p. 3 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 25. (6/22/1915)

Signs of the Times

Jun 22, 1915

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 22, 1915

An Unprecedented Awakening

By Lee S. Wheeler

Why Such Marvelous Developments in These Times?—What Is Their Significance?—The Early Days of Christianity Showed No Greater Workings

By LEE S. WHEELER

God’s work in the earth is progressive; and only by the light of His prophetic word and the unfolding of events can His great purposes become clear to our limited understanding. Jesus, in the noted prophecy of His second coming, said that immediately after the great tribulation, the sun would be darkened, the stars fall from heaven, and a rapid succession of events in the earth prepare the way for His glorious appearing. Matt. 24: 29.

TO REACH ALL THE WORLD

Among the evidences of the approaching end of all things, clearly observable in the earth, and mentioned by the Saviour, was the preaching of the gospel in all the world for a witness to all nations. Verse 14.

Joel also predicted the signs in the heavens before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and said that God would then pour out His Spirit upon all flesh—that is, all nations. Joel 2: 28-32. It appears from this that a great awakening, attended by unusual manifestations of the Holy Spirit, was to mark the proclamation of the gospel at this period.

DATE OF “TIME OF THE END”

In the prophecies of Daniel and John, the epoch of the great tribulation is given as 1,260 prophetic days, or years, which corresponds with the age of papal repression and persecution between A. D. 538, when the pope attained ecclesiastical supremacy in the west, and the overthrow of that supremacy by the wars of France in 1798,—a period of exactly 1,260 years. See Dan. 7: 25; Rev. 12: 6, 14.

During that time, the ascendancy of the church over the states of Europe was such as to impose an enthralling censorship over all the affairs of education and advancement, and effectually retard the spread of the gospel and the evangelization of the nations. The expiration of this prophetic period was to introduce a new era, called in the prophecy “the time of the end” (Dan. 12: 4), and marked by great and decisive changes in both the political and the religious world.

Pointing to the revolutionary events in government, the prophecy said, “They shall take away his dominion [that of the papacy], to consume and to destroy it unto the end” (Dan. 7: 26); and speaking of the wonderful movements for the dissemination of truth, it was predicted, “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12: 4.

That the great political upheavals which appeared before and about the year 1798, and paved the way for religious emancipation, and for the diffusion of enlightenment over Europe, America, Asia, and Africa, were providentially related to those higher spiritual influences which then began to move upon the hearts of men and turn their thoughts toward a perishing world and the Judgment day, we cannot doubt.

Here dates speak volumes. Methodist missions began in 1786; the Baptist Missionary Society was founded in 1792; the London Missionary Society in 1795; the Church Missionary Society in 1799; the London Religious Tract Society in 1799; the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804; the first American missionary society in 1810; the American Bible Society in 1816.

NEVER BEFORE SUCH A CLUSTER

“No such cluster of mighty missionary agencies has ever arisen in so short a period. Those closing years of the eighteenth century formed a watershed, from which the river of life began to flow forth to the heathen world.”—John Telford, B. A., in “Man’s Partnership with Divine Providence,” page 223.

According to reports of the late Edinburgh Missionary Conference, there are now a thousand missionary organizations in Christendom, nearly all the outgrowth of the past century. In 1800, the Scriptures had been translated into sixty-six languages; now they are read in more than five hundred. Then the annual contribution to missions was about one hundred thousand dollars; now it exceeds thirty millions. One hundred years ago, there was not one Christian hospital or trained Christian physician in all the great non-Christian world; now there are over seven hundred. There was at that

time not a single Protestant Christian in Japan, only one in China, and but few in India, the continent of Africa, the Mohammedan countries, and the island fields. Over these vast regions darkness reigned supreme.

Morrison, the apostle to China, after seven years of labor, baptized his first native convert in 1814, the gospel seed taking root the same year that his New Testament was issued in the Chinese tongue.

AN OPEN BIBLE ON HIS CAPSTAN

Japan did not awaken from its seclusion and open its long barred doors to the world until 1853, when Commodore Perry entered the gates of the Sunrise Kingdom, and laying an open Bible upon the capstan of his flagship, sent the message of the hundredth psalm over the waters of Yedo’s bay to a nation waiting in its chrysalis state for God’s time of transformation.

It was as late as 1887 when the first seven men were baptized in Korea. The ceremony had to be performed in secret; but now there are three hundred thousand Christians in the little Hermit Kingdom, an average of one convert for every hour since the missionaries entered the country. So vigorous has been the growth of the gospel among this noble and peaceful people, that John R. Mott, after his recent tour of the country, exclaimed, “I came away from Korea believing that if Christianity were to die out in America and Europe, it exists with such vitality in Korea that it would ultimately spread from there to our shores and reëstablish itself.”

Since the days of Livingstone, Africa has been stretching out her hands to God; and now Uganda, the land of missionary romance, is yielding eight thousand converts a year. India’s artistic, cultivated, and conservative paganism, so long unresponsive to the Christian appeal, is now breaking down everywhere, and whole communities are embracing the gospel.

NOTHING LIKE IT BEFORE

There is something wonderfully impressive about this great wave of divine power and grace now moving over the world and agitating the nations; especially so because it was scheduled to arrive at this hour in human history in preparation for the end.

“Not even in the early days of Christianity,” says Mr. Mott, of the Student Volunteer Movement, “were such sudden and striking results achieved as have accompanied the efforts of missions in Asia and Africa during the last decade. . . . Unquestionably it is a time of rising spiritual tide. God seems to have done a hundred years’ work within the last five years. The Christians now living in Western lands should have a realizing sense that this unparalleled world situation affords not only the greatest opportunity the church has ever known, but also, so far as they are concerned, their best and their only opportunity.”

“The work which centuries might have done, Must crowd the hours of setting sun.”

Perversion of the Mental Faculties

By J. W. Lowe

MAN does not sin because he was created with faculties that were of themselves bad, but because he has allowed his faculties to become perverted. Perversion of the mental faculties is responsible for all the sin that has ever been committed.

God created man with exactly the right number of mental faculties, and they were created in a perfectly normal and balanced condition—not one of them in the least predominating over another. Had these faculties always remained in this condition, man would ever have been loyal to his Creator, and would have continued to walk in the path of righteousness.

Man was created perfect, and with only the strictest moral tendencies; but he was not created beyond the possibility of going astray. He was created an intelligent, responsible being, with his will and his power of choice at his own disposal. He was created to the end of developing moral strength that would enable him to continue to render willing obedience to his Maker, which alone can be acceptable to God.

All the faculties of the brain are required to constitute a perfect whole. There are none too many faculties, and none too few. And their harmonious workings, exercised only in right channels of thought, will keep the individual in the pursuit of duty. But their perversion and inharmonious workings have led man into many forbidden paths—have led him to transgress the precepts of God, who created him, and to take a course that is positively antagonistic to his own personal welfare. J. W. LOWE.

A Disaster Through Disobedience

By Allen Moon

God’s Word as Opposed to Heathen Customs—Obedience Should Be Definite and Painstaking

By ALLEN MOON

In the days of Eli and Samuel, the ark of God had fallen into the hands of the Philistines in battle; but God allowed so much trouble to come upon the Philistines in consequence, that they decided to send the ark back to the land of Israel. For this purpose they secured a new cart drawn by milch cows. The men of Israel took the ark and put it in the house of Abinadab, where it remained during the reign of Saul, Israel’s first king, and until David came to the throne.

After David was established in the kingdom, he proposed to bring the ark to Jerusalem. He consulted with the officers of his army and other leaders in his kingdom, and then called together a great company of people, and together they went to the house of Abinadab to bring the ark to a place that David had prepared for it in Jerusalem.

The ark was placed upon an oxcart, and they started on the way. As the road was rough, the cart was jolted, and Uzzah put out his hand to steady the ark to keep it from falling, and he was slain by the Lord for touching the ark. “And David was afraid of the Lord that day. . . . So David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom.” 2 Sam. 6: 9, 10.

WHY WAS HE SLAIN?

The ark remained for a considerable length of time in the house of Obed-edom, and the blessing of God rested upon all he had. David began to inquire why God would not permit him to bring the ark to its place, and he learned that the reason why Uzzah was slain, and he had been made afraid of the Lord, was because he had not followed the plan that God Himself had given.

So David searched the word of God, and there he learned that none but the Levites could touch the ark, and only the sons of Kohath might carry it. It was acceptable to God for the heathen Philistines to send the ark home on a cart, for that was the best they knew. But David, the king of Israel, had the word of God at hand, from which he might have learned God’s plan. He also had the priests and the Levites all about him, from whom he might have inquired. He failed, and was punished because he followed the course of the heathen.

David finally called the priests and the Levites, and they went in order to the house of Obed-edom, and brought up the ark with great joy to Jerusalem, and put it in its place.

Is it any less displeasing to God now for people to try to serve Him after the manner of the heathen? The word of God, and only the Word, can be a guide to acceptable service.

“Our Earthly House of This Tabernacle”

By Eliza H. Morton

The human body is mentioned under various symbols in the Scriptures. Paul appropriately compares it to a tabernacle, or tent, indicative of no permanent dwelling place. Although we may have the Spirit of Christ in our hearts; yet when “at home in the body,” we are absent from the personal, visible presence of our Lord. 2 Cor. 5: 6. “At home in the body” means this mortal state.

UNCLOTHED

When “our earthly house of this tabernacle,” the body, is dissolved in death, the spirit of life, the breath, is unclothed, or naked. That is, it is separated from its constructive materials, and deprived of consciousness and consequent remembrance of God. Ps. 146: 3, 4; Eccl. 9: 5; Ps. 6: 5. It returns to God who gave it—not as a conscious entity, but as a life principle subject to His control. Eccl. 12: 7. It will be reunited with the body in the resurrection. Ps. 104: 29, 30.

CLOTHED UPON

The just in the resurrection will be “clothed upon” with a “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” That is, their earthly bodies, mortality, will be swallowed up in life. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Cor. 15: 52.

When the wicked are raised, they will not be “clothed upon,” but will stand naked before their God. 2 Cor. 5: 3. To them “is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” Jude 13.

THIS LIFE

The Christian groans in this life, longing, not for death, but for the second appearing of Christ, when he shall be forever absent from his corruptible body, and present with his Lord. Paul in Phil. 1: 20 again expresses the same thought concerning himself. He says in substance that he had no choice between life and death, for with him either would be for the glory of God; but he preferred to be translated, which if Christ should come at once, would be his happy portion. This is the desire of every Christian.

“Hope whispers in my ear, calm and serene, The world to come and here hath but a grave between. So be it, I answer; but that is a lonesome place. Rather alive would I behold my Saviour’s face.”

ELIZA H. MORTON.

The Law and the Gospel

By James White

It has been the object of the father of falsehood and error, in order to confuse the glorious plan of salvation in the minds of the people, to make it appear that the law of the Father and the gospel of the Son are in contrast. The Jews were incited by the spirit of error to reject Jesus and His gospel while they clung to the law, their interpretations of which were fearfully warped by their traditions. And many Christians, led by the same spirit of error, reject the law of the Father, while they profess with great tenacity to cling to the cross and the gospel.— James White.

Friendship of Unrighteous Mammon

By Ellen G. White

Would Not Work, Ashamed to Beg—His Shrewd Policy—The Case Was Familiar—A Lesson Worth Heeding

By MRS. E. G. WHITE

CHRIST’S coming was at a time of intense worldliness. Men were subordinating the eternal to the temporal, the claims of the future to the affairs of the present. They were mistaking phantoms for realities, and realities for phantoms. Satan presented before them the things of this life as all-attractive and all-absorbing, and they gave heed to his temptations.

From their pursuit of the things of time, Christ called them to make provision for eternity.

“There was a certain rich man,” He said, “which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.” Luke 16: 1. The rich man had left all his possessions in the hands of this servant; but the servant was unfaithful, and the master was convinced that he was being systematically robbed. He determined to retain him no longer in his service, and he called for an investigation of his accounts. “How is it,” he said, “that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.” Verse 2.

SOUGHT TO AVOID WORKING OR BEGGING

With the prospect of discharge before him, the steward saw three paths open to his choice. He must labor, beg, or starve. And he said within himself: “What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.” Verses 3-7.

This unfaithful servant made others sharers with him in his dishonesty. He defrauded his master to advantage them, and by accepting this advantage they placed themselves under obligation to receive him as a friend into their homes. “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely.” Verse 8. The worldly man praised the sharpness of the man who had defrauded him. But the rich man’s commendation was not the commendation of God.

IT WAS NOT CHRIST WHO COMMENDED

Christ did not commend the unjust steward, but He made use of a well-known occurrence to illustrate the lesson He desired to teach. “Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness,” He said, “that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.” Verse 9, R. V.

The parable was spoken directly to the disciples. To them first the leaven of truth was imparted, and through them it was to reach others.

And the Saviour was speaking also to the Pharisees. He did not relinquish the hope that they would perceive the force of His words. Many had been deeply convicted, and as they should hear the truth under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, not a few would become believers in Christ.

THE CASE NOT IMAGINARY

The Pharisees had tried to bring Christ into disrepute by accusing Him of mingling with publicans and sinners. Now He turns the rebuke on these accusers. The scene known to have taken place among the publicans, He holds up before the Pharisees, both as representing their course of action, and as showing the only way in which they can redeem their errors.

BETRAYED A SACRED TRUST

To the unfaithful steward his lord’s goods had been intrusted for benevolent purposes; but he had used them for himself. So with Israel. God had chosen the seed of Abraham. With a high arm He had delivered them from bondage in Egypt. He had made them the depositaries of sacred truth for the blessing of the world. He had intrusted to them the living oracles, that they might communicate the light to others. But His stewards had used these gifts to enrich and exalt themselves.

The servant in the parable had made no provision for the future. The goods intrusted to him for the benefit of others he had used for himself; but he had thought only of the present. When the stewardship should be taken from him, he would have nothing to call his own. But his master’s goods were still in his hands, and he determined to use them so as to secure himself against future want. To accomplish this he must work on a new plan. Instead of gathering for himself, he must impart to others. Thus he might secure friends, who, when he should be cast out, would receive him. So with the Pharisees. The stewardship was soon to be taken from them, and they were called upon to provide for the future. Only by seeking the good of others could they benefit themselves. Only by imparting God’s gifts in the present life, could they provide for eternity.

“WISER THAN THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT”

After relating the parable, Christ said, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” Verse 8. That is, worldly-wise men display more wisdom and earnestness in serving themselves than do the professed children of God in their service to Him. So it was in Christ’s day. So it is now. Look at the life of many who claim to be Christians. The Lord has endowed them with capabilities, and power, and influence; He has intrusted them with money, that they may be coworkers with Him in the great redemption. All His gifts are to be used in blessing humanity, in relieving the suffering and the needy. We are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the widow and the fatherless, to minister to the distressed and downtrodden.

THEY MINISTERED NO KINDNESS

Alas, how many are appropriating to themselves the gifts of God! How many are adding house to house and land to land! How many are spending their money for pleasure, for the gratification of appetite, for extravagant houses, furniture, and dress! Their fellow beings are left to misery and crime, to disease and death. Multitudes are perishing without one pitying look, one word or deed of sympathy.

Those who spend their lives in laying up worldly treasure, show less wisdom, less thought and care for their eternal well-being, than did the unjust steward for his earthly support. Less wise than the children of this world in their generation are these professed children of the light. These are they of whom the prophet declared, in his vision of the great Judgment day, “A man shall cast the idols of his silver, and the idols of his gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isa. 2: 20, 21, margin.

PARTNERSHIP WITH HEAVEN

“Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness,” Christ says, “that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.” Luke 16: 9, R. V. God and Christ and angels are all ministering to the afflicted, the suffering, and the sinful. Give yourself to God for this work, use His gifts for this purpose, and you enter into partnership with heavenly beings. Your heart will throb in sympathy with theirs. You will be assimilated to them in character. To you these dwellers in the eternal tabernacles will not be strangers. When earthly things shall have passed away, the watchers at heaven’s gates will bid you welcome.

The lesson of this parable is for all. Every one will be held responsible for the grace given him through Christ. Life is too solemn to be absorbed in temporal or earthly matters. The Lord desires that we shall communicate to others that which the eternal and unseen communicates to us.

MOMENTOUS OPPORTUNITIES

Every year millions upon millions of human souls are passing into eternity unwarned and unsaved. From hour to hour in our varied life, opportunities to reach and save souls are opened to us. These opportunities are continually coming and going. God desires us to make the most of them. Days, weeks, and months are passing; we have one day, one week, one month less in which to do our work. A few more years at the longest, and the voice which we cannot refuse to answer will be heard, saying, “Give an account of thy stewardship.”

Better than all the friendship of the world is the friendship of Christ’s redeemed. Better than a title to the noblest palace on earth is a title to the mansions our Lord has gone to prepare. And better than all the words of earthly praise, will be the Saviour’s words to His faithful servants, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matt. 25: 34.

STILL AN OPPORTUNITY

To those who have squandered His goods, Christ still gives opportunity to secure lasting riches. He says: “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.” “Charge them that are rich in this world, . . . that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” Luke 6: 38; 12: 33; 1 Tim. 6: 17-19.

Then let your property go beforehand to heaven. Lay up your treasure beside the throne of God. Make sure your title to the unsearchable riches of Christ. “Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.” Luke 16: 9, R. V.

“THE PATH I HAD FEARED TO SEE”

By David Paulson

By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

A SCORE of years ago, a young woman went as a missionary to the Kongo region in the heart of Africa. After years of faithful service, she was about to return home for a vacation. Her baggage had been put on board the steamer, when she was suddenly stricken with Kongo fever, and died in a few hours. When her trunk was opened, there was found on the inside cover of her Bible, drawn in most beautiful characters, in different colored inks, this poem:

I said, “Let me walk in the field.” He said, “No; walk in the town.” I said, “There are no flowers there.” He said, “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said: “But the skies are black. There is nothing but noise and din.” And He wept as He sent me back. “There is more,” He said. “There is sin.”

I said, “But the air is thick, And fogs are veiling the sun.” He answered, “Yet souls are sick, And souls in the dark undone.”

I said, “I shall miss the light, And friends will miss me, they say.” He answered, “Choose to-night If I am to miss you, or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given. He said: “Is it hard to decide? It will not seem so hard in heaven To have followed the steps of your Guide.”

Then into His hand went mine; And into my heart came He; And I walk in a light divine, The path I had feared to see. — George Macdonald.

It was said of her that “the natives of the Kongo River simply adored her; her consecration, her purity of life, and her personal love for them, made her like a queen among them.”

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