Characteristics of the Last Days.
THE apostles Peter and Paul both, have spoken expressly of the last days and their characteristics, the most striking of which is the skepticism which shall prevail. “That day shall not come,” said Paul, “except there come a falling away first;” E apostasia, the apostasy. 2 Thess. ii, 3. This falling away, or apostasy, he explains in 1 Tim. iv, 1, to be an apostasy from the faith,—apostesontai tines tes pisteos; “Certain, shall apostatize from the faith.” So also the apostle Peter says; 2 Pet. iii, 3, “That there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?” &c. He tells us they shall be especially and willingly ignorant about the flood, in the days of Noah. It is remarkable how strikingly these characteristics are being exhibited in our own day, and from the very causes predicted. Paul, for instance, says, “Giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons.” We have reached an age when thousands on thousands,42through the teachings of demons have, not merely given up some one doctrine of the Bible, while holding to other of its great cardinal truths, but have abjured the Bible itself, as a revelation from God. No thoroughly confirmed spiritualist will acknowledge the Divine origin of the Bible. But Peter refers to the fact that the mockers of the last days will be willingly ignorant of the facts taught in the first eight chapters of Genesis:—1st, that by the word of God the heavens and earth were produced: and 2d, that the heavens and earth thus produced being overflowed with water perished; and 3d, that “the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” It is a singular fact that the infidelity of this age has seized these very points as its stronghold, in its assault upon the Bible. Geology is summoned and comes forth, a professed science, which is but of yesterday, and with brazen front assails the testimony of holy writ, and with one fell swoop assumes to lay it low, even with the ground. But the true cause of the assault, is, because it brings God too near us and exhibits too clearly his direct interference with the affairs of this world. This spirit of infidelity is so rampant that it shakes the church of England to its base. The following, taken from an exchange, will give our readers a faint idea of the magnitude of this fearful contest in Great Britain:— BISHOP COLENSO AND THE ENGLISH BISHOPS.
The Archbishop of Canterbury states in a letter that Dr. Colenso’s Metropolitan, the Bishop of Cape-town, has just returned to his province, ‘prepared to institute those proceedings which will try whether the charges brought against Bishop Colenso can be sustained.’ Meanwhile, His Grace cautions his clergy against admitting Dr. Colenso into their pulpits, or allowing him to minister ‘in the Word or Sacraments in their respective parishes, until he shall have cleared himself from the grave imputations which at present attach to him.’ “The Bishop of Chester and the Bishop of Durham have each addressed their clergy by circular on the subject of Bishop Colenso. They consider it unnecessary to publish a formal inhibition against his use of the pulpits in their sees, having sufficient confidence that none of their clergy would permit his heterodox lordship of Natal to officiate in their respective churches.” The Bishop of Durham observes: “It is not against the mischievous writings of this one author that we have to be on our guard. A wide-spread spirit of skepticism pervades in many instances the scientific publications, the popular periodical literature, the daily journals, and even the theological writings of the present day.” Bishop Colenso has written one of the most violent attacks upon the Bible which has ever been made. The English Bishops have written him a letter requesting him to resign his Bishopric, but he declines to do so; hence the proceedings which are about to take place as expressed in the quotation above. The Puseyite controversy of a few years ago, was as nothing in comparison with the present contest. Nor is Great Britain alone beset with this prevailing spirit of skepticism; but a Parisian correspondent of the Christian Advocate and Journal informs his readers that the same spirit prevails throughout France. It is not the old Atheistic form of the last century, but this modern and insidious form, which is all the more dangerous for appearing in the guise of a friend. Catholic and Protestant countries alike are coming under the fatal influence of this spirit. And the whole is the very spirit of Anti-christ, who is to deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he has come in the flesh, or is coming in the flesh. 1 John ii, 22; iv, 2, 3; 2 John vii. The hope of the world’s conversion, still so persistently maintained by many in the face of the Bible testimony to the contrary, is another of the sad evidences of a departure from faith in the word of God. There is no refuge from this fearful whirlwind which is sweeping over the earth, but in clinging to Christ as the true and long promised Messiah, who is in these last days to return to reign on the throne of his father David. In him, in his sacrificial, priestly and royal character, the law and the prophets, the evangelists and the apostles all beautifully and harmoniously meet and prove each other to have come from God, and to be Divine. Take from the Saviour one of his works or offices, and seek to make it something else, the work is marred, its harmony is broken and its veracity invalidated. And nothing can so effectually arrest the spirit of infidelity as the preaching of the prophetic scriptures relating to the coming reign of the Messiah, as was done among us twenty years ago. God in his providence has placed us as a people of trust with a great mission; and earnestly should we devote ourselves to its accomplishment. Our lectures, tracts and books, should flood the land from one end to the other, as the only antidote to the prevailing infidelity of the age. Then, “On! let all the soul within you
For the truth’s sake go ahead.”