A WORLD-WIDE SIGN by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Sep 6, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 36.

A WORLD-WIDE SIGN.

By G.

In a recent report by the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner, there occurs this significant allusion:

On the whole, how serenely and beautifully, to all outward appearances, has the business of life insurance by old line companies been progressing for the past twenty-five years. Money has been rolling into their treasuries in broad streams. Some have become exceedingly rich and powerful. Look at the results: Four hundred million assets held by a single company, and a surplus of eighty millions; and over one billion by three companies almost within earshot of each other in a single city.

This same report notes the many other vast aggregations of wealth in the hands of a comparatively few manipulators. Thus men of all classes witness and comment upon the heaping together of treasures, and the wickedness and unrest connected therewith; but only one here and there seems to realize that God has long ago pointed to this very condition as a sign of the "last days," an unfailing evidence that "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." These things were written by inspiration of God, for the very purpose that, when men should see the predicted conditions, they might know that probation was about to end, and be warned, and prepare to meet their God in the judgment.

Shall the plain warning be in vain? It verily seems as tho it would; for this also was foretold by our Lord, and the conditions in the time of Noah and of Lot are given as illustrations. Luke 17:26-30. Men see the sign plainly manifested on all hands, yet deliberately ignore the momentous event which the sign was given to impress upon their minds.

Men of all classes are endeavoring to obliterate the sign—some by counter schemes of a like nature, some by political maneuvering, others by onslaught of religious tirade, and still others, as foretold by the prophecy, through acts of violence. Would it not be better to heed the divine warning, and prepare for the meaning of these things? The menace of mere human indignation will not better the situation; for many of the professed reformers stand ready to do the same things they condemn, whenever opportunity offers.

Surely those who profess to believe God's Word will be without excuse if they fail to benefit by the striking events so conspicuous in the world, if they fail to "discern the signs of the times." Instead of endeavoring to combat current political and business corruptions in the futile strength of some ways of the world, it is better to follow the counsel of the divine Word: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5:7, 8. The Lord's message for to-day is the proclamation of the "Gospel of the kingdom," of the near approach of which the ever-increasing corruptions in every department of life are a specific world-wide sign given by the Lord Himself. For this very reason now is a most appropriate time to carry the message to all parts of the world. G.