Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 11. (3/17/1909)

Signs of the Times

Mar 17, 1909

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 17, 1909

Question Corner

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2769.—The New Covenant.

Please explain Heb. 8:7-13. H. G.

The passage is largely a quotation from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah predicts the making of the new covenant. Hebrews records what has taken place in Christ Jesus. The first covenant was the covenant made at Mount Sinai recorded in Exodus 19 and in Exodus 24. That was a faulty covenant, because it was no stronger than the weakest promise which it had—the promise of the people. Note, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second; for finding fault with them.” It was the people who were at fault. The new covenant which was the everlasting covenant given to Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, and to Israel, was based upon the promises of God. Man’s part was simply the yielding to those promises and the receiving of them. And when men do that, God promises not to compel them to obey, but to so place His law in their hearts and in their minds that they would have no other desire than to obey. They would love God and keep His commandments. All this is comprised in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is, in other words, stating God’s great plan of salvation through faith. The old covenant, apart from its national view, was man’s effort to save himself through promise; the new covenant carries us clear over into the new state when sin shall be forever banished, and the children of the covenant shall bask in the smiles of God forever.

Gal. 4:24-31 also touches upon these two covenants. Hagar is the type of one, Sarah is the type of the other; the child of Hagar, the type of those who are brought in through human scheming; the child of Sarah a type of those who are brought in solely through the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hagar bore children to bondage; for she was a bondmaid; so all those who are endeavoring to save themselves by any scheme of man are in bondage. They never can break their bondage themselves, and all they save or convert to such a system as that are children of bondage. On the other hand, Sarah was a free woman, and her children were free. She represents God’s order, and all those who are saved according to God’s order, with faith in the promises of the Lord Jesus, are children of freedom. The two things are represented by earthly Jerusalem and heavenly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is representative of that kingdom which Israel tried to establish in their own righteousness under constant rebellion against God; but the New Jerusalem to whom the children have not yet come, is the Jerusalem that is made wholly after God’s order and is free; and is therefore called the mother of the children of freedom. Therefore Paul concludes that we who have believed in Christ are as Isaac was—the children of promise. Isaac was persecuted by Ishmael, the child of the bond servant; so God’s true children will meet persecution from those who are following the schemes of men, but in the glorious outcome God will save His children and cast out those who are not of Him.

2770.—The Garden of Eden.

Where was the Garden of Eden planted? W. S.

All that we know about it is that it was upon this earth. There are those who try to locate it definitely now; some in Asia, some at the North Pole. Two of the latest attempts are in the United States, we believe, one in Louisiana, and one in Kansas, where they have found four rivers that seem to fill the description given of the four rivers in Genesis 2. Those rivers would make it seem almost as if the Garden of Eden was located in Asia; but the names are there given because of their meaning and not as proper names to indicate locality. Why we say we do not know is because the world at that time was different from what it is now, or has been since the Deluge. How much change took place, of course, we can not say, but the apostle Peter tells us that men in speculating over these things wilfully forget that “there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God; by which means the world [cosmos, arrangement] that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” 2 Peter 3:5, 6. Now if the “arrangement,” or the “cosmos” that then was perished, we certainly have no right to endeavor to use the present cosmos, or arrangement of the earth’s surface as proof of where some locality was then.

2771.—The Fate of Judas. Mark 14:21.

Jesus said, “Good were it for that man if he had never been born.” Since all the heathen, in fact, and the great mass of mankind for whom Christ died have never heard during this present evil world of the only Name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), would not the above statement of our Lord apply to them also? H. E. H.

So far as the above statement is concerned, it will apply to every soul that is eventually lost; it would be better for that soul if he had not been born. So far as not hearing the actual word “Jesus” is concerned, that is another matter. Men may hear that name and still be lost. Men may take that name as a fetish or a charm and still be lost. They may be named with that name and still be lost. The hope lies not in the word nor in the sound, but in the character. The name of Jesus means absolute self-emptiness, in order that God may fill us, and every soul that knows that character, whether he knows the transferred Greek word Jesus or not, knows God. Again, it is well to recall that one single ray of light followed will lead to the great central source of light. One ray of spiritual truth followed will lead to the great source of truth—God. On the other hand we may hold a mass of light and truth and yet if we reject one single ray of light, one single living truth, that is sufficient to condemn. This constant endeavor to fix up things for God utterly ignores some of the great statements which God has given in His word. Here is another of them: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” Acts 15:14-17 refers to the very work that the apostles were then doing in the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles.

2772.—Roman or Jewish Reckoning. Acts 20:7.

A preacher stated not long ago that Luke wrote after the Roman reckoning had begun; hence the eve of the first day would be Sunday evening. Please explain.

We have no reason whatever to understand otherwise than that Luke wrote after the Bible reckoning. This is generally so considered by commentators. Those who wish to prove first-day sacredness are anxious, of course, to get anything whatever upon which they can hang the semblance of an argument. Acts 20:7 mentions the first day of the week and of a meeting being held on the evening of that day, and the breaking of bread on that day; therefore it is argued that that day must have been a holy day and Paul must have been keeping it as such. Now, if it was Sunday evening when that meeting was held, according to Roman time the breaking of bread did not come till after midnight; consequently the Lord’s Supper was held—if breaking of bread means that—on Monday morning instead of Sunday night; and if this one instance establishes the custom, that is the time that it ought to be held now. On the other hand, according to Jewish time, that evening was what we would call Saturday evening. The breaking of the bread did come on the first day of the week, but the remainder of that day was used by the apostle in doing ordinary work. Looking upon it in either way, there is absolutely nothing in the text which would indicate that it was a holy day in any wise or that it was a day for regular meetings. It simply states that the apostle on his journey to Rome held a week’s meeting with the people at Troas, and this closing meeting of his came on our Saturday night, after the Sabbath day. The meeting would probably not have been mentioned at all were it not for the noted miracle which Paul wrought on that occasion in raising Eutychus from the dead.

2773.—Permission to Eat Meat.

W. S.—The permission to eat meat in Gen. 9:3 could have reference only to the clean beasts, because there were enough only of the unclean saved to perpetuate the species; while of the clean, God provided for man’s necessity by preserving fourteen of each. Acts 15:28, 29 simply prohibited certain things in which the Gentiles were likely to fall, the special sins that seemed in their eyes not at all wrong. Doubtless they were instructed as were other converts in the law of life and health, but some things were so inbred in their very nature for years that God found it necessary to prohibit them by special warning. The Lord makes no difference with His people; this He tells us over and over again. God is no respecter of persons. The same God is rich unto all that call upon Him, whether Jew or Greek. Read Romans 10.

2774.—The Two Witnesses. Revelation 11.

Will you please explain who and what the two witnesses are in Revelation 11? I have been told that it is the Old Testament and the New Testament. J. G. L.

And this is true. It is the Old and the New Testament. See for explanation “Daniel and Revelation” on the text, and also “Great Controversy,” chapter 15. In our own day it may take a far fuller application even than that. The one witness, God’s word; the other witness, the word as manifest in the lives of His own children. Upon this we hope to have more to say when we study the book of Revelation.

2775.—In Early Times.

W. S.—As to Cain and Abel and other people who lived upon the earth, we must take this into account always that they lived to a great age. The Bible gives us one or two events in their life; those events may have occurred many years apart, and during these years other men and women may have been born and peopled the earth. Adam’s children, sons and daughters, may have been grown-up men and women before many of these events which are named occurred.

2776.—The Cities of Judah.—Matt. 10:23.

W. S.—The twelve disciples would not have gone over all the cities in the land of Palestine until Jesus Himself should follow them, we understand to be the meaning of the text. The cities of Israel were the cities which they themselves knew, and the coming was His coming to those cities themselves; His visiting of those cities, and not His second coming.

2777.—Circumcision.

W. S.—Circumcision has nothing whatever to do with baptism. Men who try to draw from the former a commandment for the latter are doing it without any warrant of Scripture. Bible baptism is believers’ baptism. Nowhere are we told to baptize children, but “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

2778.—Ishmael.

W. S.—The twelve princes which were to come from Ishmael were foretold simply because that would be the case. He should have twelve sons who would become princes, and not that this was to mean any definite particular thing as regarding the twelve; the Lord simply told him what would be.

Three Letters—S-i-n

By Emma Hildreth Adams

By Emma Hildreth Adams

S-I-N! No other word in human language occupies so much room. It has empire in every human heart, and has had from dawn of human history. It influences the speech of mankind, vastly, heartlessly, mightily. It fills millions of minds with thoughts, malicious, cruel, revengeful. It renders millions of homes cheerless, miserable; rends them asunder, destroys them. It shapes destiny with iciest purpose. It shrivels character, mercilessly, triumphantly.

S-I-N! It is the largest, most expansive, most progressive word in all languages. From tiny birth to bitter, stinging maturity, it develops oftimes with speed astounding, frightening. Apparently, sometimes, its frightful work is done almost before it is begun.

In its swift, dire course it banishes noble emotions; puts to death pure thoughts; extinguishes the finest aspirations; obliterates the divine impress in man; uproots faith, and at last, slyly, artfully shoves death into the place of eternal life—“sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

S-I-N! It is the busiest, most enterprising word uttered by human tongue. It rests not night nor day. At daybreak and at nightfall it is at its tasks. It erects every jail in the country, town, or city. It builds all the police stations the world over, and appoints the policemen. It constructs every state prison in every land. It sets up every scaffold for its takers of human life. It plans every murder, every suicide. It devises schemes for a thousand kinds of theft, and for the countless methods of cheating the innocent and unwary. It entraps and misleads silly women; multiplies deserted children and careless parents, while the defrauded and overworked poor increase.

S-I-N! It is a word freighted, laden, with enormous responsibility. It is the prime mover of every law evolved for the restriction and limitation of men’s rights, civilly, socially, politically, officially. It is the cause of the overwhelming sum-total of bribery to-day, bribery of lawyers, legislators, judges, committees, commissioners, councils. It is the author of the tremendous amount of defaulting published far and wide; of the frightful lack of official integrity so much lamented by true citizens; of the startling, unreasonable striving after extreme wealth; for the closing the doors of opportunity to thousands of men of little fortune, by the greedy, ravenous, prosperous few.

It is godfather to all the frauds perpetrated in executing building contracts, and for the shameless deception practised in many of the arts, industries, and manufactures of the world, alike in quality of material and quality of workmanship.

One conspicuous field for rich returns in its pernicious line is the trusts, those combinations of corporations so promising of swollen dividends for the very few, of robbery for the hundreds.

S-I-N! It stands for all that is spurious, unreal, adulterated in food, drink, and clothing and consequently for half the diseases which torment, waste, destroy, most of the race. On its gigantic shoulders rest the causes of centuries of unspeakable misery, of generations of blighted lives, of sad deaths uncountable. Oftentimes sin renders the parent heedless of solemn duty to his child, steals away all fine sense of responsibility for him. It causes unwise, worldly-minded sons and daughters to evade that beautiful obligation of smoothing the pathway for aged parents, deserving or undeserving. It permits selfish kindred, the world around, to toss aside all burden for unfortunate ones allied to them by ties of blood.

S-I-N attained the summit of its maldoing

, the crest of its crafty scheming, the zenith of wily striving, when it accomplished that saddest, most far-reaching, most remarkable, most remedial of all deaths — the death of Christ on Calvary, the death of the Creator of all things, of the Redeemer of this hopelessly imprisoned world, the Life-bearer to the human race.

The Great Threefold Message

By Roderick S. Owen

By Roderick S. Owen

III. The Message of Revelation 14 Would Heal Babylon, or Bring God’s People to Unity.

In the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah the king, he sent Seraiah as a messenger to Babylon, and Jeremiah the prophet sent by his hand a message which he was to read to all the people of Babylon. This we find recorded in Jeremiah, chapters 50, 51. Here God describes its fallen condition and foretells its certain destruction, giving them a sign. They were to hear a rumor, and then, in one year, was to come another rumor and the destruction.

This prophecy was remarkably fulfilled; for as Cyrus marched toward Babylon, the first rumor came. At the Gyndes he lost one of the sacred horses in that stream and in a rage he declared that he would make it so that a maiden could cross it. Then he encamped with his entire army and set them to work digging channels on either side thus dividing and subdividing until he accomplished his purpose. This occupied so much time that he did not continue his march toward Babylon until the next spring, a year later. Then came the second rumor and the destruction.

In Jer. 51: 8, 9, God says, “We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed.” “Babylon is suddenly fallen.” In Isa. 21: 4-9, God shows that Babylon would be engaged in feasting and revelry, in the midst of which a great alarm would come and then the cry, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Ancient Babylon is used in the Scripture as a type of the mystical Babylon of the last days. And as there were two warnings to that city, so there will be two to this Babylon, followed by her destruction. The first of these was given in the great advent movement in 1844 which went to all the world and gave the first alarm of Christ’s coming. But as we see by Rev. 18: 1-7, this message is to be repeated with great power, followed by the falling of the plagues.

As ancient Babylon was engaged in feasting and revelry, so it is to-day. Eating, drinking, feasting, and entertainments are the rage everywhere. And many of the churches, in order to serve the worldly spirit which prevails, have even provided the church building with kitchen and dining-rooms. The voice of feasting and revelry is heard in her, and this will continue until the voice of doom shall startle and make afraid the sinners in Zion, and cause fearfulness to surprise the hypocrite. As God would have healed ancient Babylon (Isa. 33: 14), so He would heal the Babylon of to-day.

The Healing Remedy.

In the healing message of Rev. 14: 6-12, an angel is seen flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth. The Gospel is God’s remedy for sin and all its terrible results. God’s remedy must prove effectual, for God would not mock sin-sick souls by offering them a remedy which would not meet their needs.

Through the prophet Isaiah He says, “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.” “Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live.” Isa. 55: 1, 3. And of Jesus, Isaiah prophetically said: “The Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Isa. 61: 1. And indeed when Jesus came into the world to fulfil this mission, what a sad condition prevailed in the Jewish nation. The leaders had lost sight of the significance of the typical work, and to a great extent the temple service was a round of meaningless forms. The place which God had designed to be the light of the world was almost a body of darkness, and so darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Strife and confusion prevailed everywhere. Men’s hearts were controlled by jealousy and ambition. Bewildered and confused, the masses were sweeping on to ruin.

Outside of the Jewish nation the world was given over to the darkness of paganism or the seductive light of Greek civilization and science falsely so called. Into this world of darkness, turmoil, and discord, Jesus sent a few followers with the everlasting Gospel. Gathering converts from all classes and conditions of society, from the high and the low, the rich and the poor, from the priest and the people, from all the different cults and sects, these advocates of the Gospel established churches everywhere and the description given of these companies of believers stands forth as a positive evidence of the power of the Gospel to break down middle walls of partition, and to destroy caste, to root out envy and jealousy, and to cement in one harmonious whole all who would believe. For we read that “the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” “Neither was there any among them that lacked.” And the apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Colosse, thanks God for the love which they had toward all saints. And he also remembers with thanksgiving to God the work of faith and labor of love on the part of the church at Thessalonica.

What the Gospel did in the days of the apostle, it will do and is doing to-day for all who fully accept it. And this Gospel will develop a Philadelphia church which will wait, filled with the spirit of brotherly love, for the coming of Jesus. The Gospel is always a saving message, and from Abel’s day to our own, it has been the power of God unto salvation to every one who would believe.

The Unfolding of His Plan.

But there have been new features introduced in the preaching of the Gospel from time to time as God’s plan has developed, so the Gospel has been unfolding. Truth is always truth. But each new feature introduced was in a special sense a present truth and a special test of loyalty to the generation to whom it was first preached. These new features when once brought out may in time cease to be special tests, but they will forever remain facts, and will be believed by succeeding loyal generations.

In Noah’s day the proclamation of the coming Flood was then present testing truth. The Flood remains a fact, but has ceased to be a testing-point truth.

In the days of John the Baptist the first advent of the Messiah near was the testing present truth. Apollos accepted it and began to proclaim it with power. A number of years later he was still doing it, but he had not kept abreast with the development of God’s plan. So Aquila and Priscilla took him and introduced him in the way of the Lord more fully, and then he began to proclaim with power, not a Messiah soon to come, but one which had already come and had fulfilled the Scriptures. A crucified and risen Saviour had become the present testing truth.

But some of these believers in a Saviour who had triumphed over death and the grave, saw Him ascend to heaven in glory, and the angels said to them, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” And so altho His glorious ascension still remains a fact, yet with the true believer His second advent in power and majesty has been the event toward which they have looked with longing eyes and joyful anticipation. But before He comes in the clouds of heaven, He must receive His kingdom; for He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return; . . . and when he was returned, having received his kingdom,” he called his servants to reckon with them, etc. Luke 19: 12-15.

The revelator, immediately following the third angel’s message, saw Him coming upon a white cloud with a kingly crown upon His head and seated upon the throne of His glory. Rev. 14: 14; Matt. 25: 31. And so the everlasting Gospel of the great message is not only the Gospel of a crucified and risen Saviour, as preached by Peter, Paul, and Apollos, but must contain the announcement that Christ is about to take His kingdom and to return to this earth; and these special features are present testing truth for this generation. This constitutes the

Gospel of the kingdom, which the Saviour said would be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then the end would come. Matt. 24: 14.

So when this threefold message shall be preached in all the world to all nations as a witness, then Jesus will come to receive His loyal subjects and to give them an abundant entrance into His everlasting kingdom.

[The next article in this series is upon the injunction of this Gospel message, “Fear God.”]

“No Man Can Serve Two Masters”

By Ellen G. White

By Mrs. E. G. White

SINGLENESS of purpose, wholehearted devotion to God, is the condition pointed out by the Saviour’s words. Let the purpose be sincere and unwavering to discern the truth and to obey it at whatever cost, and you will receive divine enlightenment. Real piety begins when all compromise with sin is at an end. Then the language of the heart will be that of the apostle Paul, “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” “I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ.”

But when the eye is blinded by the love of self, there is only darkness. “If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” It was this fearful darkness that wrapped the Jews in stubborn unbelief, making it impossible for them to appreciate the character and the mission of Him who came to save them from their sins.

Yielding to temptation begins in permitting the mind to waver, to be inconstant to our trust in God. If we do not choose to give ourselves fully to God, then we are in darkness. When we make any reserve, we are leaving open a door through which Satan can enter to lead us astray by His temptations. He knows that if he can obscure our vision, so that the eye of faith can not see God, there will be no barrier against sin.

The prevalence of a sinful desire shows the delusion of the soul. Every indulgence of that desire strengthens the soul’s aversion to God. In following the path of Satan’s choosing we are encompassed by the shadows of evil, and every step leads into deeper darkness, and increases the blindness of the heart.

Man’s Condemnation.

No soul is ever finally deserted of God, and given up to his own ways, so long as there is any hope of his salvation. “Man turns from God, not God from him.” Our heavenly Father follows us with appeals and warnings and assurances of compassion, until further opportunities and privileges would be wholly in vain. The responsibility rests with the sinner. By resisting the Spirit of God to-day, he prepares the way for a second resistance of light when it comes with mightier power. Thus he passes on from one stage of resistance to another, until at last the light will fail to impress, and he will cease to respond in any measure to the Spirit of God. Then even “the light that is in thee” has become darkness. The very truth we do know has become so perverted as to increase the blindness of the soul.

Christ does not say that any man will not or shall not serve two masters, but that he can not. The interests of God and the interests of mammon have no union or sympathy. They divide just where the consecration of the Christian warns him to forbear, to deny himself, to stop, just where the worldling steps over the line to indulge his selfish propensities. On the one side is the self-denying follower of Christ; on the other is the self-indulgent world-lover, pandering to fashion, engaging in frivolity, and pampering himself in forbidden pleasure. On that side of the life the Christian can not go.

No Neutral Ground.

No one can occupy a neutral position; there is no middle class who neither love God nor serve the enemy of righteousness. Christ is to live in His human agents, and work through their faculties, and act through their capabilities. Their will must be submitted to His will; they must act with His Spirit. Then it is no more they that live, but Christ that lives in them. He who does not give himself wholly to God, is under the control of another power, listening to another voice, whose suggestions are of an entirely different character. Half and half service places the human agent on the side of the enemy, as a successful ally of the hosts of darkness. When men who claim to be soldiers of Christ engage with the confederacy of Satan, and help along his side, they prove themselves enemies of Christ. They betray sacred trusts. They form a link between Satan and the true soldiers, so that through these agencies the enemy is constantly working to steal away the hearts of Christ’s soldiers.

The strongest bulwark of vice in our world is not the iniquitous life of the abandoned sinner or the degraded outcast; it is that life which otherwise appears virtuous, honorable, noble, but in which one sin is fostered, one vice indulged. To the soul who is struggling in secret against some giant temptation, trembling upon the very verge of the precipice, such an example is one of the most powerful enticements to sin. He who, endowed with high conceptions of life, and truth, and honor, does yet wilfully transgress one precept of God’s holy law, has perverted his noble gifts into a lure to sin. Genius, talent, sympathy, even generous and kindly deeds, may become decoys of Satan to entice other souls over the precipice of ruin for this life and the life to come. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

Make It Simple.

By I. S. Spencer

MANY of our treatises on the subject of faith (having a kind of Germanizing about them — a kind of crazy philosophizing), are so filled up with explanations and labored justifications, and attempted analogies, that they have more tendency to awaken doubt than call forth faith. They have just the effect to make the reader believe that the authors are not themselves quite certain of the thing, since they take so much pains to demonstrate, explain, and justify it. They appear to go back of God’s word, and invite other people to go along with them, as if God’s word needed the props of their philosophy

. This is no aid to faith. Let us “take God at His word.” No philosophy can prop up a divine promise, or build a scaffold to reach it.—Some of our theologians, having a kind of German baptism, are more likely to make infidels than to make Christians. The same thing may be said of a great deal of modern religious literature — filled with philosophy, “falsely so called.” —I. S. Spencer, D.D.

“There Is Sorrow on the Sea.”

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Jer. 49:23; Rev. 21:1.

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle.

WHERE the billows of old ocean Foam and dash with ceaseless roar, ’Neath the solemn skies of midnight, ’Stood I on the wave-girt shore. “Tell me, O ye tossing billows— Tell your secrets unto me; Earth is filled with sin and sorrow,— Is there sorrow on the sea?”

“Know ye not some wave-bound islet ’Neath a fair and cloudless sky, Where the flowers of love may blossom, Never, nevermore to die? Know ye not some far-off garden, Some green dale or verdant spot, Where the mourner’s tear ne’er falleth, And death’s angel cometh not?”

Thus I spoke; and quick the answer Came in saddest tones to me: *“There is sorrow on the earthland, There is sorrow on the sea.”*

Then the sky grew dark with tempest, And the sudden lightning sped, And the great ship neared the harbor Where the black waves reared their head. And the while I gazed in terror At the storm-king’s awful glee, Sank the white ship; while I murmured, “There is sorrow on the sea.”

Then again there rose before me In the visions of the night, Such a scene of awful carnage That my spirit failed with fright; For a battle raged in fury, And the vessels dripped with gore, And the cannon boomed a requiem, As they sank, to rise no more.

Once again, the sad, sad message Came in thrilling tones to me: *“There is sorrow on the earthland, There is sorrow on the sea.”*

O, our God will come to judgment, And His coming is at hand, When the vials of His fury Shall be poured on sea and land. And the earth shall shake and tremble, ’Neath the earthquake’s mighty tread, And the cities of the nations Lie above their buried dead.

Yes, there’s sorrow on the earthland, And there’s sorrow on the sea; But sometime the troubled ocean Shall forever cease to be. And sometime this mighty graveyard Shall yield up its precious trust, And with all the saints now sleeping In the earth’s unnumbered dust, They shall hear the “last, loud trumpet,” While the hosts of heaven sing, Shout the tidings of His coming— The great coming of the King!

Continue reading: The Great Day of the Lord