Thrilling Times for Young Men
By Meade Mac Guire
SOME young men have been so unfortunate as to be reared in homes where the Bible never was studied, and naturally, they have never become interested in it. Others have read the Bible and heard it read more or less during childhood, but have lost their youthful interest, and look upon the whole question of religion as abstract and unpractical moral teaching connected with the Sunday-school and the church, or spiritual emotions beyond the comprehension of any but the pious mother and the preacher. But there is usually no lack of interest on the part of the candid, thinking young man, when he discovers some of the practical, twentieth century things revealed through prophets many centuries ago. The Bible writers, beginning as far back as we have any authentic history, trace the four great universal monarchies, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome, down to the disintegration of the Roman Empire, in an amazingly brief space, and then take up special epochs in the history of France, Turkey, etc. A graphic picture is drawn of the awakening of China and the far East, the fate of Egypt, the ambitious struggles of Russia; and a thrilling chapter discloses the quiet beginning, the mighty growth, and the final destiny of this great American republic. Still other prophecies foretell the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, or the Papacy, to universal power, its decline and loss of temporal power, and its final triumph throughout the world; also the rise, progress, and end of Protestantism, with much of interest regarding ancient and modern spiritualism, Mormonism, and other false doctrines and theories. In addition to all these incentives to an earnest study of the Bible, is the supreme consideration, that the prophecies, besides foretelling all these events, give definite dates by which we may know just where we are in the stream of time, and what we should do in view of the still greater events that are to occur in the near future. Some reader may say, "If all this is true, why do not the great scholars, theologians, and philosophers see it and urge it upon the attention of the people?" I answer by asking, "Why did not the scribes and the lawyers and the doctors recognize Jesus Christ when He came?" — Simply because they were looking for something else, and were not prepared to recognize and accept Him in the form in which He came. So it was in the days of Noah, and so the Bible says it will be in this day when the second coming of Christ and the end of the world are at hand.