The Present Time by O. E. McCord

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · May 20, 1875

The Present Time.

By O. E. McCord

People do not seem now to measure time by events, which crowd upon each other so rapidly that the pulses of every one are stirred into corresponding activity. The present is rife with wild, vague theories, so that society seems disturbed to its very foundation.

One hundred years ago the world seemed, compared with the present, asleep, and it has become an interesting study to note the wonderful changes wrought within this period.

One hundred years since Napoleon was a mere child, and Washington a young, vigorous officer, who still felt desirous of serving the mother country, and the great events in history of the two worlds, in which these great but dissimilar men took leading parts, were scarcely foreshadowed. A hundred years ago the United States were still endeavoring to maintain loyal relations with the British Empire, and none could then discern the shadows on the political horizon which were soon to grow into a momentous struggle, which, within a score of years thereafter, established the great republic of the world. Little more than a hundred years since there were but four newspapers published in America. Steam engines had not then been imagined, and railroads and telegraphs had not been thought of. A popular journal remarks that "to the century passed has been allotted more important events in their bearing upon the happiness of the world than almost every other which has elapsed since thousands of years."

At the present time, communication by steam and lightning is become an occurrence of daily fulfillment. The circuit of the earth is now accomplished in time counted by days and weeks, a century since, by years, and months grew into years, and years into decades wherein to accomplish the same amount of labor that is now completed in a corresponding number of days or weeks. States are peopled and organized, cities are built, commerce established, and all the elements of an apparent prosperity and solidity are evolved from what seems, at first glance, inefficient material, and all this as if by magic, or as if all the latent talent of the world had been gathering force, that it might burst upon the present inhabitants of the earth with an overwhelming astonishment, who, instead of acknowledging the wondrous results as the fulfillment of prophecy, inquire, as did Nebuchadnezzar, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" Will they not hear the warning voice from heaven: "The kingdom is departed from thee."

While it is admitted that we are surrounded with every facility for improvement, morally, on the other hand, these same advantages are converted into means of introducing evil into places and among communities that might otherwise have remained comparatively pure.

And instead of a high standard of morality we behold corruption, and that of the basest sort. Broken promises, and unfaithfulness of every kind and degree strew the pathway of public and private undertakings, bringing ruin and desolation to those concerned, furnishing a momentary wonder, and perhaps eliciting an outburst of shortlived indignation from a small minority, who though willing, are unable to effect a reformation, only to be forgotten in the excitement occasioned by the continuous recurrence of similar events. And yet with all these facts before us, we are complacently informed that the world is rapidly becoming better and purer. Just in what particular it is hard to decide, as we find no evidence of it in the records of the daily and weekly papers that are scattered broadcast over the land; for their pages abound in the recital of the most abominable iniquities. Like Sodom and Gomorrah of old, soon shall the whole world be enveloped in a retribution which it now, by its cool audacity, seems to woo.

It has become a matter of common occurrence to find in the daily and weekly newspapers of the present time, glowing paragraphs setting forth the hitherto unsurpassed capacity of some recently invented instrument or machine designed for the destruction of human life, and nation watches nation with forced calmness and jealous eye, lest each shall be excelled by the other in warlike machinery and engines of destruction. Just now the nations are pausing in actual demonstrations against each other, but the silence is ominous and oppressive, and the hearts of men are failing them in doubt and fear of what awaits in the near future. Workshops are wrought to their highest capacity in the production of armaments for both sea and land. One of the foremost journals of this country contains the following: "Five hundred shots a minute." And then follows a description of its unsurpassed capacities, and we are assured that by simply turning a crank, ten barrels are discharged, emptied and reloaded. When the machine is complete in all its particulars it will pick off a line of battle in regular detail, and even the trial showed how irresistibly destructive such a weapon would be in resisting a charging enemy. And this newly invented machine will doubtless incite other nations to the endeavor to excel, if possible, that they may attain the highest rank in strife and carnage.

In this country, the home of religious and political freedom, where the oppressed of other lands could find safety and protection, we hear the surging roar of strife welling up from the depths of satanic influences, which are soon to burst out into open persecution, under the guise of zeal in God's service. We are told that nothing is intended that shall offend the humblest believer, but when we see such evidences as is presented in North Carolina legislature, the prospect for future religious freedom is very uncertain. Visions of the tender mercies(?) of governments which have considered it incumbent on their dignity to bring in question individual faith, and to deal with heretics according to the power vested in those who claimed to judge for another, are brought to mind, and can we hope that those who may have the temerity to differ from the majority, shall escape persecution when popular theology and State shall have consummated a Catholic union. And yet, with the existing evidences so lavishly strewn around us, of envy and unbridled desire for place and power, as is manifested by sects who seem, through late prosperity, to have forgotten the persecutions and distresses, and disabilities to which they were heretofore compelled to submit, we are told that all these demonstrations are not intended to restrain religious liberty. Protestants have ceased to be such, only in name, for their actions betoken the same spirit that governed the persecutions of the past. Love of power has taken the place once occupied by humility, the loveliest of the Christian graces. Those who are looking, with anticipation, through the unfolding pages of prophecy need not be deceived, for when once the weapon of religious proscription and consequent tyranny has been fully unsheathed, there will not fail to be those found who will not hesitate to use it. But all this reminds us that the strength we are to repose in is not in earthly governments, or in the combinations of creeds, but in Him who will cut short all the machinations of evil, and mercifully release those who, in the depths of humility, cry to Him for redress. For the time will soon come when the mercy which caused the then suffering Redeemer to cry, as he beheld Jerusalem stand proudly magnifying herself against the tender pleadings of a Saviour's love, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, though that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

Though troublous times are just ahead when again "nation shall arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom," and those who shall faithfully "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" shall be delivered up to be afflicted and hated for His namesake, yet we may still trust and pray. Though "iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold," "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

O. E. McCord.

Oregon City, March 28, 1875.