Earlier text: NOT MAN BUT GODTHE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
By Francis M. Wilcox
EVERY period of this earth's history has witnessed a conflict between the stronger and weaker elements of society. In the conflict for life and existence, for social distinction and social power, men have fought and struggled from time immemorial; but it has been reserved to the last period of this earth's history to witness the grand culmination of this long, hard-fought battle. Hence to-day, as we look out upon the broad world, with its teeming multitudes, we see the same fierce conflict going forward; but there is this difference to-day from the past,—the lines are now being more sharply drawn, and the two parties to the conflict have become more clearly distinctive. Capital, as never before, is combining its forces to so control and manipulate the masses of the people as to draw from them a still greater contribution to its greed and avarice; and the laboring classes, so long ground down by the power of hoarded wealth, and goaded almost to madness by the spirit of the element in society which would work its way to success from their downfall, are seeking, by combines and party affiliations, to array themselves against their oppressors, and secure by united action the justice refused them in their individual capacities. And so the condition of the commercial world to-day, the struggle now going on between capital and labor, is set forth in the Word of God as a Sign of the Coming of the Day of the Lord.
The following record by the apostle James truly indicates the times that are upon us to-day: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you." He who views the picture presented by the apostle can not fail to see the truth and correct interpretation of the conditions existing in our world at the present time. Says the Arena, of Boston, in its issue for August, 1897: "Never in the history of our country were the people confronted with greater social problems than they are to-day. The strikes, boycotts, and general discontent of late years prove conclusively that there is much room for improvement in our social order. Every observant person must admit that the great concentration of wealth, whether it be of incorporations, trusts, or individuals, has reached a point dangerous to the future prosperity of the nation." The Arena then goes on to recite the fact that millionaires are becoming more numerous than ever before, while multitudes of the small property-holders are losing their small possessions and sinking into the multitude of those who possess nothing. According to Mr. Shearman, in the Forum for November, 1889, there are two estates in this country valued at $150,000,000 each, five estates worth $100,000,000 each, and more than sixty-three other estates worth from $20,000,000 to $70,000,000 each. Mr. Shearman says further that 25,000 persons out of the 70,000,000 of this country, own One-half of All the Wealth of the United States.
And not alone do we find the wealth centered in the few, but we find that in many instances these capitalists are not alone content with having amassed such large fortunes for their own pleasure and advantage, but seek by the formation of trusts and corporations to so control the prices of staple commodities that they may further enhance their ill-gotten gains. How many such combinations and trusts have been formed during the last few months! We find a "corner" in wheat, and soon a "corner" in potatoes, or some other staple commodity, and thus the affairs of a great nation are manipulated, and the hungry millions who are striving for bread made to pay tribute to the power of the money kings. The discontent of the laboring classes is manifested in the unions and combines found among them, as already mentioned, in the strikes which are inaugurated from time to time in connection with the different industries and enterprises. These conditions have engendered in the minds of the masses A Contempt for Authority and Government;
for, as many of these wealthy men are office-holders, in the minds of the masses the exercise of authority is looked upon as but an effort6of the office-holders to enrich themselves at the disadvantage of the poor man. These conditions are not alone present in this country, they are even more manifest among the nations of the Old World. We have Nihilism in Russia, Socialism in Germany, Communism in France, and the Anarchists in our own country and other governments, as organized forces. All these guilds of society are opposed to government as at present constituted, and they are but seeking an opportune moment to rise in rebellion against what they consider usurpation of their own rights and prerogatives. Says our Saviour, in Luke 21, in speaking of the times just preceding the coming of the Lord, There will be "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity." Never was there a time in our history when there was witnessed such distress of nations and state of perplexity as at the present time. Society to-day is sleeping, as it were, in the crater of a smoldering volcano. The low, muttering thunder indicates an eruption soon to take place. The cry of discontent, the moan of anguish, the demand for bread, which is now rising from the multitude of oppressed in every nation, is but The Precursor of the Revolution That Will Sooner or Later Take Place,
destroying the organization of society as now constituted, and opening avenues for the wildest extravagances. To some this may seem a gloomy view to take of the outlook, the idea of a narrow mind, a pessimistic notion. And yet it is the grim foreboding which must force itself on the mind of every thoughtful observer as he considers the elements that are now working among the nations of men. The pent-up fires of human passion, when once let loose, will know no limitations. But in this time, surrounded by these conditions, the child of God is thus exhorted by the apostle: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." The coming of the Lord indeed draweth nigh. May we possess our hearts in patience, unmoved by the elements of strife on every side, standing true to principle, and firm in the strength that the Lord will impart to His children. The day of deliverance draws on apace. Soon He who shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Soon the discord of this earth will give place to the peace of heaven. May the Lord preserve us unto that glad, eternal day.
FRANCIS M. WILCOX. CHARITY.
By Sir Thomas Browne
I HOLD not so narrow a conceit of this virtue as to conceive that to give alms is only to be charitable, or think a piece of liberality can comprehend the total of charity. Divinity hath wisely divided the act thereof into many branches, and hath taught us, in this narrow way, many paths unto goodness; as many ways as we may do good, so many ways we may be charitable. There are infirmities not only of body, but of soul and fortunes, which do require the merciful hand of our abilities. I can not contemn a man for ignorance, but behold him with as much pity as I do Lazarus. It is not greater charity to clothe his body than to apparel the nakedness of his soul.—Sir Thos. Brown. Mind the Master, Matter the Servant
By Eleanor Kirk
The regenerate man knows that mind is the supreme master; the matter, the obedient servant.—Eleanor Kirk. "There's muttering of a terrible storm.
Ha! ha! We of the slum
Are hardened so we dread no harm,
But hope that it will come.
We've starved so long in sweaters' dens,
Running a scant life-tread,
Crowded as if in slaughter-pens,
Ah, what have we to dread?
We've breathed in poison as from fens,
Thinking of bread, bread, bread. "With feverish haste, we toiled and sweat,
Nor caught a sound without.
We ran in grooves that men had set,
Our hearts destroyed by doubt.
We had one thought that drew in all—
The hunger thought, that said,
'What if the wage fail?' But the gall
That men drink of had fled;
Our nervous fingers toiled in thrall,
And shrank to bone for bread. "What care had we for light or air?
What care for cleanliness?
The lethargy of despair
Made all as emptiness.
The fierce machines that tore the thread
And knit it in the seams
With every click were crying, 'Bread;'
'Bread,' shrieked the whistles' screams,
And when we sat and drooped our head,
'Bread' filled our very dreams. "We missed each other's awful eyes,
Nor dared look in their depth.
They had a gaze more sore than sighs,—
Eyes that had never wept,
Dry as the pain that ate the heart,
And turned it into dust.
We felt no other impulse start
Than bade us snatch a crust,
And sneered at thought of love and art,
And ridiculed all trust. "But, ah, the muttering storm's like yeast!
We've wakened from our sleep.
The millionaire has made a feast
For things that yelp and creep.
We are not dogs! They call us beast,
And they would shoot us dead.
The long endurance hour has ceased
When pathos for us plead.
Now on, O murmuring storm, the fleeced
Cry now for blood or bread! "Down with the towered castle walls,
Down with the steepled dome,
Down with the damask curtained walls,
What use have we for home?
Smite down the statue from the niche,
Paint every picture red,
Turn every engine from the switch,
Care not for whollies dead.
We paupers rise now on the rich,
And cry for blood and bread. " 'Go to, ye rich men,' God has said,
'In misery ye shall weep.
You've smitten, they shall smite your head
With vengeance sore and deep.
Kings of earth ye've thought to be,
But when all justice fled,
Then yelhave reaped most bounteously
The seed ye've sown instead.
Go to, go to, for such as we
War now for blood and bread. "Hark! We have slain ten thousand soul;
The streets are running gore,
But look! The heaven's a severed scroll,
And passing split and tore.
And there's a sound of marching feet,
A mighty, mighty tread.
Ah, we have made an aimless boast;
The King comes that we dread!
And we who trusted not are lost,
And have but blood not bread. "Would we had called to God on high,
In our sore need below.
The Christ is there, who once did die
For every sinner's wo.
O, would He not have heard our plea,
If we had gone and plead,
And kept us from the misery
We've brought on men instead?
Then through love's long eternity
We'd had not blood but bread." THE SEAL AND MARK.
By G. E. Fifield
Important to Obey God—A Testing Message—The Seal of God—The Mark of the Beast.
"AND the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." Rev. 14:9, 10. When the Biblical and historical facts concerning the Sabbath and Sunday are presented, it would seem that every one who knows God and believes that He has not been trifling with humanity, would say at once, "We must change, and keep His Sabbath instead of the sun festival." Still many hesitate, and ask, "Is it important now to make a change, since the observance of Sunday has become established by custom and by law?" To such we would say, It is always important to obey God rather than man, even tho the whole power of custom and of law, as in the days of Nebuchadnezzar's image, may be back of the human decree and opposed to God. God is the truth, and truth is everlasting; but a lie, tho gray with time, is still only a lie. No human power can make it the truth. It can not abide forever, for "the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies." But what would be the strongest evidence possible that it is important to change and obey God's truth instead of the papal falsehood? If the Word of God makes plain that the Lord sends a special warning to the world on this very point, to prepare a people to meet the Saviour when He comes, would not this be such evidence? If, in addition to this, the Bible should make plain that this warning, when sent, would constitute an unfailing test, so that all who really obeyed it in the end would be saved, while all others would be lost, this surely would make the evidence complete. Need of a Testing Message.
Nor would it be a strange thing for God to send such a testing warning. The warning proclaimed by Noah was a test to the old world. It made no difference how many professed to be pious and to belong to the regular church. Only those who heeded that warning were saved in the ark. "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." The message of John the Baptist was just such a test. Only those who accepted his warning were prepared to receive the Lord. All others cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." To those who boasted of their orthodox piety he said: "Begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father." "Repent, and be baptized for the remission of your sins." The need of such a test is acknowledged to-day even by those who do not look for the Lord's soon coming. Read these words from Josiah Strong, D.D., in his book entitled "Our Country":— Too many church-members know little or nothing of self-surrender; hence the lack of spiritual power. At such times the church suffers for the want of some decisive test, the application of which will show men to themselves, and separate, with a good degree of accuracy, those who have been crucified with Christ from those who know not what it is to "take up the cross."—Pp. 207, 208.
God does not deal with us arbitrarily. He prepares us, of our own free will, to acquiesce in all He does, and to join heartily in the grand anthem of praise, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." How much more necessary, then, is such a test if Christ is soon to come to separate the chaff from the wheat! That such a testing message of warning will go to the world prior to Christ's second coming the Bible plainly declares, and of the result of this warning it speaks when it says, "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not." Mal. 3:18. This testing warning is brought to view in the scripture which heads this article, and in the verses which precede it. No Bible believer can possibly read thoughtfully the warnings contained in the sixth to the twelfth verses of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation without being impressed with their solemnity and importance. That these words apply to our own time is evident. They announce that the hour of God's judgment is come; and, as we have seen, this could only apply since the prophetic period expired in 1844. This threefold warning also immediately precedes the coming of the Son of man to reap the world's harvest; for this solemn scene is introduced in the fourteenth verse: "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle." After proclaiming the everlasting Gospel of the divine love, after declaring that the churches, as they lose this Gospel, are becoming Babylon and are fallen, then the solemn warning comes, "If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation." No more solemn words are found in all the Scriptures. The next view we get of those who heed this message presents them as triumphant before the throne: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." Rev. 15:2, 3. But the next time we see those who do not heed this warning is in the sixteenth chapter, where those who have the mark of the beast are presented as suffering the plagues of God's wrath. Could anything prove more positively and solemnly that this message of warning against the beast is an absolute test? Here this message is in the negative form—it is a protest. The seventh chapter presents the same message in a positive form: "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried7with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed; and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand." Rev. 7: 2-4. The first verses of the fourteenth chapter present this same company who are sealed with the seal of the living God just before the winds of His wrath are permitted to blow. They are described as having their Father's name written in their foreheads, and as singing that same glorious new song of triumph, having been redeemed from the earth, that is, translated at the Lord's coming. Here, then, are two seals, or marks, each in opposition to the other,—the seal of the living God, containing the Father's name, and the seal or Nothing is clearer than that a solemn sealing, marking, warning is to go to the whole world just prior to Christ's coming. Those who heed it will be sealed with the seal of the living God and fitted to meet the Saviour. Those who do not heed it will be marked as worshipers of the papal beast, and will drink of the wrath of God. No one will understand these to be literal marks. Rather, they are some assent of the mind, some act of the hand, by which the individual is marked before the world as a worshiper either of God or of the Papacy. What are these seals, or marks, thus contrasted? In past papers it has been made plain that the Sabbath is God's sign, or mark. "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you; . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31: 13. The words "sign," "seal," and "mark" are used synonymously in the Bible. Circumcision is said to be a sign, a seal, and a "token," or mark. So the Sabbath is God's sign, seal, or mark. A seal is connected with law, and with the name of the lawgiver. The seal of a law tells who the lawgiver is, and over what territory his authority extends. The Sabbath commandment is the seal of God's law. It, and it alone of all the commandments, tells who the Lawgiver is. He is the Creator, and He rules over the heavens and the earth and all His created works. Without this commandment it could not be told, from the law itself, who the lawgiver was. Many people who care nothing about God still do not openly swear, steal, lie, kill, or worship images. These commandments do not mark them. But whenever a person keeps the Sabbath conscientiously as he understands it, he does so to recognize God's authority, and to submit his soul to Him. This, therefore, is God's seal, mark, or sign. Satan, working through the papal beast, has taken God's seal out, and put a false sign, a false sabbath, in its place. He has torn the seal from God's law, and by his false sabbath set the Old Testament and the New into antagonism, thus breaking and disjointing the testimony. To us, then, God's command comes with power: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him." Isa. 8: 16, 17. As this great warning message goes to the world, setting these truths concerning the false and true Sabbath clearly before it, these two Sabbaths will constitute the two marks. Those who, amid scorn and persecution, repudiate the right of every human power to command the conscience, rely upon the everlasting Gospel of the divine Love alone to redeem their souls, and with mind and hand obey God and keep His Sabbath—these will be sealed with the seal of the living God in their forehead. The popular throng who imagine they can set up Christ's kingdom by force of human law instead of by the power of the divine Love, who permit a human authority to command their consciences, and who, in spite of the plain truth of its origin and nature, yield their hearts and their hands to keep the papal Sunday, will be marked with the mark of the papal beast. Does not the Papacy boast of Sunday as the mark of its authority and power? Listen:— Question—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
Answer—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday. . . . Had she not such power she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.—Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, and Doctrinal Catechism (Roman Catholic).
History also proves Sunday to be the mark of the papal beast power. The Papacy is a union of Church and State, but it was over Sunday laws that this union was first secured. Neander says, speaking of Sunday laws, "In this way the church received help from the State for the furtherance of her ends."—Vol. II, p. 301. It was this union that gave to the church the beast power to persecute. This power was first employed to enforce the observance of the pagan sun festival. Does not Sunday stand, therefore, as a mark of this power? Again: The Papacy, as a system of belief, is a union of paganism with Christianity. How was this union brought about?—It has been clearly shown, over Sunday and Sunday laws. Says Dean Stanley, "It [Sunday] was Constantine's mode of harmonizing the discordant religions [pagan and Christian] of his empire under one common institution."—History of Eastern Church, p. 291. This common institution, Sunday, therefore stands as the mark of this mongrel religion. But one does not need to resort to argument, either Biblical or historical. The best evidence that the sun is shining is that we see it shine. In all the civilized world to-day the professed church of Christ is more and more denying the love-power of the Gospel, and more and more going back to the medieval pago-papal doctrine of force, and in every instance she is doing this over Sunday and Sunday laws. Sunday stands, therefore, before the world as the mark of the beast-power, or force-power, just as God's Sabbath is the sign of His divine, indwelling, sanctifying love-power. The two messages are going to the world, and will continue to go with a louder and louder voice, ever rising, to the final climax: on the one hand, the message of divine love, the Sabbath its sign; on the other, the message of human force, seeking to set up the kingdom of Christ by political methods, and making Sunday the sign of its authority. Those who continue to stand true to God's Sabbath through the persecutions that are now beginning and that are just before us, will have their hearts purified and knit together in love. The infinite Word of Love will again, in them, be made flesh to walk among men. Thus the Sabbath will again, in spite of the centuries of apostasy, become a true sign of the indwelling love of God. Where the sign is, there the love will be. On the other hand, those who continue to stand by Sunday, in order to do so will have to stand by the authority which is back of it, and the persecuting methods by which it is maintained. As they do this, all love will be stolen out of their hearts, and the dragonic spirit of force and compulsion and persecution will take its place. Sunday will, therefore, in them, be truly, and in fact, the mark of the dragonic beast-power. As one by one men fully, finally commit themselves to one or the other of these issues, they will be either sealed for God and His kingdom, or marked for the beast and destruction. Reader, which shall it be?
G. E. FIFIELD. WHEN the outlook is not good, try the up-look.—Baptist Worker. "He is rich who owns God, but he is richest of all who owns nothing but God." When the heart is full of God, a little of the world will go a long way.—Rutherford. Live as tho Christ had died yesterday, risen to-day, and were coming to-morrow.—Luther. BURDEN BEARING.
By J. R. Miller, D.D.
THERE is no burden which, if we lift it cheerfully, and bear it with love in our heart, will not become a blessing to us. God means our tasks to be our helpers heavenward. To shrink from a duty, or to refuse to bend our shoulders to receive a load, is to decline a new opportunity for growth.—J. R. Miller, D.D. HELD FOR POSTAGE.
By E. L. Paulding
WE were in the office waiting for our mail the other evening when a man called my attention to a letter tacked up in front of us, beside the office window, with the notice, "Held for postage," written across the face of it. "How is that?" said he. "There is a two-cent stamp on it; why don't they send it on?" "O, that is a revenue tax stamp," said I; "the government will not send mail with a revenue stamp. If it did it would get the business of its departments badly mixed." The government furnishes a stamp the sale of which is intended to pay exclusively the expense incident to the carrying and delivery of the mails. It furnishes another, the sale of which is intended to pay the expenses incident to the carrying on of the war. If the postmaster should take a letter stamped with a revenue stamp, he would rob the Post-office Department of that amount of revenue. Some people seem to think the government unreasonable in this, but it is a plain business principle. So people take a precious parcel (Matt. 16:26), put upon it the working-day stamp, Sunday, for payment they owe the government of heaven for a Sabbath, then take the rest-day stamp, Sabbath—which was inscribed with the name of the Governor (Ex. 20:8-11), and intended to sanctify and bless them—and thus they degrade the Sabbath to a common working day, and expect the falsely-labeled parcel to go through into the kingdom of heaven. The Governor has said, "My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign [seal, Rom. 4:11] between Me and you throughout your generations [that is, to the close of time]; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you" (Ex. 31:13), "without which [sanctification, holiness] no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Let us put on God's seal (stamp), that it be not said of us, Held for postage. E. L. PAULDING.
Arroyo Grande, Cal. "NOW IS THE ACCEPTABLE TIME."
By James Russell Lowell
God bless the present! It is all!
It has been Future, and it shall be Past;
Awake and live! Thy strength recall,
And in one Trinity unite them fast. Action and Life—lo! Here the key
Of all on earth that seemeth dark and wrong;
Win this—and with it freely ye
May enter that bright realm for which ye long. Then all these bitter questionings
Shall with a full and blessed answer meet.
Past worlds, whereof the poet sings,
Shall be the earth beneath his snow-white feet.
—James Russell Lowell. The Body Reflects Thought
By Ursula N. Gestefeld
The body is the materialization of thought, and according to the quality of the thought will the quality of its expression be.—Ursula N. Gestefeld.