjects might give him a joyful reception. The inhabitants of this province, however, had always been of a perverse and rebellious spirit, and the more favors they received from their king, who had always been most indulgent toward them, the more unworthy of his kindness they showed themselves. They maintained intimate relations with the king of a neighboring country, who was a deadly enemy to their sovereign; and when the messengers of the latter arrived, they ill treated them and sent them away, declaring plainly that they would not have the prince for their governor. In the East kings are absolute monarchs. One would have thought, therefore, that this king would have inflicted a severe punishment upon the rebellious province; but quite the contrary; the rebels were lightly punished, and he then treated these perverse subjects with more favor than before, hoping by such unusual kindness to gain their affection. All was in vain; other messengers sent at a later period returned in a worse condition than the former ones; the inhabitants, not only flatly refused to obey their prince, but the greater part of them openly declared themselves subjects of the hostile king. The king was now really angry, and would have sent an army to destroy all the rebels. But the prince, pleading the cause of his subjects, whom he loved notwithstanding all, succeeded in staying the destruction which his father might justly have brought upon them. This good prince resolved to make a last endeavor to win the affection of this ungrateful people. There had always been among them some faithful subjects, who kept up a constant correspondence with him, although for doing so they were despised and persecuted by their countrymen. The prince determined to go himself to his province in disguise, making himself known first of all, only to his faithful friends. Then he hoped, by his gentleness and by many acts of benevolence, to gain the hearts of the others in such a manner that on his finally declaring himself their prince they would receive him with acclamation. The design was put into execution. Dressed in the plainest attire he came into the midst of his people. His few true subjects recognized him and gave him a hearty welcome. All with whom he spoke were attracted by his gracious manner. He went personally to visit the sick, to console the afflicted. After a time it began to transpire that he was something more than he seemed. He was proficient in the science of medicine, and had brought from his father's palace some medicaments known only to himself; he had administered some of these to many of the sick whom he visited, and they immediately recovered. It was said, moreover, that in one day five thousand hungry people had been succored by him. Who was this beneficent stranger? they asked; and where had he acquired such science, such riches? At length the time arrived at which he had determined to declare himself to his people in his true character. Accompanied by a band of his faithful adherents, he entered the chief city of his province and announced himself as their prince. As the fame of his beneficence had been diffused everywhere abroad, it might be thought that they would have received him joyfully. Nothing of the kind; the hatred of this most depraved people was not in the least diminished by all he had done for them. Then a horrible crime was committed. The pasha of the province had given his allegiance to the hostile king already mentioned. He saw that if the prince received the kingdom he would be deposed, with all his adherents. The danger was imminent. They resolved to have the prince killed. One evening after having supped with his friends, while he was walking with them in a garden, a band of assassins came, seized him, and having borne him to a place outside the walls of the city, they beat him, wounded him cruelly, and left him, to all appearance, dead. The joy of the people was very great. Their sovereign had ever been so lenient that they did not think, even then, that he would punish them. Providence so ordained it that the design of these atrocious murderers proved a failure. When the friends of the prince came to seek his body they could not find it. He had revived, although his enemies believed him dead. He remained in concealment for a short time, in order to have a few secret interviews with his friends. He then took leave of them, promising that he would return with a great army and destroy the rebels. Then he returned to his father's palace. Not even then was the patience of the prince exhausted. Instead of returning immediately and inflicting the punishment this people so well deserved, he entreated his father (who vowed to exterminate them) to delay the execution of it for a time, hoping that at least some of them would return to their duty. He sent other messengers to them. It was time lost. His friends exhorted their countrymen, declaring that if they did not submit a fearful vengeance would be taken. They laughed at these warnings. When his subjects knew that the time of their prince's return was at hand, they redoubled their entreaties. A few accepted the warning, but the rest persisted in their ridicule; and some even went so far as to say that, never having seen this king of theirs, they did not believe in his existence. At length the day of retribution came. When this hardened people least expected it, an immense, overwhelming army appeared. The terror of all was extreme. Many ran to conceal themselves, but they failed to obtain a hiding-place. Others entreated that their lives might be spared. But the punishment had been committed to stern, inflexible agents, who had orders to spare none. Then a terrible scene ensued. Old and young, men and women, alike fell beneath the inexorable sword. When the slaughter was over, the province presented a horrible appearance. The whole country was covered with dead bodies. The prince had given those who remained faithful to him a private token to wear, so that they should not be touched in the midst of the slaughter. They, and they only, were spared. It was necessary to purify the country. The corpses of the rebels, and all that had belonged to them, were burned with fire. While this was being done, the faithful survivors were received in the king's capital, where they were loaded with honor and favors; and it was promised them that when the purification of their province should be completed, they, with their prince, should return to their country to receive the well-merited reward of their faithfulness. Dear reader, this is a true narrative of a terrible drama, the last act of which is now about to be accomplished. The account comes from the East. The kingdom of Shamaym is the kingdom of Heaven, the Debarya the word of God, and the fair province our earth. All the above-mentioned facts have taken place except the last; and the signs given to us in that word show that this final destruction is now speedily coming upon the world. Our beautiful world was made for man, and in it he might have enjoyed perfect happiness had he loved and obeyed his Sovereign who created it, the Eternal God. The law which was given him to observe was not a difficult one; he was to love his God and love his neighbor. Instead of that, man became a lover of himself, covetous, proud. He spoke falsely, he slandered, he cheated, he robbed, he hated his neighbor. He sacrificed the principles of justice, he stifled the natural feelings of fraternal affection to gratify the most base desires,—avarice, gluttony, drunkenness, fornication. In fact, he yielded obedience to Satan, God's enemy, and trampled under foot the law of his Creator. Had not God been patient and merciful, he would have destroyed man from off the face of the earth, and well would man have deserved it. But he had pity; he was not willing to destroy the work of his hands. He sent prophets many times, exhorting to repentance. Men laughed at them, they killed many of them. At last he sent them their own Prince, his only Son. He came, preaching likewise to men to repent from all these wicked works. He proclaimed God's pardon to all who, confessing and leaving their wickedness, should come to him, accepting him as their mediator with his Father whom they had so offended, and undertaking to observe his commandments. In vain! No sooner had he announced himself as their King in the midst of the few faithful ones who believed in him, than the multitude cried: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” They insulted the Son of God, they killed him, exclaiming, “His blood be upon us and upon our children”! God raised his Son; for it was not possible that he should remain in the grave. He appeared to his faithful ones. He told them that he was going away, but that on a future day he would return with a great army to reign upon the earth, when the wrath of God would fall upon and destroy all men who refused to receive him and walk in his commandments. Then he returned to the throne of his Father. More than eighteen hundred years have passed, during which our Prince has mercifully delayed his return, not wishing that men should be destroyed, but desiring that they should repent and be saved. He has sent among them many prophets, preaching repentance and the remission of sins. Alas! men for the greater part have persisted every one in his wicked ways; they have not ceased to lie, to slander, to covet, to oppress the poor, to cheat, to commit fornication, to blaspheme the name of their God. The Prince gave his faithful people certain signs by which they should know when his coming would be at hand. “When ye see these things come to pass,” he said, “know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand:” “and take heed to yourselves; . . . for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Luke 21:31, 34, 35. Those who give no thought to the things of God do not perceive them, but the faithful recognize them. The cry to men to repent before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, has gone forth over the earth. Some have taken the warning; but many, very many, persist in walking in indifference or in unbelief, sealing their own destruction ere long. If in the year 78, some one had cried to the thoughtless inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii: Make ready; for within a year you will be destroyed with fire and ashes within your cities, they would have treated him as though he were a madman. And yet when they least expected it they were destroyed. If in the year 1755, some one had proclaimed to the inhabitants of Lisbon: Save yourselves, for next month the earth will be convulsed, and you will perish within your houses, they would have railed upon him as a prophet of ill omen. And yet in a moment the ruin came. Now, when an infinitely greater cataclysm is coming, that will fall with appalling destruction, not upon a city or a province, but upon the whole earth, the voice of alarm has gone forth from West to East, from those who are watching the signs of the coming of our Lord; and few are those that heed it. “For, as the days of Noah were,” said our Lord, “so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” “and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” The events that are at present taking place in the East, following after other remarkable signs that have been already observed, are clearly pointed out in the word of God as precursory to the almost immediate coming of Christ upon the earth. We are not informed of the precise day in which he will come; but he said, among his last words, “When ye shall see all these things, know that the Son of man is at the door. Watch, therefore, and be ye ready; ‘for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.’” Our Lord has told us that when he comes he will destroy all the wicked from off the face of the earth. The word of God has also told us how it will be done: “I will judge the nations with pestilence and with blood; every man's sword shall be against his brother.” God's word has told us that it is to be in the latter days, when a great army shall have come down from the north quarters, approaching the ancient country of Israel. A great army has come from the north. It has conquered its way in Asia Minor, a country close by the ancient land of Israel. The slaughter and the pestilence have already commenced in some countries. In other countries the same calamities are threatening. A religious war is expected, a war of fanaticism, of extermination, not in one but in many countries, East and West. Then the sword of every man will be turned against his brother; and in the midst of the destruction of the nations, the earth and the heavens will be torn with earthquake and thunder, and the Son of man will appear. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. And this is even now coming upon us. In that day the just alone shall escape, those who have loved God, walked in his ways, and desired the coming of his Son. Every man shall be judged according to his works. Paul has described the works which will condemn us, making the following contrast: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft [spiritualism], hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.” Gal. 5:19–24. Brethren, we have all sinned, but we can all be saved. Christ is now our Priest, Mediator, Confessor; and there is none other from whom salvation can be obtained. He has invited us all to come directly to him in repentance and prayer, and he will save us. The sacrifice which he made by dying for us will cleanse us from all sin and will give us everlasting life, provided we forsake iniquity and walk as he has told us to do. Let us examine, then, every one his own transgressions, let us confess them to him. He is present with us in Spirit, he sees us, he hears us; let us love him and deal every one justly with his neighbor. Then we shall be able to say with David: “God is our refuge and strength, therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” Brethren, search the word of God, and you will find in it all these things.