DREARY TIMES by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 24, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 45.

"DREARY TIMES."

By Editor

THE following from the Jewish Times (San Francisco) will apply to any city:—

"The community is treated to a series of scandals, rotten enough for ancient Babylon and Rome. The growth of vice in a young city, not yet forty years of age, is a strong argument against the pious belief that we are better than our fathers, and that the millennium is nearer than it has been. The catalogue of sins that infest the city of San Francisco is so appalling that one turns with disgust from the daily accounts in the newspapers. Whether the publication of these accounts will tend to diminish crime is an open question. It will surely, if nothing else, pervert the morals of the innocent, for it is unwholesome food, and excites a morbid appetite for literature that is none the less obscene because it is a presumably truthful account of the happenings in society. We live in dreary times. The churches of San Francisco are to-day mute witnesses of the fact that religion has to battle harder than ever, and our schools are on the witness stand to prove that knowledge has not barred the progress of vice. It is enough to cause hypochondria. Will humanity ever remain the same? Will Satan ever retain the upper hand?"

Yes, vice is rampant, and on the increase; but Satan will not always triumph. Evil will soon be rooted out, and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters

cover the sea. Isa. 11:9. It will not be, however, by the increase of education, nor by the conversion of the world, but by the coming of Christ in his kingdom, who shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall slay the wicked. It will be by the destruction of Satan and all his works—the burning up, root and branch, of all that do wickedly—and the renovation of the earth, so that in it righteousness may dwell. Until that time "wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived;" but when that time comes there will be such a revolution as the universe has never yet beheld. Happy will it then be for those who resist the tide of evil that is carrying so many willing victims to ruin. Yes, these are dreary times, but better times are coming for those to whom these times are indeed dreary.