EARLY two thousand years ago the Lord showed John on the Isle of Patmos a vision of the last days. He saw the message of the everlasting Gospel being carried swiftly to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, warning the world that the hour of God's judgment was at hand. Then immediately followed the glorious appearing of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth.
Every page of the thrilling story of modern missions bears witness to the fact that God's providence has been definitely shaping human history and guiding in the development of missionary activity to meet the specifications of the prophecy.
Thru centuries the way has been preparing for this crisis of missions. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:18. As D'Aubigne says, God "prepares His work for ages." One continuous purpose is unfolded in the development of His work in the earth. Watching the growth and progress of missions from the point of view of the prophetic Scriptures is like watching the progress of an express-train with the railway time-table in hand. The sure word of prophecy is God's time-table for this world's history. And the mighty hand of Providence has moved the train of world-events to fit the great time-table of divine prophecy.
"The Time of the End."
For instance, the year 1798 marks the close of the long period of 1260 years of papal persecution and supremacy, of the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. According to these same prophecies that date marks the beginning of "the time of the end." Concerning this same time the instruction was given to Daniel: "Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. 12:4. Thus the beginning of the time of the end was to usher in a great awakening and a world-wide activity diffusing the knowledge of the Lord.
And that very period, the last years of the eighteenth century, was in truth the birth-time of modern missions—the new era of world evangelization in preparation for the coming of the Lord. Professor Warneck, of Halle, recently called that period "the beginning of the missionary age." Doctor Leonard, in "A Hundred Years of Missions," says:
"The closing years of the eighteenth century constitute in the history of Protestant missions an epoch indeed, since they witnessed nothing less than a revolution. . . . It was then that for the first time since the Apostolic period, occurred an outburst of general missionary zeal and activity."
It was by no mere chance that Carey and others were raised up just at that time to pioneer the way into the wide world lying in darkness. The beginning of the time of the end had come. Knowledge was to be increased. Definitely the way was to be prepared for the evangelization of the nations and the last warning message of the judgment hour which was to precede the coming of the Lord.
In joy at the remarkable awakening of those times, a body of German believers in Basel sent this greeting to the British friends of missions who had issued a call for world-wide prayer and missionary zeal:
"It is like the dawn promising the beautiful day after the dark night. It is the beginning of a new epoch. . . . Such a call was never heard before. It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth century to be distinguished by it."
Thus the work of modern missions was definitely opened. The work of Bible translation and distribution sprang up. It was a mighty stride toward the great work that was to follow.
The Hour of God's Judgment.
Another generation down the course of time brings us to the next great prophetic waymark, the end of the longest prophetic period given us in the word of God, the 2,300 prophetic days, or years, which were to reach from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the time of the final cleansing of the sanctuary, or the great antitypical day of atonement in heaven above. That period ended in the year 1844, marking the beginning of the judgment, its necessary pre-investigative work. From that time on was due to the world that message of Revelation 14, "The hour of His judgment is come," with its call to all peoples to prepare to meet the coming King. For just as soon as this Gospel of the kingdom is preached as a witness to all nations, then shall the end come, according to the sure promise of Christ. This final Gospel message warns against the corruptions of the Papacy, by which the traditions of men have made void the commandments of God, and calls all who will hear to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
When this message became due, in 1844, the last generation was reached—the generation of the judgment hour that is to see the coming of Christ in power and great glory. Quickly, therefore, the warning cry must go to all the world.
Wondrously has God moved in the world-wide cause of missions to meet the demand of this solemn time. Clustering around that period of 1844 have come the mighty movements, breaking down barriers, opening closed doors, laying bare the way literally to every nation, tongue, and people. It was about the year 1844 that Livingstone turned his face definitely northward to open the secret of the Dark Continent. In that very year Krapf landed at Mombasa, on the East Coast, and a few years later sent his thrilling call to Europe that the African interior was to be pierced from its eastern shore. Those were the years in which China,7
The Divine Program of Missions.
(Continued from Page 6.)
closed for millenniums, was opening its doors, first the five treaty ports, in 1842, to be followed step by step by the opening of the entire country. Then quickly Japan's doors swung open because the time had come for a quick work to be done. In those early years of this last generation God put it into the heart of Allen Gardiner to make that heroic attempt for South America which stirred the hearts of British Christians and led to a definite missionary campaign for the "Neglected Continent." Within a few years, six or seven vast closed countries, representing half the population of the world, opened wide to missionary effort. The last generation had come, and the hand of Providence was preparing the way for a quick work.
A New England geography, printed in Boston, in 1858, noted with satisfaction the fact that in New England and the greater part of the Middle States fairly good wagon-roads intersected the country in every direction. What marvelous changes have been seen since that day! The Washington "Times," discussing a railway and steamship map put out by the Government Bureau of Statistics, says:
"Within the lifetime of men and women now living, the world had not a single mile of railway, or a single steamship crossing the ocean. To-day the world has on land five hundred and fifty thousand miles of railway, and on the ocean six million net tons of sail-carrying power, and eighteen million net tons of steam-carrying power."
While railway and telegraph enterprises were preparing the way for a quick work (and note that it was in May, 1844, that the famous telegraphic message was sent from Washington to Baltimore, "What hath God wrought?"), the unexplored portions of the earth were being opened up. Rear Admiral Wharton, of the British Navy, writes in the London "Geographical Journal":
"I hear people complain that Africa goes slow. When I look at what has been effected in my own lifetime, it appears to me that on the contrary it has been rushed. The maps that I learned from as a boy showed the whole interior as a blank. There are now no parts that are not more or less known. Railways are running over regions unknown forty years ago."
A recent traveler tells us that the very cannibals who hurled clouds of arrows at Stanley's canoes are to-day themselves firemen and engineers of African river steamboats.
Not long ago Mr. Cyrus C. Adams printed in the New York "Times" a map showing unexplored areas of the world, which is reproduced herewith. He then stated:
"Fifteen years ago the Scottish geographer Bartholomew, reviewing the mapping of the world, said that one-eighth of the land surface was still almost wholly unknown; furthermore, enormous territories that had been revealed in broad outline had not yet been studied so far that they could be mapped with any accuracy. About the same time Dr. Dawson, of Canada, made a map on which were thirteen large areas of British North America comprising nearly 1,000,000 square miles, which, he said, were 'for all practical purposes entirely unknown.' Since that time the unknown regions have been invaded by many explorers whose energy has now reduced the size of the total unexplored area outside of the polar regions to about one-fiftieth of the land surface. The world never saw greater zeal for geographical discovery."
A striking testimony to the conditions geographically was borne by the last Geographical Congress that met in New York City. Sir John Murray introduced the following resolution which was unanimously adopted:
"The Eighth International Geographical Congress, realizing that the only untouched fields for geographical discovery are the regions immediately surrounding the poles of the earth, desires to place on record its sense of the importance of forthwith completing the systematic exploration of the polar areas."
All the world is astir with activity and life. The hugest sleeping giant of them all is awake. In "Van Norden's Magazine" for September, Mr. Chow-Tszchi, Charge d'Affaires of China in Washington, says:
"Progress has at last taken hold of China. Attempts to galvanize the giant out of his sleep of ages have been made many times, but until recently they failed because the giant was not ready to awake. Now he has roused himself, stretched himself, and begun to put his house in order. It was time. . . . China is getting ready to take her place among the great civilized nations of the world."
Only four or five years ago some one suggested what a grand thing it would be if the heathen temples of China could be turned into modern schools, and now comes the word that over a thousand of those very temples have been turned into schools, and the movement is but beginning. Literally the world is astir. The heathen are waking up, the nations are getting ready for the scenes of the great day of the Lord. Secretary Patton, of the Congregational Board, recently summed up the rapidity with which changes are taking place when he said:
"Within five years the missionary situation of the world has been so transformed as to be hardly recognizable by those who studied the problem in the previous period. There has been nothing like this in history since the preparation of the Roman Empire for the advent of Christ. We are in a new fulness of time."
Definitely the mighty hand of God has been moving events in the world to meet the time-table of divine prophecy. The whole world lies open. The time has come for that closing message of Revelation 14 to be carried swiftly, as by an angel in the midst of heaven, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, crying that the hour of His judgment is already come. Since 1844, that message has been sounded. This Seventh-day Adventist people have been raised up in the providence of God to proclaim this message to all the world. The New York Methodist "Christian Advocate" recently said of this movement: "Small tho the denomination still is, it has its missionaries scattered thru every region of the globe."
Map Showing Unknown Parts of World.
Small tho the numbers may be as compared with the great churches, it is an ever-increasing body, pledged heart and soul to carry the warning cry as a witness to all nations. The message stands there in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. No man can deny that the last phase of Gospel truth to be carried to the world before Christ comes must bear the definite warning of a judgment hour already come, and exalt the commandments of God—the Sabbath commandment included—as well as the faith of Jesus. It is for this closing message that God's providence has been preparing the way thru all the history of modern missions. Every servant of God who has gone out into the wide world scattering the word of life has been preparing the way for this crisis in the last hour of earth's history. The message is not man's message, but God's. Every missionary ought to be preaching it now, in the very terms of the prophecy. God's hand has swung open the doors and prepared the way for a quick work. True to His pledged word, "He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth."
The Need of the World.
By Max Hill
THE nations are calling for light to-day
In pitiful accents of wo,
In darkness of error they drift away,
Borne downward with unceasing flow.
O list to the voice of their awful need
That echoes again and again,
"Come over and help us," they ever plead;
The call of the world is for men.
The nations of earth are but writhing slaves
Enthralled in the shackles of sin;
By millions they sink into hopeless graves
With none from their error to win.
Soul-hungry they languish in sin's dark pall,
And turn to their idols again;
Yet ever for light and for truth they call,—
The need of the world is for men.
O who will respond to the ringing call
From mountain and plain and from sea,
And, giving up loved ones and home and all,
Will answer, "Here, Master, send me"?
The burden, thy burden, take up to-day
With purse and with voice and with pen;
The news of salvation to bear away,—
The hope of the world is in men.
O Christians, awake to the call to-day,
Awake and the message proclaim.
Go forth to the battle, shrink not the fray,
Go forth in the Conqueror's name.
Behold how His banner leads on before!
Why stand ye in idleness then?
Go forth with the message from shore to shore!
The Lord is thy Leader; be men!
Max Hill.
Christianity a Life
By George B. Thompson
By George B. Thompson
Christianity a Life By George B. Thompson
TRUE Christianity is a life. It does not consist in outward forms and ceremonies. These can be nothing more than the urn which holds the treasure, the body in which the living soul has its abode. Christianity is a life; and it is a power. And just in proportion as men lose the life from their worship, they proceed to multiply endless rites and ceremonies. When the life and power of Christianity cease to abide in the temple of the soul, larger and more costly “temples made with hands” are reared instead.
No human scribe has ever written the history of Christianity. No scribe can. The mysterious workings of this mighty agency are not traceable by mortal pen. Much that historians term Christianity is but a form, a body from which the life has fled, a corpse putrescent to the core. The history of true Christianity is written only in sacrifice, in blood, in the groans and death-shrieks of the brave and loyal souls who loved not their lives unto death, in regenerated lives of men and women, and in the record contained in the books which will be opened at the last great day.
The Author of real Christianity is the Son of God. He is also its Finisher. In the Babe of Bethlehem, lying in a stall among cattle, sleeping, helpless, upon the bosom of His virgin mother, is found the life which permeates all true Christianity, a life which quells the dark, stormy passions of the human heart, and regenerates the believing soul. He lies there a feeble infant, yet worshiped by angels. A few hours measure His earthly existence, yet He lived before the stars began their stately march thru the heavens. In the Babe of Bethlehem is solved the problem of the ages—how man condemned to death because of transgression can be just and live. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He came that “they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” In Him is life. His is the endless life and power of genuine Christianity. It is in no sense synonymous with outward forms and ceremonies. It may use these as an instrument thru which to work, or it may exist and work without them.
The life and power of Christianity to-day, as in apostolic days, is the Holy Spirit, not some human federation. What the church of the Most High God needs at this hour is the baptism of power from on high. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Acts 1:8. “The Spirit giveth life.” 2 Cor. 3:6. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” John 6:63.
The Spirit of God is that unseen yet mighty agency which imparts spiritual life and power to the human soul. Without it men are dead, and Christianity is but a form. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Rom. 8:9. Only those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit is the connecting link between the throne of God and the human heart, regenerating, sanctifying, and purifying the soul.
Everywhere there is a distressing dearth of spirituality. Many churches have withered and died. Real ministerial power is a rare article. Much labor and money are often expended with but little results. Sinners are not moved as they once were. When calls are made for laborers to help carry the Gospel to the “regions beyond” but few respond.
The Great Need.
Power from on high is the church’s greatest need. There are too many forms already. A theory of the truth is not sufficient to save us. There is no salvation even in a form of the truth. The disciples had been with the Saviour during the years of His ministry. They had witnessed His miracles in stilling the sea, healing the sick, and raising the dead, and beheld the indescribable glory revealed at the transfiguration. But all this did not qualify them to go out and labor. Tho the world was sunken in iniquity, and perishing, He bids them wait. How long?—“Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
When the disciples received this holy unction from on high, they went forth and mighty work was done. Men quailed before the truth spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hard, stony hearts were changed, and the dark, stormy, sinful passions of souls were subdued. Thousands were converted in a day. The purse-strings of the believers were loosed, and funds came in to carry on their work. Even the iron monarchy of Rome yielded before the power of the message which they delivered. Being filled with the Spirit of God, they went forth “conquering and to conquer.”
Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (chapter 37:1-12) illustrates what can be accomplished thru the power of the Holy Spirit. Tho this scripture no doubt has reference to the resurrection of the dead at the last day, it contains as well a lesson for those who are dead in trespasses and sin. In this vision is represented the ruined state of humanity. Being alienated from the life of God, they are dead. “Can these bones live?” Humanly speaking, this seemed impossible. There was no sign of life, for the bones were “very dry,” only a piece here, and a piece there. Here was a condition before which human philosophy and church federation could only stand helpless. What could worldly power do in a condition like this?—Nothing. But the Spirit of God entered into them, and, behold! they lived, “an exceeding great army,” the whole house of Israel.
It is even so now. In the church are many without the breath of the Spirit of life, mere skeletons, so to speak. Whole churches are dead. Their only hope of spiritual existence is in receiving the vitalizing power of the Holy Spirit. Now, as never before, the church of God individually should reverently bow with humility of soul and confession of sin, shut in with the Most High in prayer, that the heavenly current,—the power of Christianity,—fresh from the throne of God, may fill their very being.
It is spiritual, not secular, power that the church needs. The word “power” as used in our English version of the Bible, is represented in the Greek Testament by several distinct words. The two chief forms are exousia and dunamis, the latter form being the one from which we have the word dynamite. The first of these refers more especially to authority as exercised by a ruler. Spiritual power is represented by dunamis, as in Luke 24:49; 1 Cor. 2:4, etc.
This heavenly power is the Gospel of our divine Lord. The Gospel is the power of God. That the Spirit of God does not manifest itself in the church to-day as it should, is apparent to all. Endless forms and ceremonies have been multiplied to take its place, but in vain. The Spirit is free to those who ask. There can be but one thing which hinders the bestowal of this heavenly gift, and that one thing is sin. Selfishness and unconsecration will effectually retard its operations, and not only will sin hinder its manifestations in our hearts, but having received the Spirit and refusing to yield our sins to God, the Spirit may be withdrawn. This is forcibly illustrated in the life of Saul. Being chosen king, the Spirit of God came upon him, and he was “turned into another man.” 1 Sam. 10:6. He was converted, for “God gave him another heart.” But failing to yield all to God, he lost the sweet communion with his Maker, and continuing to follow the sinful impulses of his heart, “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” 1 Sam. 16:14. And later we see this man to whom the Lord gave a “new heart,” and anointed for His service, so far departed from Him, that, lying prostrate in the hovel of a witch, he receives instruction from an imp from the region of darkness! What a solemn and awful warning this lesson contains against the sin of “grieving” the Holy Spirit by permitting things in our lives which we know are not in harmony with the pure life of the Son of God.
Christ a Personal Saviour
By W. A. Colcord
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Christ a Personal Saviour
By W. A. Colcord
"If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."
JESUS! no name so sweet to the soul redeemed from sin. "And thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins."
Nor is there any other such bliss and happiness in all the world as that which comes from this same salvation from sin thru Jesus: "David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."
But no one can experience this bliss and receive this salvation except those who receive Christ as their personal Saviour. While all nations and all men in all nations have been blessed thru the light and blessings brought to this world by Jesus Christ, none are blessed with salvation from sin but those who receive Christ as their personal Saviour from sin.
Christ is the Light of the world. He is "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." All hopes of salvation, all desires for redemption that spring up in every human breast, come from Him and center in Him.
An Individual Work.
But salvation is a personal, individual work. Men are not saved by wholesale, as by families, communities, or nations, but one by one as individuals.
While Christ is the Saviour of the world, He saves the world only as men individually accept and receive Him. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
To receive Christ, according to the last scripture quoted, is to believe on His name, to have faith in Him as the Messiah, the Sent of God. But faith is a personal matter. No one can exercise faith for another. No one's faith will answer for another. Each must exercise faith for himself. Each must confess his own sins, and accept Christ as his own personal Saviour from these sins, and, by living faith, receive Him into his heart as the One who is able, not only to cleanse him from sin, but to keep him from sinning, or he can never know salvation.
"He that cometh to God must believe that He is." "Without faith it is impossible to please Him." "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
The apostle Paul recognized Christ as his own personal Saviour when he said: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Plockhorst Christ and Peter.
And so, while the Gospel message of salvation is to all the world, it is addressed to each one individually in the world: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
How vain, therefore, must be every attempt to save men by wholesale, without faith, thru some "national reform" movement, or some "God-in-the-Constitution" or "Act-of-Parliament" measure. And yet this is what many, for over a thousand years, have been trying to do. Every religious establishment in the world is simply a witness to the fact that men have been attempting to save their fellow men by law—by wholesale—instead of by preaching the good news of salvation thru faith in Jesus as a personal Saviour.
And, sad to say, this terrible delusion is not altogether a thing of the past. Many today are clamoring for religion by law, and salvation by Sunday laws. They think that unless the law steps in, religion will die out; that unless Sunday observance is required by law, church attendance will cease, and men will grow worse and worse until piety dies out altogether.
But such an idea is the very opposite of the truth. It is true that religion, genuine religion, is dying out, and men are ceasing to attend church and be pious. But there was never a time when there were so many Sunday laws in the world as there are at the present time. Salvation, therefore, does not reside in these laws. To look to them or to legislation at all for salvation is the greatest folly. What men need to see to obtain salvation is not civil law, but the Saviour. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." It is but the trick of the devil to cause men to look elsewhere for salvation. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
The godly Spurgeon well said: "I am ashamed of some Christians because they have so much dependence on Parliament and the law of the land. Much good may Parliament ever do religion, except by mistake! As to getting the law of the land to touch our religion, we earnestly cry, 'Hands off! leave us alone!' Your Sunday bills and all other forms of act-of-Parliament religion seem to me to be all wrong. Give us a fair field and no favor, and our faith has no cause to fear. Christ wants no help from Cæsar. I should be afraid to borrow help from government; it would look to me as if I rested on an arm of flesh, instead of depending on the living God. Let the Lord's day be respected by all means, and may the day soon come when every shop shall be closed on the Sabbath, but let it be by force of conviction, and not by force of policemen; let true religion triumph by the power of God in men's hearts and not by the power of fines and punishments."
The only salvation worthy the name is that which comes thru personal faith in a personal Saviour.
Christ Died to Save You
CHRIST died to save you as truly as tho you were the only soul in the world.
