THE NATION NOT DESIRED.
By W. H. Wild
To this nation God calls, and repeats the call thus: “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired.” Zeph. 2:1. When is it that God wants this nation of which He speaks to gather together? Why gather together? What nation is meant? First, we believe this call, “Gather yourselves together,” has special reference to all those who are looking for the coming of Christ in these last days, just before the great day of God's wrath shall come; hence we must believe, and have so believed for over forty years, that the nation not desired is the remnant church spoken of in Rev. 12:17; and in 14:12. That this gathering has special reference to the true people of God in these last days, the second verse clearly shows. We there read of a certain decree that is to go forth, and this people not desired are commanded to gather together before that decree goes forth. This decree is evidently the same that we read of in Rev. 22:11, 12, occurring just previous to the second coming of Christ. It reads: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me.” Now we know the meaning of the words in Zeph. 2:2, “Before the day pass as the chaff.” This undoubtedly means the day of probation that ends at the commencement of the great day of the Lord. Hence the following words: “Before the fierce anger of the11Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you.” Zeph. 2:2. Then in the next verse is the command to “seek righteousness and meekness,” that they may be “hid in the day of the Lord's anger.” Now we are prepared to answer the question, Why is it that this nation is not desired? We answer, Because of their loyalty to their king. Over forty years ago God warned us of the great confederacy of the three great divisions of great Babylon,—Spiritualism, Catholicism, Apostate Protestantism; and to-day we behold this anti-Christian confederacy spreading over this country like the leprosy. He must be as blind as the Pharisees of old who can not see the wolf's nose in this confederacy. Those who have the anointing, and have anointed their eyes with the eye-salve of the Spirit, can not help seeing how when this confederacy is completed, which is so broad that its ample cloak will cover Spiritualism and Catholicism, then most assuredly will great Babylon “become a habitation of demons, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Rev. 18:1-3. Then will the sins of Protestantism reach unto heaven, because she has repudiated her Protestant principles as taught by Luther and all the Reformers, that the Papacy was anti-Christ. My brethren, there are stirring, thrilling times before us. The children of God will be hated. They will be despised by all those who unite with this great confederacy, even because they can not fellowship the unholy union. They will be despised because they keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And the fourth commandment tells us to keep the seventh day, not the first day. Let us therefore heed the warning from God and press together. Tho we may not be desired by the confederacies of men, we know that God has forbidden us to unite with them in their Babel building. We may know that Christian Science, with its great form of godliness, is nothing but Spiritualism in its full blossom. We may know that Catholicism is the same to-day as when the Reformers, through the Spirit of God and the Word, denounced it as anti-Christ. Do they not tell us to-day, after having put millions of martyrs to death, that they never have erred, and never can err? Why not take the Word of God? W. H. WILD.