THE CHURCH NOT IN DARKNESS.
By H. L. Hastings
These are the facts of the past, and they are "written for our learning." The deluged world—the wave-covered plain of Jordan—the scathed and desolate heaps that mark the place of Babel's past and punished pride and glory—the ruined temple of Jerusalem, and the scattered remnant of her ancient people—all these are eloquent teachers of mankind. From them we learn such lessons as these: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." "The wise shall understand, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand." Centuries have passed away since these examples have been recorded for our admonition and instruction. But while the great facts stand blazoned on the historic page, the mighty morals, the important lessons which these examples were to teach, have almost faded from the mind and memory of mankind. The world has grown old, and careless, and proud, and lustful, and covetous, and cruel, and oppressive, and impious, and defiant, and secure. Sodom and Egypt may be regarded as the appropriate types of perverted humanity as it appears at present. Sodom's pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, cruelty to the poor, and unbridled licentiousness; and Egypt's infidelity, unbelief, oppression, and impiety; these are marked characteristics of human character at the present day. These were long since predicted by the prophets of God and by the Saviour himself. There are the same "perils" that were to mark the "perilous times" that should be "in the last days." There is the same powerless "form of godliness;" there is the same turning "their ears from the truth;" there is the same turning "unto fables;" there are the same "seducers" waxing "worse and worse;" there are the same resisters of the truth, like "Jannes and Jambres" of old; there is the same abundance of iniquity; there is the same waxing cold of love; there are the same lustful "scoffers;" there is the same taunting denial of the coming of Christ; there is the same "evil servant," saying "in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming;" there is the same "smiting of fellow-servants;" there is the same "eating and drinking with the drunken;" there is the same slumbering and sleeping; there is the same saying "peace and safety" that was to mark the concluding period of earth's sinful course. So also in the political world. There is the same corruption, the same laxity of principles, the same unscrupulous ambition, the same warlike spirit and preparation, the same political upheaving, the same wide-spread national "distress," the same "perplexity," the same waking up of "mighty men," the same gathering of Israel's enemies and Satan's friends, the same thickening struggle of mighty powers, the same war of principles, religious, and races, the same stupendous preparations for the coming "battle of the great day of God Almighty" that we are warranted in anticipating, in connection with the approach of the day of the Lord. In the natural world, too, pestilential diseases, earthquakes, signs "in heaven above and earth beneath," "the sea and the waves roaring," all these speak the concluding groans and throes of that whole creation, which "groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now, waiting for" the final and eternal deliverance from the vanity and sorrow of a cursed and mortal state. Here then we stand, and while beset by ignorant scoffers, while listening to the deceitful declaration of "peace and safety," we hear a voice coming down above the storms, the tempests of eighteen hundred years, and ringing in our ears like the clarion blast that wakes a slumbering army, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." Can it be possible, then, that the church of Christ in this world, are to remain in utter ignorance of the approach of that tremendous day? Such a supposition is entirely at war with the whole character of God as exemplified in his dealings with the human race in ages past. Would God forewarn the antediluvians, the Sodomites, the Babylonians, the Jews, yea, every nation upon whom his wrath has fallen, of their approaching doom, and afford them opportunity to repent, and escape—and shall the last world-wide catastrophe, come unheralded, unpredicted? Shall guilty cities and kingdoms, be the objects of God's care and compassion, and receive admonitions and warnings from his mouth, and shall he at last permit all the kingdoms of the world to fall beneath his exterminating ire, unadmonished and unwarned? Impossible! "Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets." Upon this point the teachings of His Word are equally explicit. The duty of watchfulness is enjoined. The necessary preparation is only found in expecting the approach of that day, and in the most strict and constant obedience to the commands of God. God is ever merciful, and in all the manifestations of his judgments in days gone by, the disobedient have been the willful victims of their own inattention to the commands of God. They have not known his approaching judgment, not because they could not, but because they would not know. So it shall be at the end. Men are willingly ignorant and willfully impenitent. They do not discern the signs of the times because they are resolute in their determination to sin on in security, and to close their eyes against every heaven-sent warning that God in mercy gives them. Let us watch lest coming suddenly he find us sleeping. When we recollect that, "The Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets;" that "The things that are revealed belong to us and to our children;" that the Jews were condemned as hypocrites because they would not "discern the signs of the times;" that their house was left desolate because they "knew not the time of their visitation;" that Jesus has commanded us to lift up our heads, "knowing that our redemption draweth nigh;" that we are commanded to "know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand—even at the door;" that to be ignorant is to be guilty, when light is given and when the word of prophecy as a light "shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn;" when we recollect all these things, the conclusion is inevitably forced upon our minds, that it is the stern and solemn duty of the church of God and every individual Christian to be searching the word of God, discerning the signs of the times, giving heed to the sure word of prophecy, and waiting for the Son of God from heaven. We have reasoned from analogy. We have drawn our conclusions from the known facts in history, and from known principles of divine government. But, though this reasoning is clearly conclusive in itself, we intend to make it far more conclusive still. When we read the record of antediluvian sin, and reproof, and disregard, and destruction, we are not left to a mere supposition that earth's approaching catastrophe will transpire under similar circumstances. No! Lips that cannot lie, have uttered the solemn truth, that "as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and destroyed them all, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be." Thus inspiration positively teaches us that as in the days of Noah the people of God knew the danger, as the wicked were warned of it, as the people of God were saved and the wicked destroyed, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. So also in the case of the cities of the plain. Reasoning from analogy, we are led to think that as God is unchangeable in his principles of impartial justice, he will punish this world, delivering the just, as in the case of Sodom. But the Saviour tells us that this which we might infer is really and truly so. The concluding days of the gospel dispensation shall be like the days of Sodom. Then they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded—they shall do so at the end. Then Lot was warned, and also warned others—it shall be so at the end. Then, they disregarded and despised the warning—it shall be so at the end. Then "the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all; even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." No language can be more explicit. There will be such circumstances developed in connection with the close of this dispensation, and it is left to us to choose the position which we will occupy. Warnings have been given. While the godless world and a slothful church are gazing forward to scenes of worldly prosperity, aggrandizement and peace—while many are putting away indefinitely that evil day because they wish it far off—while others strangely regard the declaration, "no man knoweth the day and hour," as precluding the possibility of knowing "when it is nigh, even at the door"—while the world sleep on and dream on, the day breaketh, the morning cometh. The foretold tokens of redemption at hand, are before our gaze, and the weary eyes of the anxious watcher on Zion's walls, are greeted by the lustre of the ascending daystar, that portends the speedy rising of the King of Light. Signs of this description thicken on every hand. They cloud the heavens, they fill the earth, and we are bound to heed them. If we do it, it is our safety; if we neglect them, it is at our peril. We are to look, then, and wait for the Son of God. We are not to be in "darkness." We are to anticipate and prepare for that day. Ere we are aware it shall come upon us. Like the stealthy thief prowling in the midnight darkness, like the travail of a woman with child, like the sudden snare, entrapping the unwary feet, yea, like the brilliant lightning as it rends the cloud and gleams athwart the midnight sky, so sudden, so unexpected, so startling, shall the coming of the Son of man be. Hence the necessity of diligence that we "may be found of him in peace." Reader, are you saying peace and safety? Are you fancying that your Lord delayeth his coming? Are you saying in mockery and incredulity, Where is the promise of his coming? Oh, friend, remember where you are. Heed the word of God. Heed the revelations of his holy prophets. Heed the prophetic warning of his Son who died for thee. Forget not the sayings of holy men of old. Study God's word. Discern the signs of the times, and prepare to meet thy God. While all the elements of strife are let loose, while the whirlwind speeds from land to land, while the tempest sweeps wildly along and will soon burst heavily upon the earth, while nations are in their death struggles, and while others are hastening toward the outer circles of the awful whirlpool which shall speedily engulf them in destruction and perdition, while the notes of pleading entreaty and solemn warning fall upon thine ear, while mercy yet lingers to call you, and waits to receive you, I pray you flee from the impending storm. A little while, and it may be too late. "Sudden destruction cometh," and the unprepared shall not escape. Heed then the voice of God. Repent! Why live on in sin? Why court ruin and wrath? Why earn death? Why crucify afresh the Son of God? Why despise his outpoured blood? Why rush madly on to perdition? Why grieve the heart of him who died for thee? Why repel a salvation that is free and boundless as the unmeasured love of God? WHY WILL YOU DIE? Reader, are you a Christian? a watchful observer and discerner of the signs of the times? Then you are not in darkness. But are you where, and what you should be? Are you serving God with all your heart? Are you laying up treasures in heaven?174Are you taking heed lest at any time your heart be overcharged, and that day come upon you as a thief? Are you faithful to God? to yourself? to the world? to the church of Christ? to sinners around you? Do you confess Christ? Do you bear his cross? Do you obey his commands? Are you alive or dead? Are you in Christ Jesus, or out? Are you hot or cold? Are you lukewarm? Are you watchful? Are you prayerful and laborious? Are you pure from the blood of all men? Take time to consider these questions. Ponder them; you had better settle them now than at the judgment-seat of Christ. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. Your duty is before you. Will you do it? WILL YOU DO IT? Spirit of the living God, fasten this question on the reader's heart? Christian pilgrim, rejoice! Lift up thy head. Lo! heaven is radiant with the promise of the hastening day. You "are not in darkness," why need you be in tears? The morning cometh—the morning that shall end thy woes. The morning that shall chase away thy sorrows, that shall waken with its rising glory thy loved ones that sleep in Jesus, and that shall throw the vigor of immortality throughout thy wan and weary form. Ah, yes, in the nearing distance gleam the crystal towers and the glittering palaces of the city of God. A little while, and the swelling anthem of the redeemed shall burst sublimely on thy ravished ear, the crown of glory shall sparkle fair upon thy brow; the palm of triumph shall wave above thy head, the spotless raiment of the blest shall be thy adorning covering, the angels of God shall be thy joyful company, the marriage supper of the Lamb shall be thy feast, the voice of Jesus shall pronounce thy blessed welcome, the peaceful paradise of God shall be thine everlasting home, and thou shalt be for ever with the Lord.