THE COMING OF THE LORD.
By Francis M. Wilcox
Signs in the Social World.
NATURALLY the same elements and principles operating in the political world would be seen in the social life of the people. In fact, the social life lies at the foundation of political life. Hence, the same conditions appearing in the one, would appear in the other. Extravagance at home naturally leads to extravagance abroad. Degeneracy in home life results in degeneracy in political life, and in our own day and in our own country the social life of the people has but to be contemplated and understood to determine the character of the statesmen and representatives of the people. The last days are compared to the days of Lot and the days of Noah. Says our Saviour in the seventeenth chapter of Luke: "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." In the days of Noah there was no sin in eating or drinking; there was no sin in marrying and giving in marriage, after God's order. To partake of food is but to satisfy a natural desire implanted by nature. To engage in holy wedlock is but to follow the ordinance instituted by the Creator. Hence the proper exercise of neither of these things was sin in Noah's day, nor in Lot's day, nor is it in our day. But it was the misuse of these rites and ordinances which made their practise odious in the sight of God. Men ate and drank, not to satisfy the demands of nature and to glorify God thereby, but to satisfy their gluttony and unnatural craving. They married wives, not after God's ordinance, but in obedience to their own unholy desires. That this is the condition of affairs in the world to-day, there is not wanting proof on every hand. In every nation in the land, our own not excepted, the spirit of intemperance has done its terrible work. Desolate homes, broken-hearted wives, forlorn, neglected children, furnish multiplied evidences on every hand of the abasement of the natural desires of man. The question of what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, is that which chiefly concerns the minds of the multitude. With the poor, the last farthing is oftentimes spent for drink, for that which will pamper to the perverted taste. With the rich, thousands of dollars are wasted in serving sumptuous dinners and gluttonous feasts. It is no uncommon thing for dinners to be served to-day costing upwards of ten thousand dollars. And what shall be said of the great social evil, which to-day, even as greatly as the drink habit, is sending hourly down to the pool of pollution thousands of our young men and young women? Our cities have become veritable Sodoms. And, as has been seen in the investigations carried on by the Legislatures of Illinois and New York, and other States, into the affairs of some of the leading municipalities of the country, the officers of the law, instead of being the guardians of public safety and so-called public morals, are willing parties to the system of debauchery carried forward, so that vice is doubly legalized, having, on the one hand, the protection of the law (as have72licensed liquor houses), and, on the other hand, the connivance and encouragement of the so-called officers of justice. A moral leprosy has taken hold of nearly every strata of society. True to the words of divine inspiration do we see the condition of these things to-day, and, seeing them, we recognize their relation as precursors and signs of the great day of the Lord. In that day shall every secret be made known. In that day shall the wicked plottings and connivings of men be brought to light. Iniquity to-day may hide her face and cover her pathway, but in God's great purpose it is destined some time to have an end. The principles of righteousness shall triumph, and that speedily. All who are connected with these principles will triumph likewise. The principles of evil shall have an end, and all who are connected with those principles shall go down in the general destruction which will attend every evil thing. May the Lord enable us to stand for the right in these days of moral degeneracy. The ones whom He brings to Himself will be those of unfailing purpose, strength of principle, and unsullied character. Only he who has clean hands and a pure heart shall stand in His holy hill.