CHRIST'S COMING IS NEAR.
By John S. Wightman
[John S. Wightman, in New York Indicator.] SHOULD we not consider the present "peace-and-safety" cry a portentous sign of His immediate coming? The universality of the "peace-and-safety" cry and temporal millennium dream can not be questioned. The application of the prophecy of the coming of Christ and the sudden destruction of the wicked (1 Thess. 5:3) to this condition is unmistakable. At the very time that Secretary Hay was addressing the Boston Peace Parliament declaring the time had come when the war drums should throb no longer, Lord Lansdowne was telling the British people the same thing. The Czar, King Christian, the Pope of Rome, President Roosevelt, and Count Tolstoi, are united in the cries for peace. The nations and the creeds are as one in the vast movement for international arbitration and the abolition of war. Senator Depew says that "a court of arbitration will throttle war, and be a step forward toward the millennium." We have arbitration societies, annual peace conferences, and a constant stream of literature upon the subject. The United States Government has taken the initial step, and concluded a peace treaty with the French. Press and pulpit are thundering forth the cry of "peace and a universal good time coming," while legislative halls are not silent upon the subject; but statesmen and diplomats vie with one another to declare that "to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Emily Crawford, in her Everybody's Magazine, article, "The United States of Europe," states that "a universal impulse in favor of peace may be felt everywhere on this [the European] continent." The Buffalo Express says: "At no time in history has there been such an intelligent striving for universal peace as at present." Thus we see a complete unanimity of opinion, universality of idea. So Isa. 2:3, 4 is literally fulfilled; and Joel 3:9-14 must be as literally fulfilled, and the destruction seen by Jeremiah, and the reappearing portrayed in Paul's pertinent letter to the Thessalonians must surely come to pass. The "peace which passeth understanding" is not, and never has been, a matter of legislation or international treaty. It depends upon the transformation of the individual, and its best advocates and exemplars, instead of holding conventions and seeking the aid of the secular arm, have addressed themselves to the character and conscience of man, satisfied that the era of peace was conditioned upon the conversion of the individual. The proposition to eradicate war by agreement is about as impracticable and futile an abstraction as ever occupied the mind of well-meaning men. Czar Nicholas proposes the Tribunal of the Hague, and the same Czar Nicholas refuses to submit the consideration of the Russo-Japan War to the tribunal. Hence the futility of the whole movement. Then what does it all mean?—Simply a fulfilment of prophecy! "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." The universal-peace cry is simply a sign of the nearness of the end. "As it was in the days of Noah." Do we accept the sign with faith? Can we see, with the eye of faith, that the sudden destruction is nigh at hand? We see the prophecy fulfilled here and now; will not the destruction swiftly follow as declared?—Verily, it will! Reader, seeing that this startlingly significant sign is appearing upon a grand scale, believing that the whirlwind of destruction must swiftly come, what is the duty of the hour? What about the "multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision," and who shall warn them of the approaching storm? In view of all these things, are you ready for the crisis of all the ages? In a word, have you made the righteousness of Christ your very own by living faith, that you may be able to stand in that solemn hour when all the world will be tried? Rev. 3:10. God forbid that we should now number ourselves among those who shall say, "My Lord delayeth His coming," for "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh."