SPIRITUAL DECLENSION IN THE LAST DAYS.
HERE is what Jesus said eighteen centuries ago:— “And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:12-14, R.V. Here is what the apostle Paul said:— “But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, . . . holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5, R.V. This is the testimony borne by the governor of New Hampshire:— “The decline of the Christian religion, particularly in our rural communities, is a marked feature of the times, and steps should be taken to remedy it. No matter what our belief may be in religious matters, every good citizen knows that when the restraining influences of religion are withdrawn from a community its decay, moral, mental, and financial, is swift and sure. To me this is one of the strongest evidences of the fundamental truth of Christianity. I suggest to-day, as far as possible on Fast Day, union meetings be held, made up of all shades of belief including all who are interested in the welfare of our State, and that in your prayers and other devotions and in your mutual councils you remember and consider the problem of the condition of religion in the rural communities. There are towns where no church bell sends forth its solemn call from January to January. There are villages where children grow to manhood unchristened. There are communities where the dead are laid away without the benison of the name of the Christ, and where marriages are solemnized only by Justices of the Peace. This is a matter worthy of your thoughtful consideration, citizens of New Hampshire. It does not augur well for the future.” A Methodist-Episcopal minister of Boston declared, according to the Literary Digest, that “Christian ministers found that among the towns of New England there were boys and girls fifteen and sixteen years of age who had never heard a minister of the Gospel speak.” This is the testimony of Dr. N. D. Hillis, successor to Lyman Abbott, in Plymouth Church:— “While our States are increasing in population, the population of the country districts and smaller villages is actually less than it was in 1890. Not New Hampshire alone is threatened. The census of nine counties in Iowa shows forty deserted churches. In one county investigated in Illinois were nine deserted churches, and in one county of Wisconsin five. The explanation is that the city has drained the country town of its best blood and Christian leaders [but our cities are certainly not growing better]. Sections which once had strong churches are now given over entirely to foreigners. . . . Now, how do these godless communities compare with the institutions of our fathers? The customs of our present day immigrants are to their ideas what the iron pyrites is to the pure and massive gold.
“It is well that our mountains are exalted above the Alps, that our lakes contain half the fresh water of the planet, that our forests are unequalled, that our hills are crowded with waiting ore. But what matters it if we have richer soil, larger fields, more luxuriant grass than the land of the Puritans if we can only produce oxen and horses where New England produced great men and splendid women? . . . It ought to be of small moment to us as a nation that we have greater forests and fields than our fathers, if our youth are to lose our fathers’ courage and moral worth which they had from God’s Word.
“In view of these millions of untaught youth, these thousands of godless villages and country districts, there are reasons for believing we are passing through a crisis in our history.” Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, of the First Baptist Church, New York, was asked the following questions by a New York reporter, and gave the replies appended thereto:— “1. Do you think that religious zeal and the influence of the Gospel are losing ground?—Answer—I do.
“2. If so, to what do you attribute the cause?—Answer—(1) The astounding spectacle presented by preachers in the pulpit seeking to prove to people in the pews that the Bible is not the Word of God. (2) The spirit of unbelief and worldliness everywhere prevailing in the pews.” Before you, reader, is the testimony of the Spirit through Jesus and Paul as to what would be; and here are the testimonies of men who would gladly have it otherwise, yet who are forced to confess to the very condition predicted by Jesus. Certainly, according to the Word, we are living in “the last days.” But this condition of things will not be helped by statute law, or by mere fasts, or by resolutions. It will be helped only by absolute submission to the Gospel of God’s Word, consecration to Christ, and the individual reception of the Holy Ghost.