WHAT DO THESE THINGS MEAN?
By Editor
The Earthquake, the Fire, Our Fire.
THE conductors and publishers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES believe in the Bible as the living Word of the living God. They believe in Jehovah the God of the Bible; that He is a God of love and mercy and truth and justice, as His Word abundantly declares. "God is love;" "His mercy endureth forever;" "He keepeth truth forever;" He "executeth justice for the oppressed;" "the way of the wicked He turneth upside down." We believe, as He declares, that the earth shall wax old like a garment, and that as a vesture "He shall change them and they shall be changed," but He "is the same" and His years have no end. We believe that He is coming again in the manifest glory of His Son Jesus Christ "to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." At His coming the whole earth shall be shaken. That sinful man might live, God has veiled His glory, restrained wrath, and poured out His unstinted mercy. Yet in justice to mankind, and in mercy to the sinning, God at times withdraws His protecting hand and permits sin to work out its own results, bear its own full fruitage, bring the judgment which is sure to fall upon the perverters and transgressors of His living law. Thus He turned "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly." He permits this that men may turn to Him; for when His "judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness." Therefore upon Babylon and Tyre and No-Ammon and Jerusalem, and other cities, fell the judgments of God because of their sins. To deny this is to deny the plainest statements of Holy Writ. San Francisco's Calamity.
It is not for us to assume God's judgment seat, and to say why this one or that one suffered in the awful calamity which visited the city by the Golden Gate. But it is for us to declare God's terms of salvation. He says: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if they do that which is evil in My sight, that they obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." "Wash you, and make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." "Repent and believe the Gospel." All these are solemn, impressive declarations of God's Word, and they might be multiplied by the hundreds. If unheeded, awful are the consequences, as all history shows. If heeded, they are helpful in result, and hopeful for all good. At least, God permitted the earthquake and fire to come to San Francisco. To many it came as an awful rebuke of sin. Men and women wept and prayed and confessed their sin. But no sooner were the tremors well over than many returned like the dog to his vomit, or the washed sow to her mire wallow. We have had no desire to press the rebuke home, to turn the probe in the wound. But we did desire above all things else to point the sinful hearts, the fearful hearts, the sin-sick hearts, the suffering, bereaved, hopeless, despairing, longing hearts to the sure Refuge from sin and its awful judgments; from the unstable world with its perishing cities, to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world; to the One who has tunneled the grave by the power of His righteousness, and who will gather His people to the "Forever Land" with its "abiding city," whose "Builder and Maker is God." And to be faithful to our trust, we must still warn, still entreat, for His sake who died for the lost and the fallen. We grieve because of San Francisco's awful calamity; yet2worse than that is San Francisco's sin, in which she is not alone. God knows, the wickedness there mounted to the heavens, that we felt no joy, no satisfaction, no careless indifference even, at her awful sorrow, tho our critics falsely so charge us. We sorrow for her awful suffering and grief. We sorrow more that more of her people do not take the lesson seriously to heart. But What of the Pacific Press?
Is this the judgment of God? Are there not lessons here? These questions are being asked in seriousness, in cynicism, in skepticism, tauntingly, mockingly. Of this seemingly awful calamity which came to a great publishing house, we shall say, as we said of San Francisco's, God, at least, permitted it. The same dangers have ever menaced God's people that menace the world. The enemy of all righteousness surrounds them with the gilded baits of worldliness, enthralls them in cares and pleasures, and stupefies them with prosperity and desire for gain. They may in no way deal dishonestly. Their course and example in the world of commerce and manufacture, in trade and barter, may be exemplary in the highest degree. Men may have no evil thing to say of them. Yet, they may be using their energies, their talents, their means, their God-given powers, their influence, to promote and build up worldly enterprises, and thus become growingly indifferent to the claims which God has upon them. They may use the very facilities which God has bestowed upon them, to the neglect of God's work. They may do this honestly, mistakenly, believing it to be of indirect benefit to God's work; but indifference to God's claims on the part of His people is as bad as open, flagrant sin on the part of the world. In God's mercy to His people, He must do more than warn. He must remove the means not used for Him; He must strip the human talents and energies of the facilities not used in His work, that His people may in humility learn that the King's business is paramount to all else; that God's work should be the business of His followers, first and last and all the time; that no work of any other character, honorable tho it be, must be allowed to hinder or interfere with the work of God. If they ignore the lesson as San Francisco is ignoring it, if they say the calamity to building has naught to do with business or character, they will fail to learn the great lesson, and thus lose the blessing of sanctified service for God. Therefore with humbled heart we accept the lesson, the chastening from the hand of a merciful, patient, tender Father-teacher. And this lesson is not alone for the few workers here, tho it is for them; it is for those who profess to be His commandment-keeping followers everywhere. Indifference to God's claims on the part of His professed children is as bad as open, chosen sin on the part of those who know Him not; and the real test of faith and character is not the coming or not coming of a calamity; but how men learn the lesson. God requires the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yielding that to Him, all the calamities of earth are nothing. God's blessing and presence in the fiery furnace makes it safer than the throne of Babylon.