The Great Background of Prophecy — There Need Be No Mistake
A KING is coming — not some petty tribal chieftain, nor yet the ruler of earth's mightiest nation, but the King of kings, and Lord of lords. The return of King Jesus is more than a theological doctrine; it is a tremendous fact.
Three hundred eighty times in the New Testament alone is the solemn event declared. One verse in each twenty-five proclaims it. Entire chapters are devoted to heralding the promises and the signs that are to precede His advent, while scattered from Genesis to Revelation are isolated texts enforcing the same mighty truth.
God has given, in these scriptures, a faithful picture of the generation called "the last"—the one that will witness His glorious appearing. He has painted the picture in vivid colors, that every eye may see it. The lines are very clear, for the painting is the Lord's. The picture has its high lights and its shades,—high lights of the gospel's conquering march, shades of sin, falling with awful weight upon a world intoxicated with iniquity.
THE SIGNBOARDS
A CLUSTER of signs which are the precursors of His coming stand out boldly in the foreground. Twenty-five centuries of fulfilled prophecy form the background. With one voice, they proclaim the coming
The swift recurring tidal waves, tornadoes, and other calamities announce it.
of our King. God has written it in heaven above and in earth beneath, announcing in advance certain unmistakable characteristics that will identify the last generation.
Unlimited in their scope, and unparalleled in their intensity, these characteristics will be found in every clime, and recognized in every walk of life. There are world signs, conspicuous and indisputable because of their universality and their intensity. Doubtless each one has been witnessed in certain localities, in a minor degree, at some time. But the time prophesied must come, when they will meet in the superlative degree, and in a single generation.
The generation now living is witnessing the incontrovertible signs which identify it as the last. This generation is marked. The living God has placed His signboards in every walk of life,—in the industrial world, the financial world, the social world, the physical world, the political world, the religious world, the scientific world, and in every other sphere of human activity, that all men everywhere may read and heed these portents of our times.
THE LABORER AND THE CAPITALIST
LET us notice, as briefly as is compatible with clearness, a few of these undeniable signs of our times. In James 5: 1-9, we are informed that in "the last days," men will "heap" treasures together; that the laborers will be oppressed, and defrauded of their wages; and that the industrial conflicts will grow more and more bitter.
The unprecedented fortunes being amassed by corporations and syndicates to an extent unparalleled in history, declare that we have reached the time foretold. How graphically present conditions fit the prophetic picture! The colossal fortunes, the wasteful luxuries, the starvation wages, the tremendous struggle of the force of capital against the force of labor, the harvest of lawlessness, springing from seeds of greed, injustice, and extortion — and all in "the last days."
The New York World of May 1, 1916, informs us that there were "one million eight hundred thousand workers on strike or lockout throughout the United States to-day." And this same restless spirit is rife in every nation.
Mr. Frank E. Walsh, chairman of the Federal Commission of Industrial Relations, says: "We have found that in this country of the greatest resources and education, one third of the toilers are receiving remuneration
which barely brings them above the poverty line. Two thirds are in abject poverty. There are more than nine million women workers in this country, more than one half of whom are receiving less than six dollars per week."
The irrepressible conflict is growing more sinister. Beneath the extravagant displays and dissipations of opulence may be distinctly heard the mutterings and threatenings of the social volcano that is destined to erupt as surely as effect follows cause.
PREPAREDNESS CRAZE FORETOLD
ANOTHER remarkable prophecy is found in Joel 3: 9-14. Here is recorded a call to "prepare war," to "wake up" the nations, to forge mighty slaughter weapons — and all this to take place when "the day of the Lord is near," when the great harvest (at the end of the world, Matt. 13: 39) is "ripe."
"Prepare war!" cried the prophet. "We must have preparedness," reply the modern statesmen.
"Wake up!" says the prophecy. "Let the nations awake and arm themselves," respond the helmsmen of our ships of state.
"Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears," continues the prophet. "We must build great arsenals and mammoth munitions factories; we must increase our army and navy; we must equip our fighting forces with the mightiest engines of destruction that can be devised," respond our modern preparedness advocates.
Can we not see the tremendous significance of it all? God has been writing an advance history of the world, and now the events foretold are in process of fulfillment. Inspiration is confirmed. God's word is true, and among the events of the immediate future predicted with fearful accuracy is the approaching advent of our King.
"MANY SHALL RUN TO AND FRO"
TURN again to Dan. 12: 4, and observe that in "the time of the end," "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." The tidal wave of ingenuity and progress that has swept over the world in the past ten decades, came not by chance. It is here in response to the call of God to bring into service every conceivable agency for the speedy finishing of His work on the earth.
In unmistakable language God has predicted it. "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Why?—For "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24: 14. How complete is the preparation for the world-wide work! Steel rails span every continent. The printing press is flooding the world with literature in every language. The universal postal systems spread the glad tidings. Ocean greyhounds of marvelous size and speed throng every sea, with gospel messengers aboard. Motor cycle and automobile shorten the work of the missionary, while the telephone and the telegraph have drawn the ends of the earth together. The whole world has been made accessible. Ample provision has been made for the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom just before the end. Can we not see what these things signify?
TREMENDOUS AWAKENING
THE glad news of the Master's speedy return, foretold in Matt. 24: 14, is sweeping to earth's remotest bounds. A consecrated company of more than five thousand men and women are devoting their entire time and energy to proclaiming this one mighty fact to every nation,—that the final period is about to be placed upon the last page of earth's sin-stained history. And with the sound of this united army is mingled the sound of a multitude of other voices that here and there help to swell the warning cry. The divine plan is working out. In 1800 there were only632
four missionary societies in the world. To-day there are 995, with a total force of 22,058 foreign missionaries and 88,542 native workers. On May 7, 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. May 8, 1816, marked the founding of the American Bible Society. To-day these two societies alone have 16,000 auxiliary and affiliated societies. The Bible is printed at the rate of 20,000,000 copies a year, in over five hundred distinct forms of human speech. Such are the preparations for this world-wide work.
"God has given, in these scriptures, a faithful picture of the generation called 'the last.' The negative of current history has produced the picture corresponding to the prophetic description."
FEATURES OF OUR TIME
LISTEN also to the prophetic description of twenty additional yet prominent characteristics of "the last days," as recorded in 2 Tim. 3: 1-5: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those
that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
What a startling arraignment of the conditions of the twentieth century! The feverish haste of the twentieth century has produced an unquenchable thirst for amusement. The death grip that pleasure has upon this generation is forcibly illustrated by the fact that over $350,000,000 annually passes from the pockets of the habitués of moving picture shows in this country alone into the tills of the promoters. Men have eagerly seized upon this pleasure craze, and as a cold business proposition, they spend as high as one million dollars in the production of a single film.
It is the love of money that is corrupting the age. It corrupts the politicians. It blinds the judges. It blinds the legislators. Even professed ministers of the gospel have caught the mania. How unlike Him whom they profess to follow, who had not where to lay His head!
The nations are learning by bitter experience the truthfulness of the statement that this is the day of the truce-breakers. These conditions, prevalent to a degree unknown to the centuries of the past, point the finger at the present and cry out, "These are the last days."
WILD CARNIVAL OF CRIME
WE stand upon the threshold of troublous times. We are in the midst of a wild carnival of crime, and the reign of lawlessness is encouraged by the strangling of justice. We are living in the time foretold by the Master in Luke 21: 25-27, when "there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
The prophecies of the last days are in process of fulfillment. The negative of current history has produced the picture corresponding to the prophetic description.
The ever multiplying pests,—insects, parasites, and diseases,—that destroy the crops, declare it. (Joel 1: 4; 2: 1.)
The swift recurring tidal waves, tornadoes, and other calamities announce it.
The old earth herself trembles it forth; for the steady increase of continent-shaking earthquakes is an unmistakable herald of the end. (Luke 21: 25; Matt. 24: 7.) The ravages of "free love," "trial marriages," "affinities," and the alarming disintegration of the home so characteristic of the century, point it out. (Matt. 24: 37-39, compared with Gen. 6: 2.)
Truth could not be more direct, exact, conclusive. This generation is the last. O soul, prepare to meet thy King!
L. E. F.
PEACE OR WAR—WHICH?
Are We Approaching a Warless Age?
Will Peace Finally Prevail?
THE most surprising shock that ever came to the human race was the war that broke out in Europe in July, 1914. In the World's Work for June, 1912, Dr. David Starr Jordan had said: "War is dying. It dies because it cannot pay its way. It dies because, through the spread of education and the demands of commerce, no part of the civilized world can afford to engage in a life-and-death struggle with any other part." "In our belief, whatever the apparent provocation of noisy speech or hectoring diplomacy, we shall never see another war among the great nations of Europe. There is too much at stake." Dr. Jordan's language is representative of the general teaching previous to the furious war that involves so much of the world.
As early as 1816, a peace society was organized in Great Britain; and the American Peace Society was organized in this country in 1828.
In the International Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849, Victor Hugo gave expression to his dream of "the United States of Europe" and "the United States of America" joining hands to guide the world in the general upward path of peace and progress.
The thought that groups of men could secure international treaties and international combinations that would insure permanent peace in this world has been one of the leading themes of the last half century.
There are some eight hundred peace organizations throughout the world, if we take into account the subsidiary and allied branches that are working with the national and international peace societies that have been formed.
There are twenty-eight journals devoted exclusively to the promulgation of peace.
Representatives of over one hundred thirty peace organizations met in Brussels in 1910 and organized "the Union of International Associations."
PEACE PROPHECIES SHATTERED
"THE American School Peace League" and "the Inter-Collegiate Peace Association" are organizations that are working to have the abhorrence of war taught in all the schools, from the lower grades on through to the university. The School Peace League of Great Britain and Ireland has a similar object before it.
In 1910 Mr. Carnegie established the "Endowment for International Peace," with a gift of $10,000,000 in securities, the market value of which at the time was $11,500,000.
"The World Peace Foundation" was established in 1913, with a gift of $50,000 annually from Mr. Edward Ginn.
In the early part of 1914, Mr. Carnegie established "the Church Peace Union," with a gift of $2,000,000.
The Federation of Churches has a Peace Department. Socialism and the labor organizations affirmed, in strongest language, that they would never permit another war.
Such was the powerful array of peace organizations and peace propaganda when the great war tornado burst upon the world in 1914, and in less than a week had gripped practically all of Europe, a large part of Asia, and many dependencies scattered throughout the world.
The world was suddenly disillusioned. It was aroused from its dream of peace. Every theory that had ever been advanced in regard to this "warless age" was utterly shattered.25
FORETOLD 2,600 YEARS AGO
ONE of Israel's ancient prophets had said: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isa. 2: 2-4. You will ask, Does not this text say that the people shall "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," and that "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more"?
Observe that this is what God foretold that the people would be saying. "Many people shall go and say" these things, but the Lord had not authorized them to speak thus. People were even quoting this text as evidence that we would have a "warless age"; but any one who will note the text carefully, will see that it was telling what "many people shall go and say," but not what the Lord had authorized them to say. What a striking fulfillment of an ancient prophecy has been this tremendous peace delusion that has been sweeping over the world!
The prophet Micah (chapter 4) presents a prophecy very similar to the one quoted from the second chapter of Isaiah, only Micah says that "many nations shall come, and say" these things concerning peace. Thus do we find that God would emphasize the fact that "the people" and "the nations" "in the last days" shall be talking peace. But are they warranted in such teaching?
WE have a very clear picture in the Bible of what God Himself teaches on this question of war conditions: "Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great." Joel 3: 9-13, A. R. V.
This is Jehovah's word to the nations. It is the exact opposite of what the "many people" are saying. They are to beat their "plowshares into swords" and their "pruning hooks into spears." Even "the weak" among them are to say, "I am strong."
Another Scripture prophecy reads: "And the nations were wroth, and Thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth." Rev. 11: 18, A. R. V. This scripture shows plainly that when the Judgment day is imminent, then "the nations" are "wroth."
And again we have this word: "I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon." Rev. 16: 13-16.
Thus do we see that the Scriptures very clearly teach that terrible wars, under the wrathful influence of demons, will be characteristic of the last days. And at the same time, how plain are the scriptures which show that the great mass of the people will be saying that they are not going to have any more war, that they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and that nation shall not lift up the sword against nation!
GREATEST DELUSION
WHILE this last half century has been the great time of peace societies and of peace talk, yet all the theories have been based upon mere human civilization. Account has not been taken of the underlying facts of the wickedness and the grasping greed of the age, which must inevitably result in war. Instead of recognizing that the building of Dreadnoughts, submarines, and guns of terrible and terrifying destructiveness, is an unmistakable token of the war spirit of the age, they had taught that these great facilities for destruction were really "peacemakers."
The war storm that broke in 1914, however, has only temporarily dispelled the delusion; for men are talking now, stronger than ever, that we must have an international combination which will forever end war. And more than ever, the many people and the many nations are saying: "Never again!" "This destructive war of Europe must never be repeated." The foremost men of the earth do not seem to observe the fearful inconsistency that they manifest; for some of the leaders in the international movements to enforce peace throughout the world are also the leaders in the "preparedness" program. The United States, as well as the rest of the world, is gripped with the "preparedness" idea. Preparedness for war is the great theme before this nation. It subordinates almost everything else. And now, more vehemently than ever before, is taught the doctrine that we must arm in the most tremendous and the most awful fashion in order to insure permanent peace.
A greater delusion than has ever swept over this world will be the peace movement that grows out of and follows the European cataclysm of war; for, speaking of these very times in which we are living, the apostle Paul says: "When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape."
The most frightful war that all the ages have ever witnessed lies just ahead of us. It will be something still more dreadful than what we have seen in this volcano and tempest of wrathful strife that has devastated Europe. The great Armageddon that the prophecy already quoted from Revelation shows will engage the kings of the whole world is yet to break upon us. It will come as a "sudden destruction," as foretold by Paul; and it will come when the mass of humanity, even more intently than previous to July, 1914, will be saying, "Peace and safety."
EK YOO, OF BATAVIA, JAVA By the power of God, he gave up opium at the age of sixty.
With New Hebrides Cannibals
By C. H. Parker
Experiences with Men Who Eat Men
—First White Man's Visit
C. H. PARKER
THE Big Nambus dwell in the north-western part of Malekula, and they are the fiercest, the most cannibalistic, and the most numerous of all the tribes on the island. All the other tribes fear them.
For a long time, we have wanted to get in touch with them. The way was finally opened by our meeting the head chief's brother at a bush village, where he attended our service. He seemed affected, and asked us to visit the Big Nambus.
In the Leading Cannibal Village
After we had visited a few of his people at the water's edge, and held service with them twice, he made arrangements for me to visit their head village, which is situated inland, on the top of a mountain over two thousand feet high.
The morning arrived, and I landed at seven o'clock. The head chief's brother, Kambi, was waiting for me. A few of his men acted as a bodyguard, while he led the way. It was a steep and heavy climb of ten miles, which we accomplished in three hours. On the way, we passed numbers of bushmen coming down. Kambi would explain to them that I was the missionary. I wondered why he stopped and watched them out of sight at each meeting. He finally told me he was afraid they would shoot me as soon as our backs were turned.
On the Feasting Ground
Reaching the town, which was surrounded by a high reed fence, with numerous openings, just large enough to squeeze through, they led me to their heathen dancing and feasting ground. Here was gathered a large company, mostly old men. A stone was placed for me to sit down on. They then came and felt me over, under shirt sleeves and trousers legs. They found no meat, but a heart beating with love for them.
The head chief, Nikabert, who has fifty wives, greeted me warmly, and we talked in broken English, and a few words I had picked up. They wanted a service, which I held. They retired to a safe distance, as they were suspicious. When we prayed, they sat down with their backs to me, and covered their faces. They took great interest in the picture roll, and in my medicine bag.
"Come and Make School for Us"
After I had treated a large number of their sick, seen some of their houses, and shaken hands with some of their women, the head chief and his brother led me out to a beautiful site, overlooking the great bosom of mother ocean and its coast line for miles, and then inland over the tops of mountains, plateaus, plains, and gullies. "This," they said, "we will give you, if you will only come and make school for us. You can have as much ground as you like, for it is ours; and we will build the church building." We felt that it was God's hand opening the door, and His voice saying, "Come in; I have need of you here among this people."
Atchin.
God's Medicine for Opium
By F. A. Detamore
F. A. DETAMORE
BROTHER EK YOO, of Batavia, Java, is about sixty years old. He has had the opium habit nearly all his life. He put away his second wife before baptism, as his first wife was still living. He thought he had the victory over the opium habit also; but shortly after baptism, he lapsed back into his old habit. Earnestly we labored with him, and sincerely did he try to stop this vile habit, but he continued to fail.
At a revival meeting, Brother Ek Yoo took his stand. In the midst of the conflict, he said, "O Brother Detamore, give me medicine." I pointed to heaven, and said, "God has medicine for you." His faith was strengthened, and he believed, from that hour, that victory was his; and he has not touched the poison since, though that was nearly a year ago. Now he rejoices to tell others of what God has done for him.
MISSION IN JAVA
Singapore.
Severely Burned for Christ
By Roy Mershon
ROY MERSHON
FOR some time, we had been studying with a young Mohammedan. He would come to and go from the mission house by stealth, so as not to be seen by other Mohammedans. We studied with him several months, and had begun to feel that no impression was being made on his mind, when one day he asked if he might tell his friends about his new religion. I told him to do so, but to be careful that no one hurt him, or reported him to his relatives. All went well for a time, but finally his relatives found out.
They searched his room for books and papers, but he kept all these things under lock and key. When he told me this, I said perhaps that would end the trouble; but I was wrong.
A young man came to his room and professed to want to turn from Mohammedanism to Christianity. Our young man was fearful at first, and would not commit himself. Finally, after two or three weeks, he ventured to tell of his new-found religion. Quick as a flash, his so-called friend caught him, and held a lighted cigar to his throat. He managed to break loose, but not before he had received a large, ugly hole in his neck, just at the side of the jugular vein.
He did not come to see me for several weeks, and I was growing anxious, when he came one night, and told me his story. He said he was ashamed to come while he had the great hole in his neck. We advised him to leave the place until his relatives should forget about the affair, and he went. In his last letter, he said he was reading his Bible and praying every day. It makes27us feel that God is indeed going with us, when we see these people stand up for Bible truth even under persecution.
Sandakan, Borneo.
They Have a Curious Past
By K. M. ADAMS
K. M. ADAMS
IN the central part of the island of Sumatra live a people with a curious past — the Battaks. They have the reputation of being a degraded race of cannibals. They are not like the tribes on either side of them, in that they are not Mohammedans. Many of them have become Protestants, and are trying to live the life of the Lord Jesus.
When our training school was opened in Singapore, the news filtered into Battakland. One morning, to our surprise, four young Battaks presented themselves, and asked to enter school. They had come to learn more of the belief of the Christians, of which they had heard a little, so that they might know of the salvation of Christ, and go back and tell their countrymen. Questioning them, we learned that two had walked six days, and the other two four days, before reaching a boat to bring them to the school.
There are twelve of these young men now preparing themselves to become Christian workers. A wonderful change has taken place in their appearance and actions since they entered school. How good it is to hear them stand up before their classes and preach a sermon, presenting good thoughts and sound arguments! It seems another example of hiding spiritual truths from the wise and prudent, and revealing them to babes.
The Lord loves the people of Battakland, and longs to see them saved in His kingdom. We know that He has sent these young men to us that they may be prepared for His service.
