And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
As lawlessness spreads through contempt for God's law, the love of many professed followers for God, for truth, and for one another grows cold and dies into formality. The warning belongs to Christ's Olivet discourse about both Jerusalem's destruction and His second coming, where Jerusalem's fall stands as a type of the final destruction by fire. Its rapid fulfillment in present immorality, crime, deception, and worldliness proves the last days and the time of trouble just before the end are upon us. That cooling is not inevitable and must not be allowed, for only those who remain watchful, faithful, and earnest to the end will be saved. Love is kept alive by repenting and returning to first works, abiding in Christ through prayer and communion, and walking with God as Enoch did amid corruption.
Setting in Matthew 24
The discourse belongs to both the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ, blending the two crises into one prophecy given not only for the disciples but for those living in the final scenes of earth's history. It traces important events in world and church history from His first advent to His second, including Jerusalem's destruction, persecution, and signs in the heavens.
Jerusalem's destruction serves as a type of the world's final destruction by fire. What happened with abounding iniquity and cooling love before Jerusalem fell will again be fulfilled before the coming of the Son of man in this generation.
The verse stands among the signs that the end is not yet but is coming, with deception by many coming in His name, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places as the beginning of sorrows. Then follow delivering up to affliction and killing and hatred of all nations for His name's sake, with many offended and betraying and hating one another, and many false prophets arising and deceiving many. When lawlessness becomes widespread the love of many grows cold, yet he who endures to the end shall be saved, and the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations before the end comes. This marks what will take place in the very end of earth's history, lifted as a danger signal and specification of sure coming dangers to be carefully studied and understood, culminating in the time of trouble just before the end which comes as a thief in the night and calls for watchfulness and readiness because the hour is unknown.
The verse belongs to the description of Christ's second coming to the world with power and great glory to gather His elect from the four winds. It is joined to warnings to watch and be ready because the day and hour are unknown and the Son of man comes in an hour not thought of. It stands with the contrast of the faithful and wise servant found doing his work and the evil servant who says his lord delays his coming, portraying the condition of the church at Christ's coming to arouse earnest zeal in the true believer. Its closing account of people waiting for His appearing portrays two classes in the last-day church, a contrast further illustrated by the ten virgins in Matthew 25.
The chapter sketches the history of the present dispensation to the complete restitution of all things, showing the church's warfare and sufferings on her way to promised redemption. It points to the final triumph of the people of God, the destruction of Satan and all his followers, the total and eternal extirpation of evil from the universe, and the renovation of the earth as the everlasting inheritance of the saints. It belongs to the prophecy of the trials His people would face from His departure until His return, including persecution and hostility toward His followers, who would suffer as their Master did.
With prophetic eye looking down the stream of time to the end, Christ declared this danger signal for the very end. From the crest of Olivet He foresaw the actions of saints and sinners down to the last days. He is pictured shedding tears over those whose love has grown cold, who whisper fanaticism and enthusiasm when the voice of His people is uplifted in earnestness and strength, while His servants are still bidden not to be afraid but to say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. In the last days sin and rejection of His mercy, warnings, and invitations abound.
The verse is part of Jesus' signs-of-the-times teaching to His disciples, given to instruct later believers and help them prepare for the great conflict.
Meaning of Abounding Iniquity
Iniquity means lawlessness, especially disregard and contempt for God's law and character, with Satan persuading people that the law is no longer binding. This includes trampling God's requirements and law, conflict over the Sabbath and pressure to abandon obedience, and leaving God's will expressed in the Ten Commandments to confederate with worldly men or with worldly-converted church members. As contempt for God's law grows, those who follow its light and obey from the heart prize its precepts more, while others lose reverence for the law and for true piety and holiness. That lawlessness deadens piety, weakens loyalty to God, makes faith sickly and deformed amid an atmosphere of unrighteousness, and causes many to lose love and find it difficult to remain faithful to the end.
Iniquity abounds through many false prophets rising and deceiving many, through false teachers and deceivers whose influence is a greater danger to the church than persecution by enemies. Accepting them opens the way to error, dims spiritual perception, weakens spiritual understanding, and shakes the confidence of new believers, so Christ's teaching stands as the standard by which every doctrine out of harmony with it is to be rejected. The same abundance appears when many depart from the faith to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils so powerful that if possible even the elect would be deceived. It is fulfilled in conditions existing in the church, not merely the world, where iniquity practiced even within the church clouds minds with unbelief, keeps churches from keeping pace with truth, and gives Satan room to work through church members with all deceivableness of unrighteousness to deceive the people.
The abounding iniquity includes widespread immorality with licentiousness as the special sin of this age lifting itself with unprecedented boldness, strength and prevalence until people seem benumbed and lovers of virtue are nearly discouraged. It is found not only among unbelievers and scoffers but among professed Christians, even some professing to look for His appearing who do not cleanse themselves from all pollution but serve lust so long that impure thoughts and corrupt imaginations become natural to them, leaving them no more prepared than Satan himself. Among God's professed people this shows in failure to govern appetite and passion from moral duty and fear of God when public opinion and custom do not condemn conduct, so that appetite and corrupt passions enslave the higher faculties and weaken self-government. It is evil cherished in human hearts opposing God's work of restoring His moral image, felt even inside health institutions, in a corrupt age of moral pollution where society is unfriendly to righteousness and the very atmosphere breathed is tainted with sin and corruption.
The increase of iniquity is seen in drunkenness, violence, crime, cruelty, murder, strife, theft, hatred, robbery, dishonesty, greed, selfishness and covetousness, pointing to the lawless conditions just before the second coming. The prevalence of drunkenness, violence and crime, the visible murder, strife, theft, hatred, robbery and dishonesty, and the growth of crime, cruelty and every kind of wickedness show the condition warned of and make urgent the explaining of God's Word and the carrying of warning to those perishing in sin. That violence, crime, greed, wickedness, selfishness and covetousness, with the worsening condition of the world, are signs of the nearness of Christ's coming and fulfill His words.
The abundance includes selfishness and conformity to the world, absorption in wealth, appetite and worldly amusements with no thought for eternity, so that those absorbed are not moving heavenward and face destruction with the apostate. It includes pride and worldliness encouraged by parents and copied by children, causing love for truth to grow cold and weakening commitment to God's work. It includes worldly plans and devisings and strange sentiments and principles put forth by the prince of the power of the air directly opposed to God's law, with those claiming to keep the Sabbath leaving the upholding of truth to become excited and engrossed in political money strife and to voice politicians' sentiments. Association with worldly people and customs shapes Christians by worldly principles, weakens desire for communion with God, blinds them to the difference between law-breakers and law-keepers until they call evil good and good evil, lose sight of eternal realities, and cease to hunger for truth and salvation. As in Noah's day this selfishness and worldly conformity can become so widespread that love grows cold and profession is contradicted by intense pursuit of worldly interests until probation ends.
This happens as the Spirit's restraining power is removed and people come under Satan's control, for rejecting Christ leaves love for God without an abiding place in the soul. Satan works with determined purpose to deceive the whole human family to his side in making God's law void, finding human agencies that multiply his power as partners to tempt, allure and deceive others into vicious practices violating moral law, ruling such workers harshly so that his character worked out through them makes not only the human race suffer but animals also. He continues on earth the warfare against God's law begun in heaven when he sought to force a change in God's government and was expelled, now seeking revenge by persuading men to disloyalty, perverting judgment and justice and trampling the law. He especially opposes God's commandment-keeping people, bringing trials, sorrows, grief and manifold temptations to discourage them and torture them into unbelief by pressing the idea that God is displeased with them. The enemy also kindles fires of dissension from outside God's people to lead astray, draw apart and prolong the work so nothing is accomplished and blessing is lost, and brings delusive theories even to humble seekers who distrust themselves and seek to walk with God.
Whose Love Grows Cold
The many whose love grows cold are professed followers of Christ and professed believers, and the verse pictures conditions existing in the church, not merely the world. It is loss of first love for Jesus and of love of brethren for one another, with love almost extinct among many and brethren no longer loving brethren. Those who share in prevailing iniquity rather than standing clear of it prove by cooling love that they in some sense partake in it, for otherwise it would not lessen love for God and zeal and fervor in His cause, and this decline is not inevitable or necessary. Few do right for its own sake or shun evil when public opinion does not restrain them, and many become blind to the wickedness of their hearts and fail to feel their weakness and helplessness.
The love that grows cold is love for God, for truth, and for righteousness, with zeal, fervor, piety and godliness. When iniquity abounds it has a paralyzing, deadening influence on piety and godliness, deadening piety and weakening loyalty to God and even destroying true faith and piety. Faith becomes sickly and deformed amid an atmosphere of unrighteousness, making it difficult to remain faithful to the end, especially amid contempt for God's law and conflict over the Sabbath with pressure to abandon obedience. Love of the world or of a cherished sin draws the heart away from prayer and meditation on sacred things, so religious services may continue as mere form while love for Jesus fades and spiritual life declines, and without the oil of grace the lamp of truth flickers and may go out.
Grown-cold love appears as leaving first love into distrust, selfishness and suspicion, and into dissension and strife, being offended and betraying and hating one another. It creates sympathy and division, gives the impression of variance and enmity, and brings selfishness, evil surmising, evil speaking, envy, jealousy and hard-heartedness, with restraint lost upon the tongue through neglected prayer. It brings Pharisaical righteousness, deadness of spirituality, lack of spiritual eyesight, and mechanical formal orthodoxy in place of deep fervent charity and tenderness. It leads some to leave the simplicity of the faith and tread on the borderland of skepticism, becoming spiritually beclouded and holding serious errors, including sitting in judgment on the Scriptures and declaring passages uninspired because they do not suit minds or cannot be harmonized with philosophy and science falsely so called. It is shown in firm resistance to the light on the righteousness of Christ, failure to distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd, hard speeches, conjectures, false statements and surmisings, refusing enlightenment, losing confidence in the messages sent through God's servants, and being moved by a power from beneath and by delusion so that spiritual darkness rests upon them, with divisions, confusion and criticism that kill unity of mind and faith.
Love grows cold when people are influenced by surrounding evil without staying closely connected with God, and when contempt for true piety and holiness leads them to lose reverence for God's law. Love of the world or a cherished sin draws the heart from prayer and meditation, and neglect of Bible study, following corrupting sights and sounds, association with worldly principles that weaken desire for communion with God, and ceasing to work for others complete the cooling. Those who follow the light and obey the truth from the heart, by contrast, prize the law more as it is despised, so love for God's precepts grows among its observers while contempt for them grows among others.
Its fulfillment is seen when people outgrow Advent faith and live for the world, denying Christ's speedy appearing in heart, works and words. They say the Lord delays His coming and smite fellow servants who insist on worshiping God as He directs, in the same spirit as Cain who rejected God's way and hated obedient worship that God accepted while his own self-willed worship was not accepted. Under fiery trials, opposition, threats and abuse, those who appear genuine may prove unfaithful and take the side of those opposing God, abandoning principles while others must remain loyal to God and His law even when despised by the majority. There comes a shaking in which chaff is separated from wheat and some who have not valued or followed the light separate from the faithful, while the genuine are then strongest. Many who claim to believe truth change opinions in times of peril and take the side of transgressors of God's law to escape persecution, because they are not established in present truth by digging it out for themselves from the Scriptures and will not accept light in God's appointed way, and some backslide under unfaithful shepherds who neglect Scripture and fail to feed the flock.
This grown-cold love is the reason many who claim to believe truth still carry the sins of Babylon and assimilate to the practices of the nominal churches called Babylon, revealing great deficiency in religious experience and manners toward God, self-complacency, and a spurious counterfeit righteousness instead of truth in the inward parts. Love can grow cold even when persecution is absent, appearing as indifference and inactivity toward giving truth to those who need it when stake and scaffold are not appointed to test God's people.
Prophecy for the Last Days
The verse belongs to the outline of what is to come upon the world and describes the perils of the last days now present, the closing days of probation and great trial of faith, the time of trouble just before the end which comes as a thief in the night. It stands in a sequence after wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places as the beginning of sorrows, then delivering up to affliction and killing and hatred of all nations for His name, with many offended and betraying and hating one another and many false prophets deceiving many, in which abounding lawlessness the love of many grows cold, yet he that endures to the end shall be saved and the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations before the end comes, requiring watchfulness and readiness because the hour is unknown. In that time the world becomes as wicked as before the Flood and as in Noah's and Enoch's days, with widespread wickedness as evil cherished in human hearts opposing God's work of restoring His moral image, felt even in health institutions, and where this wickedness increases love for God and righteousness grows cold and prevailing ungodliness weakens and even destroys true faith and piety. This worsening wickedness before Christ's coming stands contrary to claims that the world will be converted and enter a temporal millennium before He returns.
Its prediction is being fulfilled today and fast fulfilling in the present abundance of iniquity, in the last conflict of earth's history and the rapidly fulfilling last chapters of earth's history. It is one of the predictions to be studied and brought to the attention of all, presented by ministers and teachers while leaving matters of lesser consequence, because it is truth that decides eternal destiny, and its unmistakable fulfillment shows Christ's coming is at hand and calls the church to arouse. It is reflected in people absorbed in wealth, appetite, and worldly amusements with no thought for eternity, not moving heavenward and facing destruction with the apostate, and in abounding iniquity with the perils of the last days and the powers of darkness pressing more heavily than ever as signs heralding the second advent. Iniquity has made rapid strides since the earthquake in San Francisco, and the work is fast closing up because wickedness increases on every side. Widespread wrongdoing and cooling of love are present now as evidence Christ is soon to come, proving many are asleep and not as far ahead spiritually as receiving and believing God's word requires at the time when the ends of the world have come, demanding understanding of moments swiftly passing into eternity and making ready a people to stand in the great day of God, with the watchman knowing the time of night or else being registered as unfaithful stewards.
Its fast fulfillment proves the present is the last days when the end of all things is at hand, with Christ's coming at hand and the great day of God right upon us. Present wrongdoing and cooling love, with violence, crime, greed, murders, thefts, lawlessness, corruption, and weakening of moral obligation, are evidence and signs of that nearness. Yet these signs have become so common that people scarcely consider their significance and outcome, many are asleep and indifferent and do not gather up its importance, and God's people need to be aroused to a vivid sense of the times. The sign is written for admonition to those living when the ends of the world are come, requiring solemn living with reference to that day and preparation because God's plagues are just upon the world, and calling for faith and courage instead of unbelief or discouragement in stormy times ahead. As the people before the Flood received Noah's warning, so now the world must receive a warning message, and the chapter points both to nearness of the end and to the need to warn cities whose inhabitants dishonored God and rejected warnings.
Because that time has come, those perishing in sin must be warned, the message of mercy and warning must go forth to awaken the world, and means entrusted by the Lord must be invested in giving the world the last message of mercy rather than spent in self-gratification or ease and idleness. Bible believers must earnestly continue laboring and do their very best work until the work given them is finished, carrying the message to new places, explaining God's Word and carrying messages of warning, and laboring with unceasing vigilance before impressions wear away, since time to work is short. At this far-advanced point in history the wickedness of the wicked is increasing with growth of crime, cruelty, and every kind of wickedness, and Satan's efforts are not lessening while the love of many believers is growing less. Love should instead be increasingly revealed in untiring labor for lost souls, in preaching the message in the highways and byways with greatly increased efforts for recovery of souls, with justice and the love of God marking workers, with means invested to create new interests where truth is needed, so souls are convicted and converted rather than left ensnared.
In the closing work false religion prevails and widespread wrongdoing obscures the cross of Calvary and spreads darkness like the pall of death, with the whole force of popular influence turned against the truth and plot after plot formed to overthrow God's people. Even in that hour of greatest peril God raises up human messengers like Elijah who cannot be silenced, who sternly rebuke the union of the church with the world in the cities and where defiance against God is greatest. They call men and women to turn from a man-made institution to the true Sabbath and to fear God and give Him glory because the hour of judgment has come.
Enduring to the End
The cooling of love stands joined to the promise that the one who endures to the end shall be saved, so determined effort to remain spiritually awake and to preserve first love is connected with being saved. The same warning belongs to increasing iniquity and deception amid persecution, betrayal, hatred and false prophets, and to the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness to all nations before the end comes. It calls people not to continue in sin but to remain watchful, prayerful and faithful and to return to first love.
It calls for taking heed not to be deceived, for faithful performance of individual duty, for giving the warnings to others, and for preparation for the coming without knowing its secret time. It stands among signs that the end is not yet but is coming, with deception by many coming in the name, wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, earthquakes in divers places as the beginning of sorrows, then delivering up to affliction and killing and hatred of all nations for the name's sake, offense and betrayal and hatred among brethren, and many false prophets deceiving many, culminating in the time of trouble just before the end which comes as a thief in the night when the hour is unknown. Faithful watchmen who recognize the events connected with these signs remain alert and ready for the return, and God's watchmen must be wide awake, while unfaithful shepherds who neglect Scripture and fail to feed the flock become a chief cause of backsliding. Those who would successfully fight the battles of the Lord must put on the whole armor, put away sin because God hates it, and hold up before the world the One who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him, even though precious light of truth still flashes upon the pathway of everyone who seeks for it.
It was lifted as a danger signal and a specification of sure coming dangers in the very end of earth's history for the people of God to carefully study and understand. Ministers and teachers are to present it to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence, as truth that decides the eternal destiny of souls and as prophecy bearing on destiny to be explained. Its prediction is being fulfilled today with unmistakable fulfillment showing that the coming is at hand and calling the church to arouse.
The cooling of love when iniquity abounds is not inevitable and must not be allowed, for sharing in that iniquity rather than standing clear of it is what lets love for God, zeal and fervor grow cold. The increase of iniquity should instead move those who love God to greater earnestness and faithful service as soldiers of Christ, with greatest earnestness in making Christ known rather than leaving the world or hiding the light because evil increases. Faithfulness to God's law and love, principle, zeal and earnestness must be retained even when wrongdoing and transgression are advancing, wisely adapting methods without sacrificing one jot of principle or agreeing with human sophistry, and trusting continually in Christ to keep zeal alive.
In the church's greatest danger the faithful remnant pray fervently, grow strong in faith, and are jealous for God's honor, and God hears and answers when the transgressor's guilt reaches its full measure. Those who truly love God must not be carried along by prevailing wickedness or treat the commandments with less reverence when disregard and contempt for the law mark growing iniquity; their zeal and love should increase and reach for greater holiness as the law is set aside. God will have a people who glorify Him, reprove unrighteousness, and remain true to His law when the world seeks to make its precepts void, and even amid rejection and persecution of His messengers He gives grace to those who are chosen, tempted and tried, willing to give more grace and reveal Himself to His people because of this very abundance and spiritual need. Awake members respond with greater diligence, give straight clear testimonies freighted with light, and keep unselfish Christlike concern for souls.
The abundance of iniquity calls for the church's greatest diligence and a living testimony to keep sin out of the church. Believers must not be satisfied with a form of godliness or outward form that lacks the Spirit and its power, for the religious world is sick without recognizing its need for healing. The verse applies to decaying zeal and languishing spirituality, calling for fasting, humility and prayer.
Keeping Love Alive
All who have left their first love for Jesus are fallen and in peril, for love in the church has grown cold and is almost extinct, with brethren no longer loving brethren. The loss opens the door to selfishness, distrust, suspicion, evil surmising, evil speaking, envy, jealousy, hard-heartedness, unrestrained tongue through neglected prayer, Pharisaical righteousness, dead spirituality, lack of spiritual eyesight, and mechanical formal orthodoxy instead of deep fervent charity and tenderness. The remedy is to remember from whence they are fallen and to repent with watchfulness, humility and confession and do the first works, so the heart is kindled again. Without such repentance the candlestick will be removed out of its place and the light become great darkness, and the church risks losing its light.
Drawing near to God keeps love and spiritual life from growing cold, for continued sin and separation from God's Word and prayer leave people without living spiritual experience. Safety requires humbling the heart and fleeing to Jesus Christ as refuge, coming to Him in faith to cherish His meekness, abiding in the True Vine, and trusting continually in Christ. Pride in supposed knowledge makes fools, lets people become depraved and lost, and leaves even men with heavy responsibilities in danger of becoming religious wrecks by surrendering to engrossing cares, earthliness, and making gold their god. Retaining vital godliness gives a religion that meets the highest standard and makes men conquerors, as heavenly intelligences watch to see who will watch and pray, ask if each course is the way of the Lord, and seek more of heaven and less of earth, so they endure when everything shaken falls and only what cannot be shaken remains. The cross guarantees spiritual power and understanding of Scripture through continual communion with truth, righteousness and mercy revealing God's character.
Like Enoch, believers can train their minds toward devotion and heavenly things and remain pure, uncorrupted and unsullied amid prevailing sin and moral pollution, even when society is unfriendly to righteousness and the very atmosphere breathed is tainted. Enoch walking with God three hundred years in the same kind of corrupt age proves holiness remains possible without being compelled only by terrors of the day of God, by training the mind to devotion and love of purity, keeping conversation upon heavenly and divine things, bearing the impress of the divine with countenance lighted by light shining in the face of Jesus. His pattern for meeting the multiplying perils of the last days is bringing the will into submission to God's will, remembering responsibility proportionate to entrusted talents, abiding in the True Vine and bearing fruits of righteousness, going about doing good, seeking to save souls, conquering difficulties, and keeping unspotted from the world to reveal genuine religion. He represents saints living amid the perils and corruptions of the last days who by faithful obedience will be translated from a sinful world to heaven, showing each person responsible to seek not only their own salvation but also the salvation of others with alert activity.
Because abounding iniquity deadens moral senses so sin no longer appears sinful and benumbs moral powers to corrupt others, believers must guard eyes and ears from exposure to growing wickedness and from corrupting sights and sounds that chill affection and faithfulness. The safeguard is sanctified tongues and sanctified speech that administers grace to hearers and surrounds the soul with a holy atmosphere from heaven rather than a poisonous atmosphere, with whole soul, body and spirit sanctified and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. God's workers are therefore called to elevated thought, word and action in harmony with sacred truth to elevate man, win him to Christ, and lead him to partake of the divine nature having escaped corruption through lust. In this age an unguarded word or improper action, especially undue familiarity and failure to keep barriers of reserve, greatly injures usefulness and gives the enemy occasion for reproach, so those serving must be circumspect and guarded.
Love should instead be increasingly revealed in untiring labor for lost souls in the highways and byways, with greatly increased efforts for recovery of souls, justice and the love of God marking workers, without ease and idleness, and with means invested to create new interests where truth is needed so souls are convicted and converted rather than left ensnared. Even ministers are in danger of growing cold amid present movements, calling churches to yield to transforming grace, enter right relation to God, awaken from dullness, and set every power into activity, for there is no time left for pleasure parties and social gatherings to amuse and pass time while the world must hear sacred truth reproving indifference. Exalted greatness comes through connection with God by daily conversion, diligent study of the most precious truth of the Word, most earnest prayer, and humbling of soul in obedience, with fathers and mothers as patterns of piety, and faithful ministers moving the work forward by bearing a solemn warning as a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, never losing sight of message and high calling. Children threatened by abounding evil need earnest persevering instruction, godly example and prayer to be kept from it and brought to salvation, and those professing to love God and keep His commandments must care about others' salvation, share the message of hope in Christ, create new interests and move to new places rather than meet that day unprepared.
A Christian's own defection or lukewarmness can encourage others to follow a wrong course and commit sin, so increase of evil must not cause hiding of light but calls for greatest earnestness in making Christ known while remaining in the world kept from evil. Dwelling only on widespread wickedness, apostasy and weakness fills the heart with sadness and doubt and turns attention away from God's power and love. Yet terrible trials that weigh down the soul need not cause failure or discouragement by God's promise, and God's power keeps believers through faith in a special manner since no one can keep himself.
Commandment-keeping people must be sharp, discerning and spiritually minded, refusing to make worldly policy their principle or to leave God's will expressed in the Ten Commandments to confederate with worldly men or with church members converted to worldly methods and plans. Those thoroughly converted are brought into perfect harmony with God's attributes by divine grace, finding spiritual life, efficiency and power, and they look to God alone for strength instead of trusting those disobedient to His commandments, set apart to sacred service in covenant relation to preach the Word as John preparing the way. Those who have light yet walk not in it but follow sparks of their own kindling shall lie down in sorrow, while against dissension kindled from outside God's people to draw apart and prolong the work, God's people must press together in humility putting self out of sight, unifying as far and fast as possible, walking in heaven's light and placing themselves where they reach the highest standard of truth, righteousness, equity and judgment. This fulfillment of signs of the times should rouse from lethargy and awaken responsibility for work, moving householders to prepare Christ's way by helping in every possible way those for whom He gave His life.
As lawlessness spreads through contempt for God's law, the love of many professed followers for God, for truth, and for one another grows cold and dies into formality.
The warning belongs to Christ's Olivet discourse about both Jerusalem's destruction and His second coming, where Jerusalem's fall stands as a type of the final destruction by fire.
Its rapid fulfillment in present immorality, crime, deception, and worldliness proves the last days and the time of trouble just before the end are upon us.
That cooling is not inevitable and must not be allowed, for only those who remain watchful, faithful, and earnest to the end will be saved.
Love is kept alive by repenting and returning to first works, abiding in Christ through prayer and communion, and walking with God as Enoch did amid corruption.
Setting in Matthew 24
The discourse belongs to both the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ, blending the two crises into one prophecy given not only for the disciples but for those living in the final scenes of earth's history. It traces important events in world and church history from His first advent to His second, including Jerusalem's destruction, persecution, and signs in the heavens.
Jerusalem's destruction serves as a type of the world's final destruction by fire. What happened with abounding iniquity and cooling love before Jerusalem fell will again be fulfilled before the coming of the Son of man in this generation.
The verse stands among the signs that the end is not yet but is coming, with deception by many coming in His name, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places as the beginning of sorrows. Then follow delivering up to affliction and killing and hatred of all nations for His name's sake, with many offended and betraying and hating one another, and many false prophets arising and deceiving many. When lawlessness becomes widespread the love of many grows cold, yet he who endures to the end shall be saved, and the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations before the end comes. This marks what will take place in the very end of earth's history, lifted as a danger signal and specification of sure coming dangers to be carefully studied and understood, culminating in the time of trouble just before the end which comes as a thief in the night and calls for watchfulness and readiness because the hour is unknown.
The verse belongs to the description of Christ's second coming to the world with power and great glory to gather His elect from the four winds. It is joined to warnings to watch and be ready because the day and hour are unknown and the Son of man comes in an hour not thought of. It stands with the contrast of the faithful and wise servant found doing his work and the evil servant who says his lord delays his coming, portraying the condition of the church at Christ's coming to arouse earnest zeal in the true believer. Its closing account of people waiting for His appearing portrays two classes in the last-day church, a contrast further illustrated by the ten virgins in Matthew 25.
The chapter sketches the history of the present dispensation to the complete restitution of all things, showing the church's warfare and sufferings on her way to promised redemption. It points to the final triumph of the people of God, the destruction of Satan and all his followers, the total and eternal extirpation of evil from the universe, and the renovation of the earth as the everlasting inheritance of the saints. It belongs to the prophecy of the trials His people would face from His departure until His return, including persecution and hostility toward His followers, who would suffer as their Master did.
With prophetic eye looking down the stream of time to the end, Christ declared this danger signal for the very end. From the crest of Olivet He foresaw the actions of saints and sinners down to the last days. He is pictured shedding tears over those whose love has grown cold, who whisper fanaticism and enthusiasm when the voice of His people is uplifted in earnestness and strength, while His servants are still bidden not to be afraid but to say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. In the last days sin and rejection of His mercy, warnings, and invitations abound.
The verse is part of Jesus' signs-of-the-times teaching to His disciples, given to instruct later believers and help them prepare for the great conflict.
Meaning of Abounding Iniquity
Iniquity means lawlessness, especially disregard and contempt for God's law and character, with Satan persuading people that the law is no longer binding. This includes trampling God's requirements and law, conflict over the Sabbath and pressure to abandon obedience, and leaving God's will expressed in the Ten Commandments to confederate with worldly men or with worldly-converted church members. As contempt for God's law grows, those who follow its light and obey from the heart prize its precepts more, while others lose reverence for the law and for true piety and holiness. That lawlessness deadens piety, weakens loyalty to God, makes faith sickly and deformed amid an atmosphere of unrighteousness, and causes many to lose love and find it difficult to remain faithful to the end.
Iniquity abounds through many false prophets rising and deceiving many, through false teachers and deceivers whose influence is a greater danger to the church than persecution by enemies. Accepting them opens the way to error, dims spiritual perception, weakens spiritual understanding, and shakes the confidence of new believers, so Christ's teaching stands as the standard by which every doctrine out of harmony with it is to be rejected. The same abundance appears when many depart from the faith to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils so powerful that if possible even the elect would be deceived. It is fulfilled in conditions existing in the church, not merely the world, where iniquity practiced even within the church clouds minds with unbelief, keeps churches from keeping pace with truth, and gives Satan room to work through church members with all deceivableness of unrighteousness to deceive the people.
The abounding iniquity includes widespread immorality with licentiousness as the special sin of this age lifting itself with unprecedented boldness, strength and prevalence until people seem benumbed and lovers of virtue are nearly discouraged. It is found not only among unbelievers and scoffers but among professed Christians, even some professing to look for His appearing who do not cleanse themselves from all pollution but serve lust so long that impure thoughts and corrupt imaginations become natural to them, leaving them no more prepared than Satan himself. Among God's professed people this shows in failure to govern appetite and passion from moral duty and fear of God when public opinion and custom do not condemn conduct, so that appetite and corrupt passions enslave the higher faculties and weaken self-government. It is evil cherished in human hearts opposing God's work of restoring His moral image, felt even inside health institutions, in a corrupt age of moral pollution where society is unfriendly to righteousness and the very atmosphere breathed is tainted with sin and corruption.
The increase of iniquity is seen in drunkenness, violence, crime, cruelty, murder, strife, theft, hatred, robbery, dishonesty, greed, selfishness and covetousness, pointing to the lawless conditions just before the second coming. The prevalence of drunkenness, violence and crime, the visible murder, strife, theft, hatred, robbery and dishonesty, and the growth of crime, cruelty and every kind of wickedness show the condition warned of and make urgent the explaining of God's Word and the carrying of warning to those perishing in sin. That violence, crime, greed, wickedness, selfishness and covetousness, with the worsening condition of the world, are signs of the nearness of Christ's coming and fulfill His words.
The abundance includes selfishness and conformity to the world, absorption in wealth, appetite and worldly amusements with no thought for eternity, so that those absorbed are not moving heavenward and face destruction with the apostate. It includes pride and worldliness encouraged by parents and copied by children, causing love for truth to grow cold and weakening commitment to God's work. It includes worldly plans and devisings and strange sentiments and principles put forth by the prince of the power of the air directly opposed to God's law, with those claiming to keep the Sabbath leaving the upholding of truth to become excited and engrossed in political money strife and to voice politicians' sentiments. Association with worldly people and customs shapes Christians by worldly principles, weakens desire for communion with God, blinds them to the difference between law-breakers and law-keepers until they call evil good and good evil, lose sight of eternal realities, and cease to hunger for truth and salvation. As in Noah's day this selfishness and worldly conformity can become so widespread that love grows cold and profession is contradicted by intense pursuit of worldly interests until probation ends.
This happens as the Spirit's restraining power is removed and people come under Satan's control, for rejecting Christ leaves love for God without an abiding place in the soul. Satan works with determined purpose to deceive the whole human family to his side in making God's law void, finding human agencies that multiply his power as partners to tempt, allure and deceive others into vicious practices violating moral law, ruling such workers harshly so that his character worked out through them makes not only the human race suffer but animals also. He continues on earth the warfare against God's law begun in heaven when he sought to force a change in God's government and was expelled, now seeking revenge by persuading men to disloyalty, perverting judgment and justice and trampling the law. He especially opposes God's commandment-keeping people, bringing trials, sorrows, grief and manifold temptations to discourage them and torture them into unbelief by pressing the idea that God is displeased with them. The enemy also kindles fires of dissension from outside God's people to lead astray, draw apart and prolong the work so nothing is accomplished and blessing is lost, and brings delusive theories even to humble seekers who distrust themselves and seek to walk with God.
Whose Love Grows Cold
The many whose love grows cold are professed followers of Christ and professed believers, and the verse pictures conditions existing in the church, not merely the world. It is loss of first love for Jesus and of love of brethren for one another, with love almost extinct among many and brethren no longer loving brethren. Those who share in prevailing iniquity rather than standing clear of it prove by cooling love that they in some sense partake in it, for otherwise it would not lessen love for God and zeal and fervor in His cause, and this decline is not inevitable or necessary. Few do right for its own sake or shun evil when public opinion does not restrain them, and many become blind to the wickedness of their hearts and fail to feel their weakness and helplessness.
The love that grows cold is love for God, for truth, and for righteousness, with zeal, fervor, piety and godliness. When iniquity abounds it has a paralyzing, deadening influence on piety and godliness, deadening piety and weakening loyalty to God and even destroying true faith and piety. Faith becomes sickly and deformed amid an atmosphere of unrighteousness, making it difficult to remain faithful to the end, especially amid contempt for God's law and conflict over the Sabbath with pressure to abandon obedience. Love of the world or of a cherished sin draws the heart away from prayer and meditation on sacred things, so religious services may continue as mere form while love for Jesus fades and spiritual life declines, and without the oil of grace the lamp of truth flickers and may go out.
Grown-cold love appears as leaving first love into distrust, selfishness and suspicion, and into dissension and strife, being offended and betraying and hating one another. It creates sympathy and division, gives the impression of variance and enmity, and brings selfishness, evil surmising, evil speaking, envy, jealousy and hard-heartedness, with restraint lost upon the tongue through neglected prayer. It brings Pharisaical righteousness, deadness of spirituality, lack of spiritual eyesight, and mechanical formal orthodoxy in place of deep fervent charity and tenderness. It leads some to leave the simplicity of the faith and tread on the borderland of skepticism, becoming spiritually beclouded and holding serious errors, including sitting in judgment on the Scriptures and declaring passages uninspired because they do not suit minds or cannot be harmonized with philosophy and science falsely so called. It is shown in firm resistance to the light on the righteousness of Christ, failure to distinguish the voice of the true Shepherd, hard speeches, conjectures, false statements and surmisings, refusing enlightenment, losing confidence in the messages sent through God's servants, and being moved by a power from beneath and by delusion so that spiritual darkness rests upon them, with divisions, confusion and criticism that kill unity of mind and faith.
Love grows cold when people are influenced by surrounding evil without staying closely connected with God, and when contempt for true piety and holiness leads them to lose reverence for God's law. Love of the world or a cherished sin draws the heart from prayer and meditation, and neglect of Bible study, following corrupting sights and sounds, association with worldly principles that weaken desire for communion with God, and ceasing to work for others complete the cooling. Those who follow the light and obey the truth from the heart, by contrast, prize the law more as it is despised, so love for God's precepts grows among its observers while contempt for them grows among others.
Its fulfillment is seen when people outgrow Advent faith and live for the world, denying Christ's speedy appearing in heart, works and words. They say the Lord delays His coming and smite fellow servants who insist on worshiping God as He directs, in the same spirit as Cain who rejected God's way and hated obedient worship that God accepted while his own self-willed worship was not accepted. Under fiery trials, opposition, threats and abuse, those who appear genuine may prove unfaithful and take the side of those opposing God, abandoning principles while others must remain loyal to God and His law even when despised by the majority. There comes a shaking in which chaff is separated from wheat and some who have not valued or followed the light separate from the faithful, while the genuine are then strongest. Many who claim to believe truth change opinions in times of peril and take the side of transgressors of God's law to escape persecution, because they are not established in present truth by digging it out for themselves from the Scriptures and will not accept light in God's appointed way, and some backslide under unfaithful shepherds who neglect Scripture and fail to feed the flock.
This grown-cold love is the reason many who claim to believe truth still carry the sins of Babylon and assimilate to the practices of the nominal churches called Babylon, revealing great deficiency in religious experience and manners toward God, self-complacency, and a spurious counterfeit righteousness instead of truth in the inward parts. Love can grow cold even when persecution is absent, appearing as indifference and inactivity toward giving truth to those who need it when stake and scaffold are not appointed to test God's people.
Prophecy for the Last Days
The verse belongs to the outline of what is to come upon the world and describes the perils of the last days now present, the closing days of probation and great trial of faith, the time of trouble just before the end which comes as a thief in the night. It stands in a sequence after wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places as the beginning of sorrows, then delivering up to affliction and killing and hatred of all nations for His name, with many offended and betraying and hating one another and many false prophets deceiving many, in which abounding lawlessness the love of many grows cold, yet he that endures to the end shall be saved and the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations before the end comes, requiring watchfulness and readiness because the hour is unknown. In that time the world becomes as wicked as before the Flood and as in Noah's and Enoch's days, with widespread wickedness as evil cherished in human hearts opposing God's work of restoring His moral image, felt even in health institutions, and where this wickedness increases love for God and righteousness grows cold and prevailing ungodliness weakens and even destroys true faith and piety. This worsening wickedness before Christ's coming stands contrary to claims that the world will be converted and enter a temporal millennium before He returns.
Its prediction is being fulfilled today and fast fulfilling in the present abundance of iniquity, in the last conflict of earth's history and the rapidly fulfilling last chapters of earth's history. It is one of the predictions to be studied and brought to the attention of all, presented by ministers and teachers while leaving matters of lesser consequence, because it is truth that decides eternal destiny, and its unmistakable fulfillment shows Christ's coming is at hand and calls the church to arouse. It is reflected in people absorbed in wealth, appetite, and worldly amusements with no thought for eternity, not moving heavenward and facing destruction with the apostate, and in abounding iniquity with the perils of the last days and the powers of darkness pressing more heavily than ever as signs heralding the second advent. Iniquity has made rapid strides since the earthquake in San Francisco, and the work is fast closing up because wickedness increases on every side. Widespread wrongdoing and cooling of love are present now as evidence Christ is soon to come, proving many are asleep and not as far ahead spiritually as receiving and believing God's word requires at the time when the ends of the world have come, demanding understanding of moments swiftly passing into eternity and making ready a people to stand in the great day of God, with the watchman knowing the time of night or else being registered as unfaithful stewards.
Its fast fulfillment proves the present is the last days when the end of all things is at hand, with Christ's coming at hand and the great day of God right upon us. Present wrongdoing and cooling love, with violence, crime, greed, murders, thefts, lawlessness, corruption, and weakening of moral obligation, are evidence and signs of that nearness. Yet these signs have become so common that people scarcely consider their significance and outcome, many are asleep and indifferent and do not gather up its importance, and God's people need to be aroused to a vivid sense of the times. The sign is written for admonition to those living when the ends of the world are come, requiring solemn living with reference to that day and preparation because God's plagues are just upon the world, and calling for faith and courage instead of unbelief or discouragement in stormy times ahead. As the people before the Flood received Noah's warning, so now the world must receive a warning message, and the chapter points both to nearness of the end and to the need to warn cities whose inhabitants dishonored God and rejected warnings.
Because that time has come, those perishing in sin must be warned, the message of mercy and warning must go forth to awaken the world, and means entrusted by the Lord must be invested in giving the world the last message of mercy rather than spent in self-gratification or ease and idleness. Bible believers must earnestly continue laboring and do their very best work until the work given them is finished, carrying the message to new places, explaining God's Word and carrying messages of warning, and laboring with unceasing vigilance before impressions wear away, since time to work is short. At this far-advanced point in history the wickedness of the wicked is increasing with growth of crime, cruelty, and every kind of wickedness, and Satan's efforts are not lessening while the love of many believers is growing less. Love should instead be increasingly revealed in untiring labor for lost souls, in preaching the message in the highways and byways with greatly increased efforts for recovery of souls, with justice and the love of God marking workers, with means invested to create new interests where truth is needed, so souls are convicted and converted rather than left ensnared.
In the closing work false religion prevails and widespread wrongdoing obscures the cross of Calvary and spreads darkness like the pall of death, with the whole force of popular influence turned against the truth and plot after plot formed to overthrow God's people. Even in that hour of greatest peril God raises up human messengers like Elijah who cannot be silenced, who sternly rebuke the union of the church with the world in the cities and where defiance against God is greatest. They call men and women to turn from a man-made institution to the true Sabbath and to fear God and give Him glory because the hour of judgment has come.
Enduring to the End
The cooling of love stands joined to the promise that the one who endures to the end shall be saved, so determined effort to remain spiritually awake and to preserve first love is connected with being saved. The same warning belongs to increasing iniquity and deception amid persecution, betrayal, hatred and false prophets, and to the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness to all nations before the end comes. It calls people not to continue in sin but to remain watchful, prayerful and faithful and to return to first love.
It calls for taking heed not to be deceived, for faithful performance of individual duty, for giving the warnings to others, and for preparation for the coming without knowing its secret time. It stands among signs that the end is not yet but is coming, with deception by many coming in the name, wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, earthquakes in divers places as the beginning of sorrows, then delivering up to affliction and killing and hatred of all nations for the name's sake, offense and betrayal and hatred among brethren, and many false prophets deceiving many, culminating in the time of trouble just before the end which comes as a thief in the night when the hour is unknown. Faithful watchmen who recognize the events connected with these signs remain alert and ready for the return, and God's watchmen must be wide awake, while unfaithful shepherds who neglect Scripture and fail to feed the flock become a chief cause of backsliding. Those who would successfully fight the battles of the Lord must put on the whole armor, put away sin because God hates it, and hold up before the world the One who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him, even though precious light of truth still flashes upon the pathway of everyone who seeks for it.
It was lifted as a danger signal and a specification of sure coming dangers in the very end of earth's history for the people of God to carefully study and understand. Ministers and teachers are to present it to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence, as truth that decides the eternal destiny of souls and as prophecy bearing on destiny to be explained. Its prediction is being fulfilled today with unmistakable fulfillment showing that the coming is at hand and calling the church to arouse.
The cooling of love when iniquity abounds is not inevitable and must not be allowed, for sharing in that iniquity rather than standing clear of it is what lets love for God, zeal and fervor grow cold. The increase of iniquity should instead move those who love God to greater earnestness and faithful service as soldiers of Christ, with greatest earnestness in making Christ known rather than leaving the world or hiding the light because evil increases. Faithfulness to God's law and love, principle, zeal and earnestness must be retained even when wrongdoing and transgression are advancing, wisely adapting methods without sacrificing one jot of principle or agreeing with human sophistry, and trusting continually in Christ to keep zeal alive.
In the church's greatest danger the faithful remnant pray fervently, grow strong in faith, and are jealous for God's honor, and God hears and answers when the transgressor's guilt reaches its full measure. Those who truly love God must not be carried along by prevailing wickedness or treat the commandments with less reverence when disregard and contempt for the law mark growing iniquity; their zeal and love should increase and reach for greater holiness as the law is set aside. God will have a people who glorify Him, reprove unrighteousness, and remain true to His law when the world seeks to make its precepts void, and even amid rejection and persecution of His messengers He gives grace to those who are chosen, tempted and tried, willing to give more grace and reveal Himself to His people because of this very abundance and spiritual need. Awake members respond with greater diligence, give straight clear testimonies freighted with light, and keep unselfish Christlike concern for souls.
The abundance of iniquity calls for the church's greatest diligence and a living testimony to keep sin out of the church. Believers must not be satisfied with a form of godliness or outward form that lacks the Spirit and its power, for the religious world is sick without recognizing its need for healing. The verse applies to decaying zeal and languishing spirituality, calling for fasting, humility and prayer.
Keeping Love Alive
All who have left their first love for Jesus are fallen and in peril, for love in the church has grown cold and is almost extinct, with brethren no longer loving brethren. The loss opens the door to selfishness, distrust, suspicion, evil surmising, evil speaking, envy, jealousy, hard-heartedness, unrestrained tongue through neglected prayer, Pharisaical righteousness, dead spirituality, lack of spiritual eyesight, and mechanical formal orthodoxy instead of deep fervent charity and tenderness. The remedy is to remember from whence they are fallen and to repent with watchfulness, humility and confession and do the first works, so the heart is kindled again. Without such repentance the candlestick will be removed out of its place and the light become great darkness, and the church risks losing its light.
Drawing near to God keeps love and spiritual life from growing cold, for continued sin and separation from God's Word and prayer leave people without living spiritual experience. Safety requires humbling the heart and fleeing to Jesus Christ as refuge, coming to Him in faith to cherish His meekness, abiding in the True Vine, and trusting continually in Christ. Pride in supposed knowledge makes fools, lets people become depraved and lost, and leaves even men with heavy responsibilities in danger of becoming religious wrecks by surrendering to engrossing cares, earthliness, and making gold their god. Retaining vital godliness gives a religion that meets the highest standard and makes men conquerors, as heavenly intelligences watch to see who will watch and pray, ask if each course is the way of the Lord, and seek more of heaven and less of earth, so they endure when everything shaken falls and only what cannot be shaken remains. The cross guarantees spiritual power and understanding of Scripture through continual communion with truth, righteousness and mercy revealing God's character.
Like Enoch, believers can train their minds toward devotion and heavenly things and remain pure, uncorrupted and unsullied amid prevailing sin and moral pollution, even when society is unfriendly to righteousness and the very atmosphere breathed is tainted. Enoch walking with God three hundred years in the same kind of corrupt age proves holiness remains possible without being compelled only by terrors of the day of God, by training the mind to devotion and love of purity, keeping conversation upon heavenly and divine things, bearing the impress of the divine with countenance lighted by light shining in the face of Jesus. His pattern for meeting the multiplying perils of the last days is bringing the will into submission to God's will, remembering responsibility proportionate to entrusted talents, abiding in the True Vine and bearing fruits of righteousness, going about doing good, seeking to save souls, conquering difficulties, and keeping unspotted from the world to reveal genuine religion. He represents saints living amid the perils and corruptions of the last days who by faithful obedience will be translated from a sinful world to heaven, showing each person responsible to seek not only their own salvation but also the salvation of others with alert activity.
Because abounding iniquity deadens moral senses so sin no longer appears sinful and benumbs moral powers to corrupt others, believers must guard eyes and ears from exposure to growing wickedness and from corrupting sights and sounds that chill affection and faithfulness. The safeguard is sanctified tongues and sanctified speech that administers grace to hearers and surrounds the soul with a holy atmosphere from heaven rather than a poisonous atmosphere, with whole soul, body and spirit sanctified and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. God's workers are therefore called to elevated thought, word and action in harmony with sacred truth to elevate man, win him to Christ, and lead him to partake of the divine nature having escaped corruption through lust. In this age an unguarded word or improper action, especially undue familiarity and failure to keep barriers of reserve, greatly injures usefulness and gives the enemy occasion for reproach, so those serving must be circumspect and guarded.
Love should instead be increasingly revealed in untiring labor for lost souls in the highways and byways, with greatly increased efforts for recovery of souls, justice and the love of God marking workers, without ease and idleness, and with means invested to create new interests where truth is needed so souls are convicted and converted rather than left ensnared. Even ministers are in danger of growing cold amid present movements, calling churches to yield to transforming grace, enter right relation to God, awaken from dullness, and set every power into activity, for there is no time left for pleasure parties and social gatherings to amuse and pass time while the world must hear sacred truth reproving indifference. Exalted greatness comes through connection with God by daily conversion, diligent study of the most precious truth of the Word, most earnest prayer, and humbling of soul in obedience, with fathers and mothers as patterns of piety, and faithful ministers moving the work forward by bearing a solemn warning as a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, never losing sight of message and high calling. Children threatened by abounding evil need earnest persevering instruction, godly example and prayer to be kept from it and brought to salvation, and those professing to love God and keep His commandments must care about others' salvation, share the message of hope in Christ, create new interests and move to new places rather than meet that day unprepared.
A Christian's own defection or lukewarmness can encourage others to follow a wrong course and commit sin, so increase of evil must not cause hiding of light but calls for greatest earnestness in making Christ known while remaining in the world kept from evil. Dwelling only on widespread wickedness, apostasy and weakness fills the heart with sadness and doubt and turns attention away from God's power and love. Yet terrible trials that weigh down the soul need not cause failure or discouragement by God's promise, and God's power keeps believers through faith in a special manner since no one can keep himself.
Commandment-keeping people must be sharp, discerning and spiritually minded, refusing to make worldly policy their principle or to leave God's will expressed in the Ten Commandments to confederate with worldly men or with church members converted to worldly methods and plans. Those thoroughly converted are brought into perfect harmony with God's attributes by divine grace, finding spiritual life, efficiency and power, and they look to God alone for strength instead of trusting those disobedient to His commandments, set apart to sacred service in covenant relation to preach the Word as John preparing the way. Those who have light yet walk not in it but follow sparks of their own kindling shall lie down in sorrow, while against dissension kindled from outside God's people to draw apart and prolong the work, God's people must press together in humility putting self out of sight, unifying as far and fast as possible, walking in heaven's light and placing themselves where they reach the highest standard of truth, righteousness, equity and judgment. This fulfillment of signs of the times should rouse from lethargy and awaken responsibility for work, moving householders to prepare Christ's way by helping in every possible way those for whom He gave His life.