WHEN the proof of a fact rests upon a single isolated item of evidence, that item must be a very strong one if it produces conviction. But when we have line upon line of evidence to prove any fact or event, doubt is smothered beneath the array of proofs, and the proven fact stands out in the strong light of day.
The soul-rejoicing doctrine of the second coming of Christ is not left for its proofs to isolated bits of evidence which might keep the mind in doubt; but great lines of evidence, each one strong and clear in itself, unite with each other in testifying to the truth of the approaching climax of Christian hope. The diagram presented herewith calls attention to the leading lines of prophecy that all center with one common accord in the generation that is to see the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. It must be taken for granted that the reader has been made more or less familiar with these lines of prophecy, and hence only brief mention of them can be made here.
The second chapter of Daniel is the history of a dream that the king of Babylon had, which dream made a very deep impression on his mind. The prophet Daniel was brought before the king to make known to him what the dream was and also to interpret it. The interpretation of the dream showed that the king had been permitted by the divine Father in heaven to have an outline view of all the leading nations that were to arise on the earth clear down to the very close of time; and following these kingdoms of earth, the God of heaven is to establish His kingdom of eternity. The prophecy shows that the universal empire of Babylon that then existed would be followed by three universal kingdoms that would bear rule over all the world, and the fourth one of these kingdoms was to be divided, and never again was the earth to be under the dominion of one government until the heavenly kingdom is established.
The seventh chapter of Daniel is the record of a vision that was given to the prophet, in which he was permitted to have a view of the history of the world from his time on to the end. In this vision he saw the same four universal empires that had been viewed by the king of Babylon, and to the prophet was explained more in detail the breaking up of the fourth empire. He was shown that it would be divided into ten lesser kingdoms, and that these kingdoms, with certain changes that he mentions, would remain till the Lord of glory would break them all in pieces at the establishing of His kingdom; the beginning of the reign of God's heavenly kingdom being at the second coming of Christ. (See issue of May 8.)
The eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel present another view that the prophet had of the future history of the world. The kingdom of Babylon, the first of the four universal empires, was destined to be overthrown in Daniel's day, and so in this vision only the three remaining universal kingdoms are brought to view, the principal burden of this line of prophecy being the sanctuary and its cleansing. The cleansing of the sanctuary covers a period of the solemn scenes of the great day of the atonement and judgment. And thus this line of prophecy, also, as stated by the angel in giving the interpretation of the vision to the prophet, "belongeth to the appointed time of the end."
The eleventh chapter of Daniel commences with the time in the history of Persia, when it is said, "There shall stand up yet three kings" in that empire; then the prophecy brings us down thru the history of the world in the terms of literal language until we face, as expressed in the beginning of the twelfth chapter, the time when Michael, who is Christ, stands up for the deliverance of His people. And having been permitted to view all these scenes of earth's history, thousands of years before many of them took place, the prophet is told to "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end." And at that "time of the end" he is told that "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
Matthew, chapter twenty-four, gives the account of the questions that were asked the Master as to what should be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world. In reply to these questions, He emphasizes the importance of the prophecy of Daniel by referring us to its study if we would understand the signs that He gives as the evidence of the approaching end. The Lord tells of signs that shall be seen in the heavens and in the earth; signs in the social, the political, and the religious world. And we have only to look at the facts to find that these signs have ranged themselves alongside of the outlines of prophecy presented by Daniel, and with united voice are bidding the world behold the generation of men that is to see the second coming of the Christ of God.
Revelation, chapters two and three, present in seven successive periods the outline of the spiritual tendencies of the true church until the end.
Revelation, chapters eight to eleven, gives some of the details of the kingdoms into which the fourth of the universal empires was divided, tells of the plague of Mohammedanism, and with the indescribably grand flights of prophecy, bears us up to the gates of eternity.
Revelation, chapter twelve, gives the sublime presentation of the church of Christ as it appeared after the victories that followed His resurrection. It takes us thru the persecutions of the Dark Ages, and lays the foundation for our understanding of the prophecy that gives the view of the culmination of apostasy which combines both Catholicism and degenerated Protestantism.
Revelation, chapter thirteen, describes the apostasy mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, and leads up to the great warning of divine wrath against this apostasy that is given in the fourteenth chapter. The apostasy here described is the master stroke of Satan's efforts to lead men into sin, and calls forth the fulfilment of the Lord's promise to come in person, attended by all the host of angels, to put an end eternally to the cruel, destructive, and despotic reign of sin.
Events in the Time of the End
The foregoing lines of prophecy stand out before the world in clear, unmistakable, indestructible outline. They are the imperishable monuments of divine foreknowledge that have such a deep foundation and such a lofty superstructure in the incontestable history of this world that no efforts of ungodly men, inspired by all the jealous rage of demons, have been able to batter them down. The outstretched index finger of each has been pointing for two thousand years into this generation in which we now live, and designating it as the "time of the end."
A perfect photograph of the condition of things in this world at the "time of the end," has been made by the prophets of old. Other prophecies, in addition to the lines of prophecy mentioned in the foregoing, add their evidence by describing in detail the7very things that men would be doing in the generation on which these prophecies are focused. They tell of the "increase of knowledge" among the men of this generation; they tell of the preparations for war that are to make the stoutest hearts tremble; they tell of the cry of "peace and safety" that will be heard right in the midst of the awful marshaling to arms; they tell of spiritism and other deceptions that arise to lead men into darkness; they tell of the "heaping together of riches," and of the consequent violence of "class strife and hatred;" they tell of the cold, backslidden state of the church right in the face of the difficulties and disasters of the time, and of the great threefold message of power that God will cause to shine out thru His word as a beacon of warning against all the evil, which message is also a star of hope to all who will accept of the Lord's salvation.
With the powerful array of evidence that the Lord has given by which we are to know when the last generation of men is reached, is it any wonder that the Master gave the word, "When ye see all these things, know ye that He is near, even at the doors"? Yes, praise the Lord, we may "know;" we need not speculate.
The Only Dangerous Enemy.
By J. S. Washburn
HAVE you never thought, when it has seemed as tho you were wronged by others, when spoken of unkindly, perhaps falsely, when accused maliciously of evil of which you were not guilty—that nothing that any other being, human or Satanic, can do or say can really hurt you? If you give way to impatience, if you speak unadvisedly, angrily, if you do evil yourself, if you even cherish revengeful thoughts—then it works a deep, a terrible injury to you spiritually, and we may truly say also physically; and, if persisted in, eternally.
But all the evil spirits of the lower regions may rise up in a confederacy to destroy you; they may find human agents who, filled with the spirit of hate, may seek to blacken your reputation; but none of these things can by any means harm you: even tho you should die, yet it is well with you.
Listen to these words, which will be a great blessing to us in the conflict before us: “And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.”
Slandered, vilified, abused, spit upon, mobbed, crucified, slain, dead and buried, the Son of God rose triumphant, victorious, a Conqueror, ascending from the lowest deeps to that place which is above every name that is named, in heaven or in earth, upon the white throne of victory and glory and eternal kingship. This was the experience of the Son of God.
However low we may be brought, however much may be done against us, this can not harm us. We can afford to be patient. We can afford to endure. We can afford to love and pity those who despitefully use us. No man, not even Satan and all his hellish army, can do you a grain of harm, can destroy a hair of your head. You only are the enemy that can do yourself lasting harm.
Jesus has said: “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all [yea, all powers, human or infernal]; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.”
Only believe, only be true, only be patient, only obey and you shall triumph, exult in victory, now and eternally, over the cruel power of the enemy. Fear not. Be of good cheer. He has overcome. We also, with Him, are unconquerable.
J. S. WASHBURN.
"Lord, If Thou Wilt."
By Max Hill
BEHOLD a man, deep-dyed in sin,
Corrupt without, impure within;
Before the Saviour, see, he stands
With helpless, outstretched, pleading hands.
Unclean! Unclean! The rabble flown,
The Saviour meets the man alone.
Low at His feet the leper falls
And for His healing mercy calls;
Tho stained with sin, rough-clad, and mean,
He prays in faith, "Lord, make me clean."
Not "If Thou canst," but full of guilt
He humbly pleads, "Lord, if Thou wilt."
The tender Lord, compassionate,
With sorrow for his low estate,
Puts forth His hand, with healing touch
That oft brings health and life to such
As on His loving mercy lean,
"I will," He says, "be thou made clean."
Straightway the leprosy departs,
And to his feet the leper starts,
Rejoicing in the strength new-found,
The life-blood flows with healing bound;
Afar the joyful news he tells
Of One in whom true healing dwells.
The Master's heart is touched to-day,
His healing hand will drive away
The blight of sin from every soul,
Restore His image, pure and whole,
If in his weakness, sin and guilt
The sinner cry, "Lord, if Thou wilt."
MAX HILL.
Because We May Live.
CHOOSE! for you may not die to-night. You may have to live for years with the memory and under the influence of this choice. The thought that death may come to-night is often used as a steadying suggestion, or an impelling reason for right choice. Death's imminence is a strong reason. But life's possibility is a stronger. For the next life and this life are one, and this life is molded by our choices.
"Choose, for thy choice
Is brief and yet endless."
—S. S. Times.
Haman’s Scaffolds Become Stepping-Stones
"God may allow Hamans to build scaffolds heaven-high for the execution of Mordecais, but after they are built He transforms them into stepping-stones to the King's palace."
Religion and Conscience
“A MAN’s religion can not be worth much when he has to consult his lawyer to know whether he is doing right.”
"Watch Your Step."
By Uthai V. Wilcox
IN the principal subway stations of New York there is a watchman, who, thruout the day, stands with megaphone in hand, and shouts to the rushing, surging crowds of humanity as they hurry to and from the cars—"Watch your step, Watch your step," lest they carelessly pass in the way of the swiftly moving trains, or stumble upon the stairs.
Even so in Life's journey, we must heed the warning voice, lest we take one misstep from the right path. Life is made up, not of great deeds or duties, but of little things; therefore it is essential if we would reach the one great goal to weigh every thought, to consider each motive, and guard each word. For as a pebble dropped into quiet waters creates a ripple that, ever widening, disturbs the whole surface, so our words and actions, tho seemingly of slight import, may set in motion elements wholly beyond our control. Likewise one misstep may change to eternal ruin the course of many lives.
It is the smiles and kindnesses and small obligations given habitually which win and preserve the heart and secure comfort; for the small things are often molds of our future.
Did you ever stop to observe the origin of the failure of mankind? They are examples of the effect of trifles—as they seemed when passing over them—for as truly as one blade of grass listlessly dipping over the bank of a stream may change the course of a river, just as certainly do little sins and seemingly insignificant errors change the destiny of a life. Of this be assured, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
"The tissue of the life to be
We weave with colors all our own;
And in the field of destiny,
We reap as we have sown."
It is the little sins that clog the wheels of life and cause them to jar in their running—that bring discord, sorrow, and discontent to darken the light of life.
It is not necessary to break the glasses of the telescope or coat them over with paint to prevent our seeing thru them. No, only breathe upon them, and the dew of our breath will shut out the eternal stars. It does not require great crimes and iniquities to hide us from the light of God's countenance; little faults and misdeeds will do it just as effectually.
Henry Ward Beecher once said, "Take a shield and cast a spear upon it, and it will leave one great dent; prick it over with a million needle darts, and it will take the polish off far more than the piercing of the spear. It is not the great sins which take the freshness from our consciences so much as the numberless petty faults which we are all the while committing and excusing.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of safety," therefore we must "watch our steps." Whether our path leads us thru the highlands by the flowery banks of crystal streams, or, perchance, in the darkness and misery of the valley of death, this one thing we may rely upon, that it is our privilege to know that "He leadeth me," so that "our footsteps slip not."
UTHAI V. WILCOX.
Effectual Prayer. ## What Are Its Conditions?
A CORRESPONDENT in Wisconsin writes us as follows:
"In our last issue [May 15], I read of 'A Strong Warrior Fallen. . . . Seven expert physicians were called in council over his case. . . . Many prayers were offered in his behalf.' Then I turned to Matt. 18:19: 'If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.' Matt. 21:22: 'And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' John 14:13, 14: 'And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that I will do. . . . If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.' John 15:16: 'Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He MAY give it you.' It will be noted that all of the promises are positive except that one in John 15:16—'He MAY give it you.'
"In the case of the 'Fallen Warrior,' was failure due to lack of 'belief'? What is 'belief'? Is it believing that God CAN do, or that He WILL do, something?"
"F. H. P."
These are fair questions and open up the whole subject of effectual prayer and its conditions. There is no question as to God's part; "no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly;" and His wisdom and His power are sufficient. The great question is, Do we meet the conditions?
Some of these conditions our correspondent has presented in the scriptures he has quoted—ask, believe, agreement in asking in His name. These in the last analysis may include all, but they are not all that are given in the Scriptures. Let us note them, and briefly consider:
1. Faith. "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matt. 21:22. Surely, the promise is positive. Faith is living, operative belief. It is always founded on God's word. God has said it; shall it not be performed? He has promised; will He not "make good"? "No word of God shall be void of power." Then ask, believing. But it is said, This has been done many times; God has been asked; the lips which asked have praised Him for hearing, but time has passed on, and the thing asked for has not materialized. What and where is the difficulty? It is not with God. Therefore we need—our faith needs—the guidance of His word that we may better understand what faith means.
2. "In His Name." "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything in My name, that will I do." The name of the Son of God stands for His character; the character includes the mind, the disposition, the motive. What was the character, disposition, mind, of Christ Jesus? "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." Phil. 2:5-7. The name of Jesus stands for the utter abjuration of self, the giving up of self, self-renunciation, the denial of self. Having the same mind is to renounce self. "If any man will come after Me," says Jesus, "let him deny himself." To ask in His name, therefore, is to ask wholly unselfishly. He who does not do this does not ask in the name of Jesus, and has no divine assurance that his prayer will be answered.
3. Abiding in Christ. "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John 15:7. This means life-union with Christ. It means feeding upon the life of His word. It means that His law is the highest law we know. It means that we will ask for nothing which is not in harmony with His word.
4. According to His Will. "And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us." 1 John 5:14. God "worketh all things after the counsel of His will." Eph. 1:11. It therefore follows that if we would have God work for us, we must be in harmony with His will. Our hearts must be open to the channel in which His blessings flow.
In some things we know His will; for He has revealed it in His word. In such case we may ask in all confidence. He has said, for instance, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification," your separation from sin, and your setting apart to His service. With all your heart you may pray, and know that it is His will. And when you pray, believe, for the blessing is yours.
In some things we do not know His will. A parent, a child, a brother, a sister, a friend, a strong soldier of God, may be sick unto death. It may seem to us that the loved one, the useful one, ought to live. And we plead for his life, his healing. Others think as we, and together we plead that God will spare. But the loved one dies. God saw the future which is veiled to us. He knew the temptations, the trials, the conflicts, the pitfalls which awaited the sleeping one, and has suffered him to fall. In God's infinite wisdom it is better. There is no one in greater danger than a strong successful soldier of God. He is a shining mark for the devil; and among his most potent weapons are the arrows of flattery, the deadly draughts of idolatry. God knows it, and in mercy to man and people, He permits His servant to sleep.
Paul was a mighty man of God, but possessed of an infirmity, for the removal of which he earnestly sought God three times; the Lord told Him that its removal was not His will, and Paul was left to seek greater grace. Paul's gift of healing was such that the sick were healed by handkerchiefs which he had touched; yet on another occasion he writes, "Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." Why?—It was evidently not God's will to then heal him. Sometimes the most blessed thing for the time being is to die. See Isa. 57:1; Rev. 14:13.
5. Obedience. "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." 1 John 3:22. This is implied in great part in the previous condition, harmony with God's will. To His will the lowest sinner may yield, and find forgiveness and acceptance. Obedience means the continuous yielding to His will, the doing of the things which God chooses, the constant yielding of our wills to His, that His will may be wrought in us.
"Our wills are ours; we know not how; Our wills are ours to make them Thine."
Obedience is the final crucial test of Christian faith and love. Let us not be deceived. We have no "faith," we do not "ask" "in His name," we do not "abide" in Him, we are not in harmony with His will, if we are not honestly, devotedly, willingly obedient to His word, His commandments. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself." "If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments." "Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you." "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."
With all God's conditions every soul can comply. If he fail, the fault is his own. But the wise Christian's prayer will never fail; for he will ever plead as did the Master, according to the will of God. Jesus prayed: "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." Mark 14:36. The desire, the prayer, of the human Jesus was for the removal of the cup, but above this was the doing of God's will; and that prayer was answered in the crucifixion and the glory which followed. Presumably the true prayers for the "strong warrior" were thus offered, and God let him fall asleep and rest till the morning dawns. Let us pray; but let us pray in faith, in self-renunciation, in accordance with His blessed will.
The Conditions of Sodom Over Again.
A news item states that Deaconess Lucy A. Hall, of the Methodist Deaconess Home, Chicago, has been placed in charge of a squad of six policemen for the purpose of making a campaign against vice in that city.
The report says that Deaconess Hall states that “The public would be horrified if it only knew the extent of the traffic in white girls who are sold, shipped, and bought like cattle. To-day I believe that there are more than twoscore of girls held prisoners in these resorts while their parents are hunting them high and low.”
In an article in this journal recently it was pointed out that in San Francisco the city officials had confessed that they had been guilty of a regular business traffic in fallen women. Houses of prostitution were not only permitted, but they were encouraged and promoted the same as a regular business enterprise of any kind. To promote and foster this business these execrable and degraded dealers in vice have their agents who are constantly on the lookout for young girls that can be either stolen or in some other way lured into their establishments of shame. Girls are taken there and immediately lost to the world. Their parents or guardians may search for them in vain; they can not be found. The trafficker in vice has been able so to corrupt the police and other guardians of the law that the9search for these unfortunate daughters is practically hopeless.
It will be noticed in the foregoing quotation from Deaconess Hall that she thinks there are forty of these stolen girls in the brothel resorts of Chicago. We may not know the number, but without doubt there are many. And what is going on in Chicago is being practised all over the civilized as well as the heathen world. It has been only a short time since the newspapers on this coast were exposing the work that was being practised of smuggling Chinese girls into our sea-port cities, ostensibly as the wives of some of the Chinese now living here, but in reality as recruits for the houses of ill-repute.
The knowledge of such occurrences will make the blood of any decent person fairly boil out of his veins. And the question may be asked, How can such things exist in Christian lands? And especially, How can they exist in such a thoroughly Christian land as this?
The fact that there are decent men and women who persistently fight the evil is all that keeps the whole social fabric from diving into a sink of corruption. But those who are familiar with the facts are aware that this social corruption is constantly on the increase. Men and women in vast armies have taken up vice as a business, and, like the purveyors of liquor, are doing all they can to extend it.
The Lord has told us in His word that the world, as we near the end of time, would be in the condition of vice and corruption as were the cities of the plain when He overthrew them in the time of Lot. We see these evil conditions lifting their brazen features everywhere; and the student of the prophetic portion of the word of God knows definitely just what it means. He understands that it is one among the many sure evidences that the course of this world’s sin is about run to its end, and that the coming of the Son of Man in person is soon to fulfil the long-time cherished hope of the followers of the Master.
And, as we see what the world is coming to, how can any one resist the earnest prayer that the day of the Master’s return may be hastened. T.
"It Is Time to Seek the Lord."
A SCIENTIST, after half a century of research and critical study of his own, also of every other scientist, confesses that "I do not know anything except a few laws of mathematics which to all present appearances seem to be true and on a changeless base. After having attempted to teach for years, I now and here drop the silly title 'professor,' as I no longer dare 'profess' to know anything." He declares, "I found out that I know nothing about why a stone falls to the ground. But this is easy compared to the job of finding why grass grows and how the bird floats in thin air without moving a wing. Anything but a bird would fall to the ground with great velocity."
So declares Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, of Lowe Observatory, in the San Francisco Examiner of May 10, 1907. He quotes Edison as saying, "Constant research during the next five hundred years may enable us to begin to surmise," and continues, "According to these statements it appears that everything that we now call rigid laws may be little by-laws. Our 'foundation' actually may be a delusion, and may have to be torn up by the discovery of some stupendous law."
And such indecision and uncertainty will ever come when men endeavor to find absolute perfection in a nature perverted by sin. Just as long as men assume that the cosmos grew to be thru certain laws, regardless of God, save hypothetically, yet leave out His revelation and the great fact of the entrance of sin, they will ever go astray; their laws will ever find exceptions and their conclusions will often be as aberrant as the orbit of a comet. God has revealed to us His unerring, infallible law of conduct for sinful man in the Decalogue, He has revealed to us salvation from this sinful, perverted condition thru the life which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And among the many admonitions which
He has given us, it would be well to take home to our hearts these words from His prophet, "Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth Me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah." Thru the knowing of God we may come to know some things in this life, and in the everlasting life to come all things that are worth knowing.
The Increase of Riches.
READ the prediction in James 5:1-7 (R.V.):
"Go to now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out; and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the Righteous One; He doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord."
And all this we see. Witness the piling up of vast fortunes in a few years, months, and days, such as the world never witnessed before, and this at the expense and toil of the many. The world is heaping up its riches. In a little over a half century ``Great Britain has almost trebled her wealth; France has nearly quadrupled hers, while our own country, since 1850, has multiplied in riches sevenfold.''
The wealth is also being gathered into the hands of a few. Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, of Brooklyn, N. Y., a prominent business man and writer on economic questions, some time ago estimated that $43,367,000,000, or seventy per cent. of the wealth of the country, is owned by 182,000 families, or by one and four-tenths per cent. of the population. Nine and two-tenths per cent. of the families own twelve per cent. of the wealth; while the rest of the families, eighty-nine and four-tenths per cent., own but eighteen per cent. of the total wealth. Mr. Shearman says:
`The United States of America are practically owned by less than 250,000 persons, constituting less than one in sixty of its adult male population. Within thirty years, the present methods of taxation being continued, the United States of America will be substantially owned by less than one in 500 of the male population.'' In a second article he contends that this is an under-estimate. (See the *Forum* of November, 1889, and January, 1891. Also Waldron's `Handbook on Currency and Wealth,'' Funk & Wagnalls.) Conditions have not improved since then.
Banquets are spread in palaces which cost from $100 to $300 per plate or guest, while in the very shadow of these palaces men and women in the image of God famish. Ten thousand dollars apiece is paid for pet dogs, for whose benefit a footman and maid are employed, while sweet babies die by the hundreds for want of proper food.
Children of God are slaughtered through hunger, famine, and cold, while those who profess His name live delicately. They multiply their costly and unused garments till they are moth-eaten, while many die of exposure. They heap up gold and silver and treasure till it rusts, corrodes, cankers, while thousands suffer in extremest poverty. They become wanton in pleasure and feasting, while myriads die from starvation. This is a sign of the last days—the two extremes—and that most marked in a republic!
Increase of Crime.
HERE are two prophecies, among many, of these days of ours:
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." 2 Tim. 3:13.
"For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness" "Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths." "In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment." Isa. 59:3, 7, 13-15.
The first prediction, it will be seen by reading the context, comes in close connection with a prophecy of the last days, which is considered in the first article in this paper. The second is composed of brief extracts from Isaiah 59, the whole chapter of which speaks of the crime and wickedness even among those who profess to be the Lord's children, and which will be especially manifest among them when Christ shall "put on the garments of vengeance," when "the Redeemer shall come to Zion," and will execute judgment "according to their deeds." Verses 17, 18, 20.
And we see it all now, even in this country, considered the best on the face of the earth. Untold and unnamed crimes of thirty years ago are now common. Reported embezzlements in 1906, $14,739,-653, over five millions more than in 1905. Bribery and betrayal of trust are notoriously prevalent even among public officials, and the mass of the people are becoming utterly indifferent. There were 9,350 murders reported by telegraph last year, 138 more than in 1905. Nineteen of these murderers were women. There was a large increase of "hold-up" murders. Murders in 1886 were 1,449. Suicides last year numbered 10,625; in 1899 the number was only 5,340. In England suicides, or self-murder, has increased 200 per cent. in fifty years. The increase of the population was fifty per cent. during the same period. Crime is multiform and rampant, and the newspapers are filled with its reports. It is a sign that the last pages of earth's history are being written.
The Papacy and Italy
The Papacy and Italy.—A cable despatch from Rome declares that the Vatican and the Quirinal—in other words the Papacy and the Italian Government—are coming together. Pope Pius X seems to be willing to concede more to the Italian Government than former popes, and this seems to please the Italian Government. This does not insure the Papacy temporal dominion, however, in the Italian States.
The Resurrection and Immortality.
It is a queer kind of logic which sets out to prove the necessity and facts of the resurrection of Christ, and then comforts the soul by declaring that death is immortality; yet that is about what the Christian Advocate of New York did in its Easter number. It starts out by saying that “of all celebrated days ‘Easter’ is the most deceptive and meaningless ‘if Christ be not risen from the dead,’” and further, that “if He rose not, what can Easter celebrate but a memory?” and that “immortality is an inspiration, a dream, an ‘if’ rather than ‘Yea and Amen’ if Christ rose not from the dead.” Then, after proving from the Scriptures that He did rise, it comforts its readers, “the bereaved, the sick, and the aged, and the strong men” who know that they must die, and tells them to “put away doubts and fears, count death, not a going to ‘sleep,’ but the becoming immortal.” Now, if death is a “becoming immortal,” of what force or necessity is the resurrection? Jesus Christ died and was laid in the tomb. Not His death do the Scriptures call His resurrection, but His rising again from the tomb days after He died; and the hope which the Bible sets before the children of God is not that they shall not sleep in death, but that Christ shall awaken them from their sleep in death when He comes. See 1 Thess. 4:13-17. By the assumption of inherent immortality man sets aside the glorious truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and makes it of no effect.
