A DOUBLE WARNING | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Feb 22, 1899

A DOUBLE WARNING.

THE rich men of this time have the most ringingly clear warnings to be found in the Word of God. They are told in literal language that "miseries" shall come upon them that will cause them to "weep and howl." But if they will not hear God's Word, the voice of history speaks to them in language that should stir the blood in their veins.

The language of God's Word is:—

"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door." James 5:1-9.

The foregoing scripture brings us face to face with the time when "the Judge standeth before the door,"—when "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." And in that awfully solemn time when the great judgment day of God is at hand, and when the Lord's coming is near, it is said to the rich, "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter."

And while the finger of God, as if from the throne of His final judgment, is pointing to the rich who are reveling in their wanton pleasures, He also directs attention to the "laborers" who have reaped down their fields, and says, "The cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." Thus, on the one hand, are seen the rich, living in reckless, wanton pleasure, and, on the other hand, are the laborers whose hire is fraudulently kept back, and their cries reach to high heaven.

If James had lived in the last years of this last decade of the nineteenth century, and had written his account from the personal observation of his literal eyes, instead of through the prophetic vision over eighteen hundred years ago, he could not have described the conditions of to-day more accurately or more vividly. And in this wonderful address to the rich men he says, "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." Then this scripture not only gives a warning to the rich, but incidentally tells us that the "last days" have come.

Now listen attentively to the inspired warning, of terrible import to the rich. The text says: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." Men may treat this message lightly. They may disbelieve it, and even seek to set it aside with contempt. But, nevertheless, it is the Word of God to the rich men. Yes, it is the divine Father speaking to the rich men of to-day.

These riches that men are running after and grasping to themselves as the idols of their deluded minds, will soon be cast aside. For in that great day that is almost breaking upon the earth, "a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isa. 2:20, 21.

The scriptures presented in the foregoing paragraphs are among the warnings that God has sent to the rich through His written Word. Will they be heeded? If they are, then may the dire calamities that are foretold be avoided. Otherwise, they will surely come.

But if the rich men will not listen to the Word of God, there is a wonderful object lesson for them in history—and in history, too, that is so recent that the last of the living witnesses to it are scarcely more than passed from the stage of action.

The reign of Louis XIV. in France was one of great splendor, particularly toward its close. He was the patron of art, architecture, and letters. And in his reign the gathering of wealth into the hands of the few was greatly augmented. Consequently, great society affairs became the order of the day, and the people of wealth and position plunged themselves into all the exciting and luxuriant pleasures that money could procure, and that, too, with wanton and abandoned recklessness. Increased burdens had to be borne by the great mass of the people, in order that the privileged and wealthy class could continue their revels in vice and the pleasures of folly. And, as might have been expected, France was soon filled with an undercurrent of discontent. Tracts, pamphlets, and books were written against the nobility and lord bishops who were holding the wealth of the country while they reveled in profligate luxury. The cause of the poor, who did not always have the bare necessities of life, was strongly advocated. And it can readily be seen that a trenchant pen would find rich subject matter for tracts and pamphlets in the wide contrasts that the extravagant display of wealth on the one hand, and the sufferings of poverty on the other, presented.

While Louis XIV. gathered to his court and palace all the so-called refinements of wealth and culture, he also gathered its worst vices, its follies, and its intrigues. But his iron hand held all these elements in obedience to his despotic will. His immediate successors, however, had a greater task; for the seeds of discontent that had been germinating for so long began to produce a most prolific harvest. The cry against the nobility, both of the State and the church, kept growing in volume until it became a tumultuous and implacable uproar. There was no hand now, no matter if it possessed the iron strength of Louis XIV., that could stay the maddened torrent of revolution. The people demanded a redress of their grievances, but the dignitaries of the church and the nobility of the State buried themselves still deeper in their carousals, and these privileged sons and daughters of rank and wealth made sport of the clamors of the populace.

Louis XV., who succeeded Louis XIV., died May 10, 1774. And about all that he, in reality, bequeathed to his grandson and immediate successor, Louis XVI., was the French Revolution and its Reign of Terror. It is said of Louis XVI. that he "had just views, and amiable dispositions." And we know that he did all in his power to awaken the wealthy nobility of France to a realizing sense of the important necessity of removing the burdensome taxes from the poor. He urged that the great wealth of the nobles and lord bishops would enable them to meet the necessary expense of the State without feeling the burden, but that the poor could not endure the pressure. All warnings and admonitions, however, no matter from what source they came, were haughtily rejected, and the worst, the most cruel, the most terror-inspiring revolution that is found in the annals of time, was the result.

America has her discontent. Yes, we may say the whole world, for that matter, for the conditions are the same all over the earth. The tracts, pamphlets, and books discussing the situation have been for a long time pouring from the press. The lines are drawing tighter every day, and the tension is growing stronger and stronger. But in the face of every admonition, corporations and trusts are reaching out farther and farther, and controlling more and more of the world's wealth. The conditions all over the world to-day are not only similar, but are strikingly identical with what they were in France on the eve of her horrible revolution. And just so surely as effect must of necessity follow the producing cause, just so sure may we be that a world-wide revolution is imminent. All that is lacking is an opportune time and the tiniest spark to be applied to the explosive material, and who will dare to prophesy the frightful results?

Thus we see the twofold warning that has been given to the rich. Will they give heed, and work the needed reforms that will enable them to escape the impending calamities? Or will they continue to dream of their expanding resources of wealth, and drown every conviction and warning in pleasures and vices until the awful storm breaks over their unsheltered heads? T.