Books Treating Upon the Subject of the Second Coming of Christ
At different times and in different places, the Saviour, while here on earth, spoke of his return, when he should come as “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Holy men of God, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, have prophesied of this grand event. These prophecies, some of them fulfilled, others partly fulfilled, and some yet to be fulfilled, all deal with a theme upon which many authors have delighted to dwell. No other subject is of such importance to the people of this generation, and those who have light concerning it are under obligation to give that light to others. Believing this an opportune time to call to the attention of the readers of the REVIEW interesting and important publications on this subject, and suggesting a specially wide circulation of the same among their friends and relatives at this particular season of the year, we submit the following:— TREATING upon the marvelous record of the nineteenth century,—the wonderful advance in the sciences and art, the development of natural resources, the prevalence of crime, the perfection of death-dealing instruments of war, the suppressed anger of nations, the disturbed condition of the elements,—and citing scriptures that declare these to be signs of— This book sets forth the prophetic signs with their present partial fulfilment in the appalling loss of life by murder, suicide, political and social troubles, dissatisfaction between employer and employed, strikes and fires, wars and rumors of wars, as evidence that there is a social vortex into which all unsettled factions and the world at large will soon be plunged as another great sign of the end of earthly kingdoms and the setting up of the everlasting kingdom. “Heralds of the Morning” has just been revised, and greatly improved in contents, illustrations, and new attractive cover design. Bound in durable cloth, with marble edges. Price, $1.50. Regular discount to agents. THIS work presents in a clear, concise, and interesting manner the live issues of our times, revealing how history is accurately fulfilling the great prophecy of Christ as recorded in Matthew 24. The money question, the iniquity abounding in political, social, and religious life, the great war preparations of all nations, and other kindred topics, are discussed in separate chapters, showing that they are but the response of history to the unerring voice of the prophecy of Christ and his apostles. These events are all shown to point to the great culminating event of this earth's history— and the restoration of this earth as the final abode of those who are faithful in their allegiance to him. “The Coming King” has been thoroughly revised, and brought up to date. It has also been reillustrated, and new matter added. There has been quite an improvement made in the cover design, but the prices will remain the same as before; namely, plain binding, $1; gilt, $1.50. Regular discount to agents. Our Country; Its Past, Present, and Future, and Its Place in Prophecy
TAKING up the history of American progress since the nation's birth, all those elements, which have entered into the life of our country to make it, at the close of the nineteenth century, a world power, are considered. The manner of its rise and its nature politically are taken as evidences of its importance in prophecy, while the marvelous development of natural resources and the advance in the arts and sciences declare the character of the time in which we live. While the historical past and the present of this nation are of great interest to the American people, and easily attract their attention, the principal object of this book is to call attention to the Scriptural future of this nation, and through it, to the final termination of all earthly governments and the setting up of the kingdom of God. Cloth, plain edges, $1.25.
Cloth, gilt edges, $1.50. A NEW art booklet, brief, beautiful, forcible. It contains forty-five engravings, with historical comments, showing in consecutive order the fulfilment of every prophecy in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Each engraving is accompanied by the verse of scripture—the Master's own words—which it illustrates. Christ foretells; the pictures answer, “Fulfilled.” The busiest man will spend a few minutes—no more is required—to take in Christ's Outline History of the World, from his time to ours; from Vesuvius and Pompeii, A. D. 79, to Mount Pelee and St. Pierre of to-day; from the overthrow of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, to the latest political upheavals and social disturbances among the nations. AN exposition of Matthew 24, revised, enlarged, and illustrated. The book contains one hundred and fourteen pages, with twenty-three full-page illustrations. The work takes up Christ's great prophecy of his own second coming, and the signs of the times are clearly pointed out in their relation to that greatest event. Just the book for the times! Attractive, timely, and instructive. Revised and enlarged edition. Bound in board, with cover design in colors, 25 cents.
Bound in fine English cloth, embossed covers, lemon edges, 40 cents.
Issued also in German, Danish, and Swedish. The Great Nations of To-day
“THE GREAT NATIONS OF TO-DAY” reveals the causes of the movements of the nations at the present time, together with a clear presentation of their rise, relations, careers, and their destinies, in connection with a clear, concise treatise on the Seven Trumpets, the Three Woes, Babylon, the Beast of Revelation 13 and its Image, the Commandments, the Hour of God's Judgment Come, and the Setting up of the Everlasting Kingdom of God. While people are studying the present war between Russia and Japan, it is a most favorable time to interest them in “The Great Nations of To-day.” Bound in paper covers, containing 257 pages; price, 25 cents a copy. Small Tracts With Great Messages
A TWENTY-FOUR-PAGE study of sixteen important Bible topics. A mine of suggestions to the Bible student. 1½ cents each, or $1 per hundred, postpaid. THE character and scope of this tract is indicated by the following list of articles which it contains:—
May We Know the Time?
Is the End Near?
When Will He Come?
Increase of Knowledge.
Last-day Scoffers.
Signs in the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
The Peace-and-Safety Cry.
Preparing for World War.
Accumulation of Wealth.
Increase of Crime.
Great Spiritual Declension. Price 1½ cents each, or $1 per hundred, postpaid. The Gospel Message for To-day
THIS sixteen-page tract is introduced by a brief study of the character of God's messages, how they are given, and the danger of rejecting them. The editor of The Signs of the Times then speaks of the present divided condition of the church, and points out the gospel remedy, which is the gospel message for to-day. Price, 1 cent each, or 70 cents per hundred, postpaid. Waymarks to the Holy City
A VERY interesting study of the seventh chapter of Daniel in which the prophecies relating to the different kingdoms of earth, and those pointing to the new earth as well, are clearly, though briefly, explained. Price, 1 cent, or 70 cents per hundred, postpaid. Where to Order Adventist Publications
Order of Review and Herald, Washington, D. C.; Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.; Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Assn., Nashville, Tenn.; or your State Tract Society. HAVE you ever really talked with God? Has your praying ever risen to the plane of actual communion with a personal Father in heaven? or has it been a mere one-sided expression of your wants and purposes? There is even a great difference between praying to God, or toward God, and holding personal communion with God. “In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to him concerning our actual life.” If we believe in God, it strengthens that faith to tell him about it. If we have doubts and fears, there is no other way so effectual for getting rid of them as to tell our Father all about them. Simply spreading them out before him often dissipates them altogether. But even though clouds and darkness still abide, we may yet talk with God, and the Comforter will take of things of his and declare them unto us. Public prayer is in God’s order, and should not be neglected, but the real inner experience of the individual Christian depends upon his personal interviews with him who is the very life of our life—the living God. Instead of talking things over privately with the enemy of our souls, who is constantly urging his views upon us, and agreeing with so much that he says about God, let us listen to what God says about himself, and as the infinite Father opens up his heart to us and reveals his feelings toward us, let us do the same with him. This heart-to-heart talk is a divine method for changing our sinful hearts until they shall beat in unison with the heart of God. “Talk with us, Lord, thyself reveal,
While here o’er earth we rove;
Speak to our hearts, and let us feel
The kindling of thy love. “With thee conversing, we forget
All time, and toil, and care;
Labor is rest, and pain is sweet,
If thou, my God, art there.” WITH nearly every object and operation in nature the Lord has linked a spiritual lesson. This has been done in order that visible things may be constant reminders of the invisible things of the kingdom. In this winter season when in our northern latitude the face of the earth is covered with “the white, cold, virgin snow” which comes “out of the bosom of the air, out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,” in response to the command of Him who says, “Be thou on the earth,” we may be comforted by remembering the message which it bears: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” You may have watched as “the fleecy clouds their bosom bare, and shed their substance on the floating air.” Perchance the first time you ever beheld this sight, it appealed strongly to your feelings. “How beautiful it was, falling so silently, all day long, all night long, on the mountains, on the meadows, on the roofs of the living, on the graves of the dead!” He whose raiment is as “white as snow” spreads the same white mantle over even the great heaps of filth and rubbish, and the unsightly becomes beautiful. Such transformations can be also made in character. “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” “Though my sins were once like crimson red,
To the healing stream my feet were led;
In the precious blood my Saviour shed
He washed me white as snow.” Do not permit your ears to become deaf to the messages of hope and encouragement which come to us on every hand. We are called upon to unite with his works in praising him whose power and wisdom are thus revealed. “Praise Jehovah from the earth, ye sea-monsters, and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapor; . . . mountains and all hills; . . . Let them praise the name of Jehovah.” Even the stormy wind fulfils the word of him who works all things after the counsel of his will. Our Present Position and Work
ANY one who has become well informed concerning the course of this advent movement since its rise more than seventy years ago will certainly recognize the fact that our present position is one of great interest, and of equally great significance. A brief glance at some of the more important lines of prophecy will show that we are far down the stream of time, and almost to the limit of this world's allotted course. The prominent prophetic landmarks, which indicate the onward march of the centuries toward the great consummation, have all been passed by, as prediction after prediction has met its fulfilment. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar is no longer merely a dream; it is history. The four beasts of Daniel's vision “in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon” have come up one after another, and have done what the prophet saw them do in vision. So also the vision which appeared unto Daniel “in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar” has become fact: the ram with the two horns has “magnified himself;” the he-goat has “magnified himself exceedingly;” and the little horn has “waxed exceeding great,” and has “cast down truth to the ground.” The prophetic periods made known to the prophet Daniel are now wholly in the past. The terminus of the “time and times and half a time” was reached more than a century ago, and marked the year 1798 as “the time of the end.” Those who were young when the “two thousand and three hundred days [years]” came to a close in 1844, are now white-haired with age, and for threescore years we have been in the period of the judgment hour, the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary. If we turn to our Lord's great prophecy concerning the signs of his coming and of the end of the world, we shall4find that the sun has been darkened, the moon did refuse to give her light, and the stars did fall from heaven, and the next things to look for are the shaking of the powers of the heavens and the appearing of “the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” If we read Paul's prediction of “the falling away” and the coming of “the man of sin,” it is plain that “the unsparing hand of inspiration has stripped it [the papacy], and left it standing upon the stage of history deformed and naked, a dark emanation from the pit, blood-stained and blasphemous, blindly struggling in the concentrated rays of celestial recognition, amid the premonitory thunders and lightnings of its fast-approaching doom.” This is “the mystery of iniquity,” which the Lord Jesus will soon “bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming.” The book of Revelation has now almost wholly been written as history. We live in the seventh and last stage of the church, under the sixth seal, when the great day of the wrath of the Lamb is revealed, and under the seventh trumpet, when the mystery of God is to be finished. The great red dragon, the beast from the sea, and the two-horned beast are familiar in the records of the remote and the recent past, and the specifications of the prophecy have nearly all been fulfilled. The persecution under the image of the beast and the decree of death, the final experiences, are involved in what is now being done in the vain effort to stay the tide of evil which is already setting so strongly. The next general view is that of “the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.” These and other special prophecies have largely been written into the records of the nations of the earth, and they speak in no uncertain tones of the nearness of the end of the age. Not simply one prophet says it, but the voices of all the prophets, in a clear and strong chorus, unite in saying, “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly.” A brief review of the development and progress of the movement to give to the world the threefold message of Revelation 14 shows that since its inception in great weakness and under most forbidding circumstances after the bitter disappointment of 1844, there has been a steady growth, but that the last decade has witnessed an increase equal to all that had been gained in the previous years. This is well stated in the following paragraph from the recent leaflet written by Elder A. G. Daniells:— Few realize that this cause has made as great progress during the last ten years as it did during the entire fifty years preceding. But this is true. From the disappointment in 1844 to Dec. 31, 1893, a period of forty-nine years, there had been developed thirty-four local conferences and eleven missions. Ten years later, in 1903, there were seventy-eight conferences and forty-eight missions. In 1893 there were 34,404 Sabbath-keepers and 1,151 churches. In 1903, ten years later, there were 77,554 Sabbath-keepers and 2,180 churches. In 1893 there were 460 ministers. Ten years later there were 960. The tithes for 1893 were $350,690.56, and in 1903 they were $684,030.50. In 1893 the annual offerings to missions amounted to $108,572.11, while in 1903 they had reached $216,342.98. Mere increase in numbers and wealth is not a reliable proof that the work is of heaven, but a work which is of heaven ought to grow, and that is what this movement has done. A beacon light of truth has been kindled in almost every country of the globe, and in our past history, wherever a foothold has been obtained, the ground has been held, and the message has taken root permanently. So it will be. There is a power in this truth, and a vitality in this cause, which mean constant progress. But now at the beginning of another decade what is the condition which confronts us? It is really startling. The Macedonian calls have risen to a chorus. The doors are open in all lands. In some long-neglected fields the reaper almost overtakes the sower, so ready is the response to the proclamation of the message. The opening providences of God in this work now constitute nothing less than a divine summons to this people to go forward with rapid and decided moves. The next decade, if time shall last so long, will surely witness such an expansion in this movement as will baffle any attempt to express it adequately in words or figures. It will be pervasive, powerful, and transforming. It will be the ingathering harvest after many years of patient toil. Such is our present position. Here is where we are after sixty years in the advent movement. The sure word of prophecy marks the time with great certainty, and the history of our own work deepens the conviction that God is marshalling his forces for the closing conflict. We face the end. Our position determines our work. We have passed a turning point in our experience in this message. During the last three years the advent spirit has been in a measure revived and strengthened, the missionary zeal has been increased, and the providence of God has been removing some of the things which were robbing the message of point and power. We are now called upon by voices in the past and voices in the present to give God's warning message for this generation with a loud cry. It must and will be done. The hour has struck. “There shall be delay no longer.” It behooves each one to seek a part in this work as we go forward to finish it as quickly as possible under the inspiration and power of our all-conquering Captain of the host. Soon those who make excuses will be permanently excused. The time will come when there will be money enough and workers enough, and those who persist in taking their ease in Zion while the conflict is pressing sore will no more be disturbed by urgent pleas for funds and volunteers. But alas for those who are thus left to the consequences of their hesitating, halting, grasping policy! Their “sometime” when they plan to give themselves and their means to God's cause will never come. In the bankruptcy of the world they will meet with eternal failure. They can not redeem themselves in that day. We may well take courage as we contemplate our present position and work. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables.” The fundamental truths of this message which first called out this people and indicated their position and work are the truths for this time. “Such subjects as the sanctuary, in connection with the twenty-three hundred days, the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, are perfectly calculated to explain the past advent movement, and show what our present position is, establish the faith of the doubting, and give certainty to the glorious future.” Let us go forward to victory. Soon our position will be with Jesus on the throne, and our work will evermore be to sound his praises. Homeward bound! Another Missionary Grave
By W. A. S.
Just after last year's week of prayer we received news of the death of Brother J. H. Watson, in Nyassaland. In the midst of this week of prayer we have to announce the death of one of our India missionaries, Brother Walter W. Quantock. It is sadly appropriate that, in association with the season of making gifts of money for the missionary cause, there come reminders of the fact that this cause is truly a warfare, and some are called to give life itself in missionary service. Brother Quantock returned from India in September, sorely stricken, yet hopeful of being again able to engage in the work. He passed away at Boulder, Colo., Sabbath, December 3. It was in December, 1898, that our brother sailed for India, and his record5is known to all his associates in labor as that of a faithful, loyal missionary, and a true friend and brother in service. This new missionary grave at his old home in Fayette, Mo., is but an added incentive to push the work forward until the reign of death itself shall be broken. We know that Sister Quantock (formerly Miss May Taylor) and her little one and all the sorrowing relatives will have the sympathy of all the great family of believers. A Demand for Reform in Russia
By L. A. S.
THE movement for the overthrow of autocratic government in Russia, whatever may be its outcome, is one which naturally excites much interest in all countries where constitutional government exists. Russia, as now ruled, is the chief obstacle in the world in the way of the spread of liberal government. As Russia spreads out, popular government in her pathway is crushed out, and autocratic despotism substituted in its place. Finland and Poland may be cited as examples. A revolution from autocracy to popular government in Russia itself would be an affair of vast moment to all Europe. Such a revolution is now attempted, in a peaceable way, by the intelligent, peace-loving portion of the Russian people, represented by the presidents of the local assemblies known as zemstvos. Through these, this class of Russians have voiced a demand for such a change in the government as will make it a constitutional monarchy. We quote the following on the subject from The Outlook:— ‘The full details of the proceedings of the heads of the zemstvos have not been reported, but it is quite clear that, for the first time in many decades, the Russian people have spoken, and the czar will have the opportunity of knowing what they think, and what they demand. They have carefully separated themselves from the Revolutionists, and their declaration will undoubtedly be couched in the most respectful language; for it is a high offense to criticize the Russian government in any form, and many attending the conferences might, under ordinary conditions, be sent to Siberia. The memorial was presented to the czar by Prince Svistopolk-Mirsky last Wednesday, and declared, in effect, that there now exists a complete estrangement between the ruler and the people of Russia, due to the mutual lack of confidence, and that this has never been so apparent as since the outbreak of the present war; that the government has no means of knowing the truth about the country and what the people want, because the people are excluded from every part of the government; that tutelage by bureaucrats is encouraged and self-reliance discountenanced; that many cities are in a state of siege, under arbitrary rule, with a suspension of law; that a disintegrating influence is at work on society; that the bureaucracy promotes religious intolerance, ance, stifles freedom of speech, and will inevitably lead to a revolt of brute force. The representatives of the provincial assemblies declare themselves the opponents of the Revolutionists, and urge a complete understanding between the government and the people; they profess firm faith in the monarchy, but pray that it may become constitutional. They ask for the concession of the inviolability of the person and private domicile; the inviolability of regular legal procedure in all cases, and of the decisions of independent law authorities; they pray for the abolition of the state of siege in many of the cities, for amnesty for all persons punished by administrative processes, and for a share in the government by the people through some form of national representative assembly. In other words, they propose a constitutional monarchy in place of the present system of absolutism.’ It is reported that some of these demands have received favorable consideration from the czar. L. A. S. There are some men who find difficulty in accepting the Bible as the word of God. To them the Scriptures are simply the writings of good men. They do not speak to them with the authority of God, and consequently they are not decisive in matters of faith and practise. They do not come to them as the oracles of God. Much has been written upon the authenticity of the Scriptures, and to show their reliability. And the attempt to help others to find a sure foundation for their faith in a divine revelation is certainly praiseworthy. But in doing this we should exercise the greatest care that we do not weaken the foundation upon which all true believers have built, and at the same time fail to place the doubter upon safe ground. Some of the testimony borne, professedly in favor of the inspiration and value of the Bible by those who, in this time of advanced thought, pass for defenders of the sacred volume, is really subversive of a genuine faith in the divine authority of the Scriptures. An example of this kind of testimony has recently come to our attention, and we refer to it here because it has been quoted approvingly in a publication which is sent out to our own people, and which they are asked to circulate. Referring to the recently discovered inscriptions upon the monuments and tablets left behind by some of the ancient nations, in which are recorded traditions of events similar to those described in the Old Testament, the author of “The Monuments and the Old Testament” says:— Their common elements point to a time when the human race occupied a common home and held a common faith. The early races of men, wherever they wandered, took with them these primeval traditions, and with the varying latitudes and climes their habits and modes of life have carried these, and present them to us to-day in their different dresses. One ancient religion did not borrow these universal traditions from another, but each possessed primitively these traditions in their original form. A careful examination of all these traditions shows that the Genesis record is the purest, the least colored [with] extravagances, and the nearest to what we must conceive to have been the original form of these traditions [Italics ours]. This testimony is printed in order to help infidels and skeptics to believe in the divine authorship of the Bible. But what does the learned author really say? After a painstaking study of all the traditions of the ancient nations dealing with the subject of the creation, he assures us that in the record in Genesis we doubtless have an account which is better than any of the others, and that it is “the nearest to what we must conceive to have been the original form of these traditions.” Put into another form, this means that, with our present knowledge of science, the scholars of to-day could write a more accurate account of the creation than is given in Genesis, and that the record in Genesis does not transmit to us even the original form of the tradition concerning this event, but, nevertheless, it is doubtless the most accurate of any of the ancient traditions. Any infidel or skeptic could assent to such testimony as this, and still remain an infidel or a skeptic. Instead of establishing to any degree the inspiration and authority of the book of Genesis, it frankly declares that the account of creation there given is not even an accurate record of the original tradition of cosmogony. In other words, the writer of the book of Genesis did not rise far enough above the current traditions of his time to preserve for us even a reliable statement of the original tradition concerning creation. And yet this sort of testimony is quoted as showing how “voices from the ancient ruins” bear witness in favor of the Bible. In contrast with such infidelity as this it is refreshing to read the following words from the spirit of prophecy:— God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world, in both science and art; but when professedly scientific men treat upon these subjects from a merely human point of view, they will assuredly come to wrong conclusions. . . . The Bible is not to be tested by men’s ideas of science. Human knowledge is an unreliable guide. . . . Moses wrote under the guidance of the Spirit of God; and a correct theory of geology will never claim discoveries which can not be reconciled with his statements.
We hope none of our readers will permit6the foundation of their faith in the Scriptures to be undermined by a really infidel writer, even though he may be quoted in an anti-infidel publication. And we can but think that the less authority is given to such testimony, the better it will be even for the infidel and the skeptic. Romanism in America and in Rome
THE history of the papacy proves conclusively that we must understand its real genius before we can correctly interpret some of the utterances made by its representatives. Some of the fair speeches and pretentious claims made in its behalf, if accepted without reservation, would make the papacy the champion of religious and civil liberty and the leader in all intellectual advancement and social reforms. It is quite the customary thing for the spokesmen for Romanism to talk in this strain here in America. And it is, of course, possible that some individual Roman Catholics are thus sincerely expressing their own private convictions, but this does not represent the real voice of the papacy. As an illustration of what we have stated, we will present two quotations from recent utterances concerning the attitude of the papacy toward some of those principles which lie at the very foundation of American life and institutions. The first is a verbatim paragraph from a sermon preached Sunday evening, December 4, in St. Stephen's Catholic church in this city, by Rev. A. P. Doyle, rector of the Apostolic Mission House at the Catholic University of America. He said:— The Catholic Church is destined to secure a marvelous expansion in this country by attracting the intellectual and spiritual life of the country to her teaching and her policies. She is perfectly at home in the free air of American liberty. She stands for all that is highest and best in our American life, and against all those degrading elements that would drag down the sweet seriousness of upright living, and make it a dangerous and blatant vulgarity. The second quotation is from an article just published in the Osservatore Romano, the official organ of the Vatican at Rome, in which is discussed the recent action of the French government in annulling the Concordat of 1801, and thus making a separation between church and state. It reads as follows:— Separation of the two perfect societies [the church and the state], constituted such by God, is a monstrosity, and to this monstrosity the church can not adjust herself in Catholic states, and has to combat it. . . . Freedom of the press is an error condemnable and condemned. It is contrary to sense in philosophy, and in theology a monstrosity, in the same manner as freedom of worship and of conscience and of thought. . . . Certainly, if you say simply: “Is freedom of the press, of worship, and of conscience admitted philosophically and theologically?” you will not find any Catholic who is at all cultivated who will reply to you, or who can reply to you, affirmatively. But if, instead, you put the question: “By hypothesis, is it possible to admit toleration of freedom of the press, of worship, and of conscience?” you will not find any cultivated Catholic who can reply to you, or who will reply to you, negatively. What are we to understand, then, by the statement of the eminent prelate that the Catholic Church “is perfectly at home in the free air of American liberty”? In the light of the official announcement from Rome, it can only mean that as long as she can not control American institutions and laws, and so prevent freedom of the press, of worship, and of conscience, she will make herself at home here, and tolerate these evils until she can correct them; but it is perfectly clear that if the day ever comes when Catholic principles can be successfully forced upon the American people, “the free air of American liberty” will be a thing of the past. A degenerate Protestantism is even now making advances toward Rome, and the time may not be far distant when Romanism as it is promulgated from Rome will hold sway in America. It becomes us to make the most of our opportunity to proclaim the message of liberty for soul, body, and spirit, while the day lasts. What Rome has done for those countries where she has had undisputed possession she would gladly do for this country if it should become possible. The third angel's message is a warning against the beast and his image. The Setting Up of the Everlasting Kingdom
By L. A. S.
ONE of the most common, and at the same time most plainly unscriptural, errors entertained by Christian people of this time, is the idea that the prayer “Thy kingdom come” is to be answered through the conversion of the world. The kingdoms of this world, it is said, are to be merged into the kingdom of Christ. Much effort toward the reform of existing conditions in governments and in society is being put forth with this end in view. Much talk of “civic righteousness” is prompted by it. Much is expected to be accomplished toward it by act of the legislature. Society is to be legislated into a better state of being, the world is to become better year by year, the millennial age is soon to dawn, and the kingdoms of this world are to flow together into the kingdom of Christ, as the rivers flow into the sea. Such is the almost universal belief. Even the disciples of old were in grave error regarding the setting up of the kingdom of Christ. They expected to see Christ seated on the throne of earthly dominion with a display of earthly power. In their conception of it they lowered the kingdom of Christ almost, if not quite, to the level of the kingdoms of the world. They made of it a kingdom set up by worldly agencies and containing many worldly elements. The Christian churches to-day are making a similar mistake. The kingdom of Christ, like the righteousness of Christ, has incorporated into it no element of the world. On this point Scripture testimony is very plain. King Nebuchadnezzar, in his dream relating to the setting up of the kingdom of God, saw a stone cut out “without hands,” which smote the image of his dream upon the feet, breaking them and the whole image in pieces, and then becoming a great mountain, filling the whole earth. But every part of the image, which represented earthly governments, was swept away like chaff, and found no abiding-place. No human hands can set up the kingdom of Christ, no human governments can be incorporated into it. The psalmist David, speaking of the time when the kingdoms of the world shall be given to Christ, says of him, “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Ps. 2:9. This agrees with the testimony of Daniel in predicting a sudden and violent transition from the rule of earthly governments to the rule of Christ. Further and equally plain testimony is found in the book of Revelation. The prophet, looking down to the end of time, beheld the final scene when earth’s rightful Sovereign shall come to his purchased possession, as King of kings and Lord of lords. He saw heaven opened, and Jesus riding forth upon a white horse, followed by the armies of heaven. In his description he says: “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” And further: “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him. . . . These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword7proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” Rev. 19:11-21. In the light of these Scriptures no one who believes them can fail to see the utter uselessness of all effort to make the kingdoms and governments of this world like the kingdom of Christ. The gospel is not to save governments or kingdoms, but individuals. When Christ comes to set up his kingdom, all the kingdoms of the earth will be arrayed against him. No matter what so-called Christian legislators, Christian congresses, Christian lobbyists, and church federations may do for the reform of politics and of society, the final outcome will be just what the prophet has described. In the gospel, God speaks not to nations, but to persons; not to organizations of men or to men in the mass, but to individuals. Because of failure to search for and to believe the Scripture teaching on this important subject, the churches to-day are as unprepared for the coming climax in the controversy between sin and righteousness in this world, as were the disciples of old for the betrayal and crucifixion of him who they hoped would become an earthly sovereign. They are wasting their time and energies in an effort to accomplish the impossible.