WHO WILL HEED THE MESSAGE?
IN these days of peril, and to meet the troubles, perils, and needs of these times, one of God's messages to his people, of reproof, warning, and instruction, is the following, in which God also gives the reply of the great mass of religionists:— "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken." Jer. 6:14-17. And is not this just the picture before us at the present time? Are there not messages sounding throughout the world at the present time calling God's people back to the old paths, in which we find the footprints of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and the Head of all, Jesus Christ? Is not this especially true as regards the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, the memorial of God's power in Christ, the sign of God's love in Christ? Is not the Lord calling his people, through the "gospel prophet" to take their feet from his "holy day," and call his "Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable," and thus turn from their sins, repair the breach, build up the old waste places, raise up the foundations of many generations, and restore the paths to dwell in? See Isa. 58:1, 12, 13. God is calling men's minds from the precept and practice of men to the precepts of God's word and the example of Christ. So it is that the church as a mass says, "We will not walk therein," that the watchmen as a whole say, "We will not hearken." To these the Lord says:— "Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth; behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it." Jer. 6:18, 19. But, thank God, there are some souls scattered all through the dark places of Christendom who will cleave to God, who will heed his word, who will turn to the old paths, who, in the grace of Christ, will walk therein. There are some faithful watchmen who will hearken to the sound of the trumpet, who will in turn706give the trumpet no uncertain sound. These will thank God for the light which shone, though dimly, through Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Cranmer, Tyndale, Wesley, Finney; and, following that light beyond these faithful men, who fell at their post, they will go on to greater and clearer light, which shines out from God's word in Christ in the abounding darkness of this evil day. "The morning [of righteousness and life] cometh, and also the night [of sin and death]; if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come." Who will hearken? Who will return? Who will walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ?