THE GREAT, GLAD TIDINGS OF GOD
By Editor
WHAT shall we promise our readers for the year to come? Many journals and magazines offer the influence of great names, the pen productions of great writers, the opinions of world-famed men and women. The "Signs of the Times" deals with topics of eternal interest to all, vital with the very life of God. It has no great names to present as writers, but it has what is of infinitely more importance, the great eternal truths of God; and the great truths of God presented by weak and unknown men are more than the hypotheses and speculations of the human, presented by the mightiest of men. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." But we do not mean by this that weak men will write for the "Signs of the Times," apart from the fact that all men are weak. The greatness and strength of men are only rightly measured by their connection with God, and the greatness of their mission and message by the truth that is in the message, and the power of God there is in the men. That both truth and power may be manifest in the "Signs of the Times" in 1909 is the prayer of its publishers and editors and, we doubt not, many of its readers and friends. This journal is published neither for profit nor fame; it has one mission; namely, to proclaim the everlasting Gospel, THE GREAT, GLAD TIDINGS OF GOD.
The world is sick, and the church of God is torn, wounded, distracted, divided, in need. There are many professed physicians and prophets of peace who have not helped the great, sick world, and at the best have healed but slightly the hurt of the daughter of God's people. All serious, thoughtful hearts feel that a crisis is impending for world and church; feel the need of a remedy; feel that God must be met, and that a preparation is needed. The publishers of this journal believe that the crisis and its character are clearly set forth in the word of God, that the remedy for earth's ills is found in the everlasting Gospel, that the preparation to meet God is obtained in the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, imparted freely by His Spirit to all who will believe. God wants to restore His church to her primitive simplicity and purity. He stands waiting to bestow upon His children the wisdom and power of God whenever His people are willing to renounce their idols of world-worship, their temples and shrines to tradition, their craving for the human power of civil law as a substitute for the Spirit of God, their hypotheses of Higher Critics and science, falsely so called, for the eternal truths of the Gospel. It shall be the mission of the "Signs of the Times" to do its part in the work of God, to note some of the many signs and evidences of the times which herald the near-coming of our Lord, and to be true to its motto: "As we have been approved of God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God who proveth our hearts." We believe that there are thousands of souls in this country who wish to read such a paper as this, who prefer truth, unpopular tho it may be, to human creed, popular tho it may be; who would choose the cross of Christ rather than error and sin; who wish to know just what the word of God, unshaded, unfettered, unmixed, teaches, what warnings it gives, what comfort, and strength, and encouragement it imparts. We wish our readers and friends to help us in this work. We desire above all things else their earnest prayers, and their cooperation in extending the circulation of the paper. Shall we have it for 1909 even as we have had it in the past, and more? The times in which we are living demand earnest work on the part of the heralds of the cross of Christ, on the part of those who are looking for His second coming. Let 1909 be a year in which we shall plan for God, trust in God, and work for God, and may He give us glorious success in the winning of souls to His truth.