Perilous Times by John Charles Ryle

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 5, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 30.

"Perilous Times"

By John Charles Ryle

[The following is taken from an article by the Right Rev. John Charles Ryle, D.D., Lord Bishop of Liverpool, which appeared first in the "Young Men's Monthly Review," the organ of the English Young Men's Christian Association, and later reported in the Lowell "Daily Courier," Lowell, Massachusetts, June 14, 1887. J. B. C.]

TAKING for his text 2 Tim. 3: 1-5, the bishop said in part: "The subject which forms the title of this paper deserves very serious consideration. Are we in the 'last days' of which St. Paul speaks? Here is a picture of them, drawn by the unerring hand of an inspired apostle. Do we see nothing like it in the world around us? I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that we live in very 'perilous times.'"

"In the first place, I will show in what respect our times are specially 'perilous.' I am going to write things which will not please everybody. I am prepared for that. 'If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.' The times are perilous in the matter of religion. What are the facts? Infidelity abounds. Multitudes of people in every part of the country seem to have totally cast off religion. They go neither to church nor chapel. They openly sneer at the Bible as an old-fashioned, defective book, and give God no place in their thoughts. Is not this perilous? Romanism is increasing. Real popery has revived, and extreme ritualism is helping it. Multitudes are little better than papists. They scoff at Protestantism and the Reformation. They delight in the very popish ceremonial which our forefathers deliberately rejected. They avow their belief in the worst and most mischievous popish doctrines, and boldly preach, teach, and defend them. Is not this perilous?

"Indifferentism grows everywhere. Multitudes seem to care nothing about the distinctive doctrines of Christianity, and to perceive no difference between truth and error. Everybody is thought right, and nobody is thought wrong! Religion is 'only a matter of words and names;' and it does not signify a jot what a man believes! Is not this perilous? Religious divisions are painfully numerous. Every year they seem to increase and multiply. Between church and dissent—between Baptists and Pedobaptists—between Plymouth Brethren and all other Christians—how vast the gulfs of separation! Yet division is a sure sign of weakness. 'A house divided against itself can not stand.' English Christianity can not stand much longer in its present rent and torn and convulsed condition. Surely this is perilous.

"Look at the drunkenness of the times. In spite of Christianity, temperance, teetotalism, and education, we are a very intemperate people. The number of public houses, gin-palaces, and beer-shops in every large town tells a tale which can not be mistaken. The sums of money spent in spirits and beer every year are perfectly astonishing! The testimony of judges and magistrates about the effect of drinking, as a cause of crime, is enough to make one's blood run cold. Is not this perilous?

"Look at the neglect of the seventh commandment in our times. I do not allude only to the coarser forms of sin in this respect, when I say this, tho I might say much. I have in view the wide-spread decay of delicacy and nice feeling among young women of all classes. I challenge any one to deny that novels and romances are read nowadays in many a household, which contain scenes and descriptions that would not have been tolerated thirty years ago. There is a hideous familiarity with that which is 'fast' and indelicate. Is not this perilous?

"Look at the covetousness of our times. I do not speak so much of miserly habits, as of the intense love of money which overspreads all classes. To pile up a fortune in a few years, to speculate successfully, to obtain the power of every kind of self-indulgence at a bound—how thoroly this is the life of many people! The history of joint-stock companies, and banks, and railways, in the last few years, is a disgraceful tale, and shows how men will do anything to get money. Is not this perilous?

"I go a step further. I say that the times are perilous in a political point of view. What are the facts? The mad love of change seems to be carrying men of all parties before it like a flood. Clamor and murmurings are allowed to have all their demands gratified. Reason, and argument, and the lessons of experience are thrust aside in the face of any popular outcry. Highly educated statesmen do not try to lead the people, but allow the people to lead them. High statesmanship seems thrown to the winds, and expediency is the only principle of government. Is not this perilous?

"I go one step further. The times are perilous in a social point of view. What are the facts? The whole framework of society appears to be falling to pieces. The mutual respect that ought to exist between class and class, old and young, superior and inferior, seems to be fast melting away and disappearing. Between rulers and subjects, between parents and children, between masters and servants, between employers and employed, there no longer exist the healthy relations that once were. Every one wants his own selfish interests alone to be considered, and nobody thinks of his neighbor. A fierce intolerance of any opposition or interference may be observed on every side. Calm and dispassionate discussion is scouted. What may we learn from Fenianism, rattening, strikes, dynamite outrages, Irish murders, boycotting, anti-rent paying, and wholesale intimidation? These things all tell one tale. They show that the cement has fallen out of the walls of society. The whole machine is unscrewed and unpinned, and out of order. The very foundations of our social fabric are giving way. Is not this perilous?

"I touch on all these things very slightly. I might easily add dark colors to the picture. But I have said enough, I suspect, to set any sensible man thinking. I have brought forward facts, which I defy any one to dispute, about Romanism, morality, politics, and social order. I say confidently that the existence of these facts justifies the assertion with which I began. They prove that our times are 'perilous times.'"

"If things go on as they do much longer, the sun of old England will go down amidst a hurricane of confusion and trouble, such as the world has never yet seen. . . . Our . . . important duty is to be continually looking for the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great event which will wind up the affairs of all nations. Then, and then only, will sin, disorder, and superstition be put down completely, and come to an end. . . ."

"I bring before my readers a passage of Scripture which I commend to their special attention: 'There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.' Luke 21: 25-28."

"I make no comment on these words of my Master. I place them before my readers in their naked simplicity, and prefer letting them speak for themselves. If the words of the apostle which begin this paper, and the words of the Lord Jesus which I have just quoted, only set my readers thinking, I shall be abundantly thankful. We are in the last days, and perilous times have come!"