Timely Instruction by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Aug 21, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 34.

Timely Instruction

By Editor

We have reason to expect that by the time this issue of the paper gets to our readers the senior editor, M. C. Wilcox, will be at his desk again. He has had time to give us by letter only brief suggestions of the perfecting and burnishing of the plans for future numbers of the paper. But he has assured us that his hopes in going East with this end in view have been more than met. We will have some very interesting things to tell our readers soon in regard to the plans for the paper for the late fall and winter months. Many of our readers have told us that the special series of the SIGNS that we are now running "is the best ever." What we have planned to immediately follow this special series will be much better still. We are sure you will all agree with us in this when we can outline the plan in full to you. Every worker should be on deck for the strongest campaign of our history.

There was a deep significance in the act of Martin Luther in throwing his inkstand at the devil. Perhaps he did not realize the full force of it. An anonymous writer says that "the inkstand stands for literature, either good or bad." So, inasmuch as Satan is throwing his inkstand at the cause of God, in every conceivable shape, the Lord's people should be using theirs in the circulation of truth. The great moral contest of to-day, and of the future, is to be fought with the pen, the typewriter, and the printing-press, as auxiliaries of the human voice, thru which the Spirit by the word is to reach the masses with the good news of salvation. God's people need to be diligent in circulating a sound, wholesome literature.

"Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house." Reader, your name may not be Zaccheus, but it is nevertheless important that you "make haste" to-day and prepare for the Master's reception at your house.

He is saying, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," and to-day may be your last opportunity to have Him for a guest. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Timely Instruction.

When the disciples of Christ asked Him about His coming again, and of the end of the world, He gave them most valuable information on the subject. He said: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Matt. 24:4, 5. Further along in His conversation He repeats the caution: "If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Then there will be a terrible deception in regard to the second advent. But He continues: "Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth; behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not." Verses 25, 26. But He does not leave us with these negative assurances; He gives in plain words the manner of His coming, so that no one need be deceived, if he will "take heed" to the word. Here it is: "As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Paul tells us that, in connection with this great event, the righteous dead will be raised to life; that the Lord Himself will descend "with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." This instruction is timely just now, in these deceptive times, when the doctrine of the coming of the Lord is being enshrouded with so much error. The manner of His coming, as shown in His word, can not be counterfeited by any one; and any pretender who can not fulfil the foregoing requirement is a deceiver. "Take heed, that no man deceive you."