Present Truth and Prophetic Fulfillment
By Uriah Smith
There is much truth in the above, and many of its particulars are well illustrated in the history of the church and world for the past few years. Truth is progressive. As new events are continually transpiring, so new truths are being continually unfolded, both in regard to these events, and those which are to come; and present truth in every age of the world is truth concerning those scenes in the fulfillment of prophecy to which mankind hold the nearest relation, be they past or future. Thus has it ever been; and the world has been borne on by the tide of time, through way-mark after way-mark in its history, till now all the light of the past, and every indication of the present, betokens the speedy end of all things. With John the Baptist, as he went forth to herald the approach of one mightier than he, present truth was, The coming of the Messiah. But after the Messiah had come, the duty of mankind was, not to believe that he was coming, but to believe on his name. So it is not with us present truth to prove that the Babylonian empire, the golden head of the great image, has held its period of universal dominion; nor yet that Persia succeeded in this dominion, nor that Grecia rose after them and fulfilled her part in ruling the world; nor that Rome, the fourth great kingdom, followed on in course to tread down and devour the whole earth, and is now in the last stages of its shattered existence; but these are all necessary to, and conspire to shed light on, that which is present truth, namely, that the fifth universal kingdom, the next in this chain of prophecy is about to be set up by Him whose dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. And as on this point so, on every other: the past tends to throw light on the present and the future; and therefore every new truth that is developed in the divine order of events, has stronger claims to our acceptance and belief, than any which preceded it. The remark with which we were particularly struck in the above extract from Dr. Edwards, is this: "If you stop, God moves on without you." As truth is progressive, this is a necessary result. In the light of past experience, then, let us apply this principle. It will not do for the people of God at any time to imagine that they have truth enough, and so calmly settle down upon that and look for no further light. And here, we conceive, is where the churches have made their fatal mistake. When it became evident from the revelations of prophecy and the light of history, that the second advent of the Saviour was just at hand, that message was forthwith heralded to the world. It would have been supposed that the churches, professing as they did great love for him, would hail that message with joy; and had they indeed loved him, this would have been the case; but how different has been the result. Here was a criterion which was to test the true state of their affections. They could not love the Lord supremely, and at the same time love the world, directly opposed to him. They could not be setting their affections on things of the world, and at the same time desire the coming of him before whose presence they were to pass away forever. This criterion they could not avoid; and it revealed at once their true condition. It showed that their interests were all interwoven with worldly things; that the love of earth had supplanted their love to God; and pride and formality had taken the place of sincerity and devotion. The truth was proclaimed; they heard it; but their worldly interests got the ascendancy, and they rejected it. They had set their hearts upon ease and comfort and prosperity and carnal security, and were unwilling to give them up. They imagined they had truth enough to convert the world and here they stopped. They looked for, and cared for, no further light; therefore are they still down in the plains of Shinar, endeavoring to build their tower. But truth is onward; and God's Spirit always accompanies his truth; and if we do not keep pace with the one, we cannot enjoy the other. The churches stopped. They would not walk up to the light that was given, and therefore the Spirit of God is departed from their midst. The almost universal complaints among them of coldness and barrenness in spiritual things, the absence of genuine conversions in their midst, their still greater display of pride and formality, and the tenacity with which they cling to fables contrary to the living Word, have been ever since that time, and still are, witnessing to this solemn truth: THEY STOPPED; AND GOD HAS MOVED ON WITHOUT THEM! U. S.