International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 9, 1889
Jehovah Will Provide
JEHOVAH is the name of the great, loving, and awful God, the only self-existent God. "I AM" is his name. Countless æons ago he was I AM, he is now I AM, he will be I AM still throughout all eternity to come. It is a name which naturally suggests awe, fear, or terror, but God has connected it with other words which show that his character is also one of love, and pity, and compassion. The I AM is a sort of blank pledge with the amount to be filled out by the faith of the one asking and receiving. Gen. 22:14 is a good instance of this. Abraham had journeyed in sorrow to Moriah, expecting to offer up his beloved son; but just as the weapon of death was about to descend, the angel of Jehovah stays the father’s hand, and the son is saved. Turning to the thicket, Abraham espies a ram caught by the horns. Abraham had before said, "God will provide himself a lamb," and now the aged patriarch names the place "Jehovah-jireh"—"God will provide." It was to ever be a reminder of God’s providence. It was the language of faith—it was God’s answer to faith. It is given for our learning, that we might have hope in trusting God. Whatever God commands he will give grace to perform. It is not for us to question what results will be—God will provide. If we do our part, if we trust him fully, he will provide all necessary temporal blessings, all cleansing from sin, all strength for the conflict, and the eternal home at last. The Lord will provide.
THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST.
By Samuel T. Spear, D.D.
(Concluded.)
7. THE manner in which the Bible, in some passages, states the fact that the "one Lord Jesus Christ" of that book is both human and divine, and, hence, in this respect complex in his nature, furnishes the basis for the Christian doctrine of divine incarnation in him. This doctrine is not that of a human Lord Jesus in one person, and a divine Lord Jesus in another person, and, hence, a duality of persons in Christ, one being human and the other divine. The Bible doctrine is that of "one Lord Jesus," with humanity and divinity alike belonging to him.
The passage in which the idea of a divine incarnation is most clearly and strongly stated, is that in which John says: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." John 1:14. This Word or Logos, in the previous context, had been described as a divine person with direct reference to Christ, and here the apostle says that this divine person "was made flesh, and dwelt among us," in the historic Jesus. This certainly cannot mean that this word was actually transformed into flesh and blood in the literal sense. It must mean that Jesus of Nazareth, having in him the essential elements of human nature, became the local and special habitation of this word, and that in him and through him the word "dwelt among" men, and that in this way the apostles "beheld his glory." The fact which John affirms is the inhabitation of Jesus of Nazareth by the divine word, or the incarnation of that word in him. When this incarnation actually became a fact, whether at the birth of Jesus or at his baptism, the788evangelist does not say. The fact existed and was exhibited during his ministry.
Other passages in the New Testament either assert or imply the same fact. Paul clearly implies incarnation when he speaks of the pre-human Christ, who was "in the form of God," as taking "upon him the form of a servant," as "made in the likeness of men," and as "found in fashion as a man." Phil. 2:7, 8. The apostle's idea, as expressed in this language, is that he who was "in the form of God," placed himself in human conditions, and subjected himself thereto, even to the death of the cross, by assuming human nature in the historic Jesus. This is only another mode of saying in effect what John says. So, also, in the epistle to the Hebrews, we are told that "forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Christ] also himself likewise took part of the same." Heb. 2:14. The meaning of this passage is that Christ assumed the nature of the human beings he came to save; and inasmuch as they were human, and not angelic, he assumed human nature, and in that nature became incarnate. John is very emphatic on this point when he says that "every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God," and that "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." 1 John 4:2, 3. John's doctrine is that of Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh, or as incarnated in the flesh; and he makes this a test of the question whether one is of God or not.
This doctrine actually locates the divinity of Christ in his humanity, and assumes a relation, or connection, or union, between the two that was true of him, but is not true of human nature as possessed by any other being. Incarnation is the word in ordinary use for the statement of this fact.
8. The complexity thus involved in this theanthropic, or divine and human, constitution of the person of Christ, is a mystery, in the sense that it defies all human explanation. Paul, while believing in the fact and clearly teaching the doctrine of the God-Man in respect to Christ, says, with reference to this point, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." 1 Tim. 3:16. He never undertook to explain it. No one can with his thoughts so penetrate into the interior constitution of this God-man as to solve the mystery. The fact may be apprehended and believed upon the authority of the Bible; but when we attempt to tell just how it is that Christ is divine and human and at the same time one person, we are dealing with a matter that transcends our power.
Early in the history of the Christian church, and all along the track of theological discussion in subsequent ages, we find an abundance of human speculations, cropping out here and there, in respect to the "one Lord Jesus Christ" of Paul and of the gospel narrative, who is both divine and human; but with all this speculation we have no solution that clears away the mystery, and at the same time preserves the facts, intact and unchanged, as they are stated in the Bible. The theory of Apollinaris, in substituting the word or Logos for the human mind in Jesus of Nazareth, denies his complete humanity, and makes him human only as to his body, and, while perverting the facts, denies the obvious teaching of the Bible. The theory that gives to Christ a double personality, or a double consciousness, is a pure speculation that cannot be verified, and is inconsistent with the oneness of his personality as lying on the face of the history, and taught by the Bible. The theory that makes Christ human only in appearance is equally inconsistent with the Bible. The theory that so exalts the divine element as to displace and virtually destroy the human element in Christ, and the theory that in effect annihilates the divine element and leaves nothing but the human element, are open to the same objection. The just conclusion from history is that men had better stop the work of speculation on the subject altogether, and, accepting the facts as stated in the Bible, there leave the matter.
It will not, however, do to say that, because speculation thus fails, the doctrine of the God-man in Christ, as taught in the Bible, is an absurdity, and in this way discredit the inspiration which affirms it. The answer to this position is that, until we know more than we can know on the subject, we cannot supply the requisite conditions of showing it to be such. These conditions cannot be derived from our own experience or our own intuitions, and they certainly cannot be derived from a direct vision that penetrates into the interior life and consciousness of Christ.
9. The divine nature in Christ so attaches to him, and the human nature in him so attaches to him, that, in thinking of him for spiritual purposes, we are to connect them together as realities in the "one Lord Jesus Christ," and hence not exclude either in our meditations. It is as such that he is presented to our thoughts in his great work in our behalf, and as such that he is the glorious center of the system that bears his name. If we think of him as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," we are to keep in mind that he is the divine and human Lamb of God. If we think of him as the "High Priest of our profession," whether on earth or in heaven, we are to remember that he is the divine and human High Priest. When Paul tells us that "Christ died for our sins," we are not to forget that it is the theanthropic Christ of whom the apostle was speaking. The humanity is ever present with this Christ, and the divinity is ever present, while the latter is unquestionably the dominant element, and while, also, in some passages of the word of God, the one element may be the matter of special reference more prominently than the other. Christ is himself an entirety, a distinct whole in the work of our salvation, not divided into parts, and as such we should think of him in all departments of this work.
It has pleased the Godhead, in providing for the salvation of men, to establish a mission from heaven to earth in a person who, in his higher nature, came down from heaven, and to enrobe that person in the nature of those he came to save. It has pleased the Godhead to define the work to be done, and to do it through this extraordinary and wonderful mission. These facts make Christ—the whole Christ, the human and the divine Christ, in one mysterious personality—the Saviour of sinners; and whether we see this Christ traveling through the villages and cities of Judea and Galilee, and preaching to the people, or conversing with Nicodemus, or dying on the cross, or rising from the dead, or ascending into heaven, or there dwelling in "his glorious body," or descending from heaven and coming to raise the dead and judge the world—yes, whenever and wherever we see this "one Lord Jesus Christ"—we see the adorable Being who, in the counsels of heaven, is our divine and human Saviour, who died to save us, who is the center of the gospel system, on whom all our hopes depend, and whom we are commanded to accept, trust, and love. This is the Christ whom Paul knew and preached. . . . This is the Christ who, in the totality of his being, said to the Jews, "I am the light of the world;" to the weeping Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life;" and to Thomas, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 8:12; 11:25; 14:6. This is the Christ by whom we are to be saved, if at all.
Behold, I Come Quickly
"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.
Peace Preserved by Guns
The San Francisco Examiner remarks that “King Humbert assures the Italian Parliament that peace will be preserved, and asks for more money to buy guns to preserve it with.” And significantly asks, “What is to become of peace when all the money is gone?” Echo answers, What?
The Prize Fight Craze
By Editor
THE great, wise public is again losing its balance over the hoped-for prize fight between Jackson, the colored pugilist, and J. L. Sullivan. The San Francisco Examiner truly says that “during the progress of the Emin relief expedition San Francisco has spent just about a third more on pugilism than the cost of Stanley’s march from sea to sea.”
London Society Scandals
The investigations going on in London society in regard to certain West End scandals, bid fair to be made a prominent feature of the next Parliament. Thus far reports go to show that there is a state of corruption positively appalling, and many so-called “nobles” are involved, among them the prospective heir to the throne. “’Tis only noble to be good.”
We Are Living in Revolutionary Times
A SPECIAL dispatch to the San Francisco Examiner, dated Berlin, November 30, says that “reliable advices from Lisbon indicate an imminence of a demonstration in favor of a republic, which will open a menace to monarchy,” and that “the leaders of the army, and especially those of the artillery, are ripe for a republic.” Spanish Republicans are becoming excited. We are living in revolutionary times. God’s word remains sure and steadfast. In almost the words of the poet,—
“In this world of swooning trance
God alone is permanence.”
The Salvation Army’s Methods
Mr. Charles Booth, in a new book on East London, in speaking of the methods of the Salvation Army, says: “Not by this road (if I am right) will religion be brought to the mass of the English people.” He says that the people of East London delight in doctrinal discussion, and are not irreligious, but that the army supplies them with what they want neither in one direction nor the other. The crowds attend mainly for diversion. And this is doubtless a just judgment. The Army is not founded on the word of God. It is not a plant of God’s planting. Matt. 15:13.
Talmage’s Universal Church
By Editor
THIS is what the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage says of his new church, as reported by the Christian Nation of October 30:—
“It will have a font for Baptists, Methodists will sing in it with a voice of thunder, there will be a cross over the pulpit, and a cross upon the very tower itself. There will be preached a religion as wide as heaven and as good as God. The only things saved from the wreck of our church are the silver communion chalices. It is an omen. We will be in communion henceforth with the whole universe. Our church can’t be sectarian. Somebody asked me the other day if, with a very large new church, I could fill it with my voice, and I said: My dear good soul, I have been wearing myself out for sixteen years in trying to hold my voice in. It is said that Satan burned our church. If so, he will find it the poorest job he ever did.”
We do not impugn the motives of Mr. Talmage, but a religion “as good as God” cannot be in communion with the universe. A religion which fellowships everything cannot fellowship God. Under the taking terms, Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man, and kindred expressions, is cloaked every iniquity and heresy that ever disgraced the church. It is the duty of the church to labor, sacrifice, deny self, for all classes and peoples, but it is an affront to God to fellowship unholy error. There is, it is true, much bigotry in the world; there ought to be some loyalty to God.
LIFE'S TAPESTRY.
By Dora Greenwell
Too long have I, methought, with tearful eye
Pored o'er this tangled work of mine, and mused
Above each stitch awry and thread confused;
Now will I think on what in years gone by
I heard of them that weave rare tapestry
At royal looms; and how they constant use
To work on the rough side, and still peruse
The pictured pattern set above them high.
So will I set my copy high above,
And gaze and gaze, till on my spirit grows
Its gracious impress; till some line of love
Transferred upon my canvas, faintly glows;
Nor look too much on warp and woof, provide
He whom I work for sees their fairer side!
—Dora Greenwell.
SATAN'S PERSONALITY.
By Professor Townsend
THERE is a large class of men, both within and without the church, who often speak and reason about the devil, but who seem to think he is only a fanciful personification, or representation—a figure, a type, or something else, of sinful principles. They have reduced him to a mere abstraction. The evils of the world and misfortunes of life they attribute in no way to Satanic influence,—to no outside pressure or temptation whatever,—but solely to the depravity or the irregularities of human nature. Revelation, however, states the case otherwise. It varies not in a single instance from presenting Satan as a real person, having power on earth, and to be feared among men. The different names by which he has been designated in the Scriptures are suggestive of his nature and personality. The term "devil," for instance, which in the Greek means "the traducer, the calumniator," and in English, the enemy of mankind, implies personality.
The same is true of the term "Satan," which means an adversary, or a personal foe of the race. Of similar import are the Greek term "Apollyon" and the Hebrew "Abaddon," by which he is sometimes designated, which mean an evil angel, or the angel of the bottomless pit. The forms of expression, as well as the particular words employed, suggest the same idea. He is always referred to in the singular number. More than twoscore times is he called "Satan," a term which is never employed in the plural number. Upwards of fifty times he is called "the devil," invariably in connections requiring the singular number. He is called "the prince" and "the god of this world," "a roaring lion," one that "sinneth from the beginning," "Beelzebub," "accuser," "Belial," "deceiver," "dragon," "liar," "leviathan," "Lucifer," "murderer," "serpent," "tormentor." These expressions imply, beyond question, actual and individual personality.
If the Bible referred to Satan only under one class of circumstances, if it employed but one term, and that an abstract one, we might then regard his existence as only imaginary. But the frequent allusions to him, direct and indirect,—the great variety of circumstances under which he has been mentioned by inspired poet, historian, and prophet, by the739disciples, and the Lord Jesus himself,—compel us to adopt an opposite conclusion. Christ was entirely mistaken, or there is a supernatural spirit of evil. The wilderness of Judea and the Apocalypse are scenes of actual presence, and displays of actual power. The daring and warlike imagery of the Scriptures, which represents God and Satan as sovereigns of hostile empires, means something. "The power of Satan," "the power of darkness," "the prince of the power of the air,"—these are no fictions of distempered brains. There is no mysticism here. These are conceptions of terrible meaning to minds which felt the antagonism of literal and living forces, which comprehended the ideas of loyalty and disloyalty, of life and death. The doctrine of Satan's personality pervades revelation. The body of it stands or falls with its admission or rejection. The doctrine in this respect is vital. No evangelical Christian can by any means ignore it. It is one of the constructive ideas of the inspired word. We can get rid of it only by rejecting the system of revelation in which it appears, everywhere present, everywhere consistent with free agency and existing evil, and everywhere uttering its warnings to be sober and vigilant.—Professor Townsend, in Credo.
CATHOLIC TOLERANCE.
FROM Point Pleasant, West Va., comes this interesting story of the barriers which the Catholic Church puts up between its children and their free affections: "Miss Minnie Offenheimer, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Catholic citizen of Mason City, fell in love with Mr. Ed Shoemaker, a young Protestant business man. They became engaged. Miss Offenheimer's parents objected to Shoemaker's religion. She refused to give him up, and her parents locked her in her room, where she was half starved and cruelly beaten every day for weeks. Neighbors heard her cries and finally interfered, only to find that the girl's sufferings had driven her insane." We suppose the mother church will console the parents of Miss Offenheimer with the assurance that it is better that their daughter should have been driven insane through their harsh treatment than that she should be the honored wife of a Protestant. And yet Catholics complain of the intolerant spirit of the Protestant majority in the United States.—America.
MATTHEW TWENTY-FOUR.
By J. H. Waggoner
BY THE LATE ELDER J. H. WAGGONER.
(Concluded.)
WE invite the attention of the reader to the following list of points made plain in our examination of this chapter:—
1. The Saviour gave definite and plain signs which were to precede his coming.
2. He told the effect which these things would produce. See Joel 2:1 and other prophecies.
3. He said that by these signs we might know when it is near, even at the doors.
4. And the language is stronger than that of permission or the expression of ability to know. It is imperative; we are commanded and required to know when it is near.
5. The signs are so easy to understand that we may know when it is near, just as we may know that summer is near when the trees put forth their leaves.
6. That we are commanded and required to know is confirmed by the illustration of the time of Noah. (1) Noah knew the time that the flood was near. (2) He preached its coming. (3) He prepared for the event. (4) It was fatal to all those who did not (would not) know the time. "So shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
7. The Saviour says it will in like manner be a fatal error on the part of those who do not know when the Son of man is coming. But this could not be so (1) if we could not know the time or (2) if it makes no difference whether we know or do not.
All this teaches us that the doctrine of the second advent is
A PRACTICAL DOCTRINE.
The truth on this subject is important; it is important to us that we understand it. The oft-repeated saying that "it makes no difference," is not applicable here. And this is yet more evident in that, when the Lord comes, he will find faithful and wise servants, who will be giving "meat in due season." This seasonable nourishment to the household of faith, at that time, must be the "alarm" which is sounded when the day of the Lord is near. Joel 2:1.
We may also learn by contrast what is this meat in due season. Two classes of servants are presented by the Saviour. One is represented as a faithful and wise servant. This is the one who gives meat in due season. The other, a slothful and wicked servant, says, "My Lord delayeth his coming." One observes the signs given by the Saviour and heeds the warning to know that it is near, while the other heeds not the warning, and proclaims that he is not coming. Nothing need be plainer than this.
Peter says (2 Peter 3:3, 4) that in the last days scoffers shall arise, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? It is evident that no one would scoff at the Lord's coming if none were looking for his coming. If the alarm were not being given; if the message of Rev. 14:9-12, which immediately precedes the appearing of the Son of man, were not being proclaimed; if nobody expected him to come, there would be nothing for them to scoff at. In the last days somebody will be preaching the Lord's coming; the Scriptures must be fulfilled.
Those who scoff at the Lord's coming in the last days, who are noticed in the Saviour's prophecy, are not blasphemers and infidels; they are those whom the Lord has called his "servants." They call Jesus "My Lord." Their saying is, "My Lord delayeth his coming." They also have the duty laid upon them, as servants, to give meat in due season; to sound the alarm; to proclaim the message of the advent near, even at the doors. But they are "evil servants," recreant to the trust committed to them, unmindful of the "sure word of prophecy." They do not want to think, nor to have the people think, of the Lord's coming. All the scriptures which speak of that day call for watchfulness, diligence, and earnest zeal to be prepared to meet him. But these are worldly-minded, selfish servants. They love their ease; they cry, "Peace and safety," when sudden destruction is impending. 1 Thess. 5:1-3. They love to slumber; they say, "To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Isa. 56:10-12. They join the idle throng in singing, "There's a good time coming." In the words of the Saviour, they "eat and drink with the drunken," "walking after their own lusts." The sociable, the festival, the fair, the supper for feasting—these have attractions for them which their selfishness cannot resist. By these is piety dethroned; zeal is extinguished; cross-bearing and self-denying become distasteful graces; to hunger and thirst after righteousness is a burden; the "form of godliness" is retained, but "the power thereof" is gone. What a condition for a servant of God to be found in when his Master appears! And yet this is a fitting description of the mass of feasting professors who turn away740with scorn from the unwelcome thought of the Lord's near coming.
But many evade the truth on this subject by referring to the good and pious of former generations to whom the warning message of Rev. 14:9-12 was not given. They were accepted of God, and died happy; we will live as they lived, and go to Heaven also. To this there are two just replies:—
1. Professors of this day are not living as their fathers lived. Even one generation ago Christians possessed a simplicity of godliness which is ignored by the mass of professors in this day. The church suppers and festivals; the gambling devices to obtain money; the church theatricals, and other profane amusements now foisted upon the name of Christianity 'for pious uses' (to quote a term of the mother church), would not have been tolerated for a moment by our fathers of past generations. The earnest vital godliness of a half century ago is now known to the few,—a 'little flock' when all told. Our fathers, in all the denominations, will rise up to condemn this pleasure-loving age. The objection we are noticing is a reproach to the piety and zeal of our fathers, as their lives are a rebuke to the cold formality of present-day religion.
Let us in turn ask, Why was it that Seth, Enoch, and others before the day of Noah, were not required to build an ark? Enoch was so godly as to receive the testimony that his ways pleased God, and to be translated without seeing death. Could not Noah live as Enoch lived and be saved, without the cross and labor of building an ark? The answer is nigh unto everyone. He could not; and why?—Because Noah lived in the time of the flood and Enoch did not. Enoch could not preach Noah's message; he lived at a time too early for that. Noah could not be accepted of God and do only that which Enoch did, as he lived under different circumstances. Extraordinary events require extraordinary preparations; and those preparations are suited to no other time but their own.
And so with the preaching of the Lord's coming. To past generations it was not 'present truth.' They could not give the message of warning. But we, who have seen the signs of his coming, who know the time (Rom. 13: 11, 12), who see the day approaching (Heb. 10:25), must proclaim this truth, and sound the alarm, as Noah proclaimed the approach of the flood. As it was necessary in order to be saved to receive the message of Noah, so it is necessary in order to be prepared for our Lord's advent that we accept the truth in regard to his near coming.
SEMI-LUNAR FARDELS OF THE CLERICAL SEX.
By Leonard Woolsey Bacon
THE use of the LL.D. is the most droll and incongruous, but the use of the D.D. is the most discreditable. The wild profusion with which the pages of the clergy list of every sect in America are spotted all over with the symbols described by the late Dr. Cox as "semi-lunar fardels," is due not only to the amiableness or the business enterprise of the colleges, but to the small vanity of what George Eliot unsympathetically characterizes as the clerical sex. Here is a curious paradox,—that the one set of men to whom this sort of distinction is forbidden, under the command, "Be ye not called rabbi," should be the only set of men in America to seek it, and make much of it, and ostentatiously parade it. The lawyer who should put LL.D. on his tin sign, on his briefs, or at the head of his note-paper, would soon find his life made a burden by the wags of his profession. It is only the Christian minister who, being tapped on the one cheek with this accolade, promptly turns the other also. It is well understood that ministers as a class do very much like this kind of thing; and faithfully doing to others as they would that these should do to them, are punctilious in bandying complimentary titles among themselves, such as are disused by the good taste and self-respect of mere secular men.—Rev. Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon, in the June Forum.
THE BLESSED CHANGE.
Once I was blind; no cheering ray
Brought light or comfort unto me,
Till Jesus met me in the way,
Touched my dimmed eyes—and now I see.
Once I was poor; an outcast driven,
In want and wretchedness; but now,
Joint-heir with Christ of earth and heaven,
A glorious crown awaits my brow.
Once, in vile rags, forlorn and bare,
I walked, nor cared for better dress;
Now, rich and costly robes I wear,
Clothed in my Saviour's righteousness.
Once, fainting on life's weary road,
I toiled, hope, strength and courage gone;
Now Jesus takes my weighty load,
And I with lightened heart speed on.
Once, all my days were sad and cold,
The night hours knew my moaning voice;
Now, day and night with joy untold,
And full of glory, I rejoice.
—New York Observer.
AN INCA'S VIEWS OF SUN WORSHIP.
It is related that about A. D. 1440, at a great religious council held in Peru, an Inca rose before the assembled sun-worshiping multitude and said:—
“Many tell us that the sun made all things. But he who makes must remain with what he makes; now many things happen when the sun is absent, therefore he cannot make all things. It is doubtful if he is alive, since he never seems tired. If he were living he would grow weary, as we do; were he free he would sometimes go elsewhere. He is like an animal in harness, who has to go where he is driven, like an arrow which must go
where it is sent by the archer. Therefore he, our father and mother, the sun, must have another master greater than himself, who compels him to go his daily round without peace or rest.”
A name was, therefore, invented for this supreme power, and a temple built for his worship near Callao, in which were no images nor sacrifices.
In like manner, led by the same profound religious instinct, the king of Lescueo, in Mexico, became tired of the idols of his kingdom, having prayed to them in vain for a son. “What are they,” he cried, “but dumb stones without sense or power? They could not have made this beautiful world,—the sun, moon, and stars, the waters and trees, and all the countless creatures which inhabit the world. There must be some invisible and unknown God, the Creator of all things; he alone can console me in my sorrow and take away my affliction.” Therefore he erected a temple nine stories high, which he dedicated to the Unknown God, the Cause of Causes. He seems to have repeated, without knowing it, the argument of Paul at Athens.—Ten Great Religions.
THE WORLD'S CONVERSION OR EVANGELIZATION?
THERE are ministers and authors who present only the bright side of this subject. I have heard anniversary sermons upon "religious progress" and "the signs of the times" that were so flattering and one-sided as to deceive the very elect. They present the lights and not the shadows. Of course the impression is false and the performance more ingenious than ingenuous. Such works as Dr. Dorchester's "Religious Progress," Dr. Newman's "Christianity Triumphant," and Seaman's "Progress of Nations," are wholly misleading and unreliable. They paint in high lights and no shadows. They make this opaque globe to blaze like the sun. There is no perspective, no true picture of this world as it really is. Others, called pessimists, present the somber side, the night side and not the bright side. Gustave Doré is their ideal artist, draping the world in mourning, and turning midday to midnight.
I am not an optimist, looking only upon the bright side, nor a pessimist, looking only upon the dark side of the "signs of the times." I am a watchman on the walls of Zion, and when the inquiry comes, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" my reply is, "The morning cometh and also the night." The inquiry is made in the night, the answer is also returned in the night. Not what of the day, but "what of the night." We now call your attention to the shadows as well as the lights in the picture.
1. You may have noticed that we have carefully refrained from saying the morning of the world's conversion is at hand, but the morning of the world's evangelization is at hand. The conversion of the world seems as far off as it did 1,800 years ago. It is estimated that eighteen times the present populations of the globe have gone into eternity since Christ ascended from Olivet. Twenty-five billion two hundred million souls, and only a portion of them ever heard the gospel, and a still smaller number obeyed its summons. What an appalling fact is this! What blackness of darkness in that historic record!
Again, there are more unconverted people in the world to-day than there were 1,800 years ago. To-day there are 1,000,000,000 people who are pagans and Mohammedans, and that is more than the population in the world 1,800 years ago. There are more unconverted people in the United States now than there were eighty years ago. Dr. Strong, in his little book "Our Country," says that "while the church throughout the whole country is gaining in numbers, yet it does not keep pace with the increase of the population. In 1,800 there were less than 5,000,000 outside the evangelical churches. Now there are 48,000,000. On large classes all over the land the church is losing its hold, while in our great cities rapidly advancing populations are leaving the church behind." A dark sign of the times is this! Almost ten times as many people outside the evangelical churches as there were eighty years ago.741
Modern missions is about a hundred years old. During the century the number of heathen converts in all the world is less than three millions, but another dark sign of the times is there are 200,000,000 more heathen in the world to-day than a hundred years ago. At that rate eternity itself could not furnish the requisite ages for the conversion of the world. Why do I present these facts and more like them?—Because they are facts. My subject, remember, is, "The Signs of the Times—Their Lights and Shades."
2. Optimists are fond of boasting that there are 400,000,000 nominal Christians in the world and only 1,000,000,000 heathen. Let us look at these statements. There were, according to Behm and Wagner, in 1880, 835,000,000 pagans. Our missionaries have in a hundred years won perhaps two or three millions to Christ, leaving 832,000,000 pagans. There were in 1880, according to the same authority, 175,000,000 Mohammedans. Very few of these have ever left the crescent for the cross. Indeed, they are to-day spreading their faith with fire and sword through Africa, exterminating natives and missionaries. At Cairo there is a Mohammedan university having three hundred professors and 10,000 students, and it sends out 1,000 Mohammedan missionaries every year to propagate the faith of the prophet. In 1880 there were 8,000,000 Jews in the world. A few hundred of these have accepted Christ as the true Messiah. Mohammedans, Jews, and pagans amount to 1,018,000,000. Deducting 3,000,000 and we had in 1880, 1,015,000,000 of these classes in the darkness of idolatry and sin.
But what of the 400,000,000 nominal Christians in the world? Eighty-five million of these belong to the Greek church, and not one in five hundred, others say one thousand, know anything whatever of experimental godliness. They are persecuting to death Jews and Christians, and their own religion is a system of idolatry and formalism and superstition, and yet they are called nominal Christians. The Roman Catholics number 195,000,000, and they have put to death 50,000,000 Anabaptists and other heretics, as they stigmatize them. They actually boast that they would kindle the fires of martyrdom anew to-day were they not restrained by the bulwarks of constitutional law. While there have been many devout Christians among the Catholics, and undoubtedly are to-day, yet those who have come out from them declare that not one in a thousand have any saving knowledge of Christ in their hearts.
We are sending missionaries to the Russian Empire to convert the Greek Catholics, and we are sending missionaries to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and all the papal States of the world, to convert the Roman Catholics to Christ. And yet they are called nominal Christians, which is perhaps true—Christians in name but not in reality. Then we are told there are 135,000,000 Protestant Christians. Let us examine that statement. By Protestant Christians is meant all the inhabitants of Europe and America who are neither Greek nor Roman Catholics. Here is the balance of the 400,000,000 nominal Christians. All the unconverted people in Europe and America are the nominal Christians. All who are not pagans, Jews, or Mohammedans are classed among nominal Christians. All the Nihilists of Russia, all the Socialists of France, all the Anarchists of Europe, are classed among nominal Christians. All the materialists of England, all the agnostics of America, all the saloon keepers of the United States, even Mr. Ingersoll himself, is classed by these optimistic preachers and authors among nominal Christians.
But what about the 135,000,000 Protestant Christians?—All the 400,000,000 nominal Christians who are not Catholics are called Protestant Christians. In other words, all who are not Catholic nominal Christians are Protestant nominal Christians, amounting, it is said, to 135,000,000. Let us sift this statement. Bishop Randolph Foster, one of the oldest bishops in America, himself an optimist, declares in the New York Independent that there are only 30,000,000 Protestant church members in the world, and how many of them are converted the Lord alone knows. Thus out of the world's population in 1880—of 1,433,000,000—there were only 30,000,000 in the evangelical churches of Christendom, leaving 1,400,000,000 souls outside the evangelical churches of the world. What a dark sign of the times is this, and yet it is boastfully stated from the pulpit and press that the 400,000,000 nominal Christians speak volumes for the progress of Christianity.
Nominal Christianity contains all the attitudinarians, and latitudinarians, and platitudinarians, and ringed, streaked, and speckled, who reject Christ and blaspheme the name of the most high God. Joseph Cook says if Christianity makes the same progress for the next 80 years as it has in the past 80 years, it will conquer the world, whereas an English authority says it will take 176 years for Christianity to overtake the natural increase of population. I have . . . heard Baptist ministers say that in the year 2,000 all will be Baptists. Then farewell to you, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Catholics. Away with all such boasting! You never hear missionaries in the foreign field boasting of the rapid progress of Christianity among the heathen. They look upon that great wall of darkness and it seems almost insurmountable. They tell us of the appalling destitution, the unspeakable degradation, of the millions on millions that everywhere surround them.