The World Getting Better
By T.
WE used to hear a great deal more than we do now about how much better the world is getting. Many have earnestly and eloquently taught that the world is getting better so rapidly that we will soon have the millennium, when there will not be a wicked individual left. But while human theory has been thus, the Bible has ever been very explicit in saying that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." 2 Tim. 3:13. God knows the right in this as well as in all other things; and is it not safe to trust His Word? One of the statements made by the Master in His Sermon on the Mount reads: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. 7:13, 14. There should be no mistaking the import of this scripture. It plainly shows that the strait gate is narrow, and the way into which it opens is also narrow, and it is only the "few" who are found in that way, while on the other hand the "many" pass through the "wide gate" into the "broad way." Our common, every-day observation should teach us that the foregoing words from the Master represent the actual conditions in the world. The great mass of the people to-day, as has ever been the case, are rushing after money and the pleasures of this life. Many of them, it is true, may be professors of Christianity, and may even be leading fairly decent lives, but how many are there who actually come up to the standard set in the Sermon on the Mount, from which that text is taken? Or asked in another way, how many are really trying to reach such a standard of righteousness? We should not allow ourselves to be deceived by the superficial talk or writing of those who are trying to make themselves and us believe that this old wicked world is getting better. God's Word has declared plainly what the conditions would be, and our unprejudiced observation will teach us that God is right no matter what some men may say.
T.