THE LAST GREAT APOSTASY.
By M. H. Brown
THE word of the Lord is declared to be a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. Ps. 119:105. The moral world is full of darkness, and sin and sorrow, pain and death prevail, and without the light of revelation the future would be indeed dark, with no ray of hope to light our pathway as we journey onward toward the great unknown. But the Scriptures not only present before us peace in believing, and joy in the Holy Ghost, but they warn us of the dangers and perils that we will meet in our pathway, and give us precious words of counsel and encouragement so that we may escape the things that are coming on the earth and stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36. Those scriptures which reveal the future by describing the events that will take place, and the course which nations, churches, and individuals will pursue, is of great importance, yea, vital, because if neglected or disregarded it proves ruinous. This is shown clearly in the experience of those who have not heeded the messages of warning and counsel which God has sent at various times in the history of the world. We might cite the cases of warning in the days of Noah, of Lot, of Moses, of John the Baptist, and of Christ. The salvation of the people living in those days depended upon their heeding the message sent and the warning given. It is a remarkable fact which we would here emphasize, that people are very slow to believe a message from God or a prophecy which applies to their own day. The people in Moses' day could believe the message of Noah and Lot, but they were very loth to believe in Moses and his work. The same was also true of many of God's prophets. In the time of John and Christ, the Jews could believe in Moses and the prophets, but they were very unbelieving in regard to the work of John and Jesus, and yet the prophets that they professed to believe so strongly, foretold their work, and clearly set forth how the Saviour would be despised, rejected, and put to death. So we read that they fulfilled the prophets in condemning Christ. Acts 13:27. The prophetic scriptures were indeed a light which would have saved the Jewish nation from ruin if they had walked in it, but they refused the light and were left in darkness. The prophecies of God's word are designed to give his people light in the Christian age as well as in former times. Yes, even to the dawn of eternal day, the prophetic word is to light the pathway of God's people. Peter says:— "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19. We have many prophecies that give the leading events in the world and in the church during this dispensation, and the condition of things in the last days is specially marked and described, in order that the day of the Lord might not come upon his people as a thief. 1 Thess. 5:1-4. The prophecies of Daniel and Isaiah, of Paul, Peter, James, and John, and our Saviour's great prophecy recorded in Matt. 24 and 25, Mark 13, Luke 17 and 21, throw great light on the pathway of God's people in this dispensation, and especially in the last days. Many matters of great interest might be given showing the fulfillment of these remarkable prophecies during the present age, but we have neither time nor space in this article to do so. We wish to call special attention to