"A GLORIOUS high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, . . . because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters."
"Because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary."
The living water is a symbol of the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit was in the gift of the Son. This gift was made at the foundation of the world. Since then the river of spiritual life and power has been flowing from the throne. All who have been saved, have been healed by this living water; their souls have been transformed from a barren desert into a "watered garden, and a spring of water whose waters fail not." The good news of this ever-present, ever-flowing river, however it may be revealed, is the "everlasting Gospel." All this, we trust, has been made plain in past papers. We now wish to inquire how this Gospel has been proclaimed in past ages.
It is the popular conception of the present day that if the Gospel was known at all prior to the Incarnation, it was then known only in a very shadowy form, perhaps only as a prophecy of a future glory. Such teachers forget that all the preaching of Jesus was from the Old Testament Scriptures, and that He never professed to be preaching a new gospel, nor sought to organize a new church. Israel had forsaken God, the Fountain of living water, and had hewed them out a broken cistern, i. e., a leaky creed, which could hold no water. They had lost the spiritual truths of their religion, and so become formalists and self-righteous Pharisees. Jesus sought to lead them back to the Fountain. The very deepest truths He proclaimed had been proclaimed beforehand, by the Spirit of Christ, through the prophets. 1 Peter 1:11.
In speaking of these truths to Nicodemus, Jesus said, "Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things?" Paul, writing in the full sunlight of the Gospel, and comparing this age with the past age, says only, "For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them." In another place, when comparing the Jewish fathers with the people of the present age, he positively asserts that they "did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." We should expect, then, in the study of the Old Testament Scriptures, to find the same Gospel revealed as in the New Testament.
We have no complete record of God's spiritual instruction to the patriarchs. We do have, however, the promise to Adam that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. This was a revelation of the spiritual power then and there to triumph over sin, and so it was a glorious proclamation of the everlasting Gospel. We know, too, that to the mind of the ancients, untrammeled by the modern conception of natural law, the whole world around them was alive and instinct with God, and all the manifestations of the power of the natural water to transform the desert into verdure, and bloom, and fruitage, were to them glorious proclamations of the power of the spiritual water to glorify their lives. All paganism, in its nature worship, is so many differentiated forms of apostasy from this original revelation of spiritual truth.
When God delivered Israel from Egypt, He said to Pharaoh, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me." We may expect, then, that to that people, newly rescued from contamination with paganism in its worst form, God would reveal anew His everlasting Gospel.
We have already seen how beautifully this was done in the smitten rock, from which the waters gushed out to gladden the desert; and it is plainly declared that this was to them an image of spiritual things; for "they drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them; and that Rock was Christ."
But most completely and most gloriously of all this Gospel was revealed to them in the sanctuary. After the divine law had been spoken to them, and they had discovered, through sad experience, their inability, with the carnal heart, to keep this spiritual law, and just when they must have most felt their need of a rescuing power, "the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they may bring Me an offering; of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take My offering. . . . And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." It will be seen that they must bring this offering willingly if at all, and they must bring their heart with the offering. The outward offering was only a symbol of the offered heart. The words, "that I may dwell among them," are literally, "that I may dwell in the midst of them." God desired not only to show how He would dwell in the sanctuary which they were to build, but by dwelling in this building, He wished to show them how He would dwell in the heart that willingly offered itself to Him.
A little study will show clearly the absolute identity of the Old Testament doctrine of the sanctuary and the New Testament doctrine of sanctification. In fact, we never really understand the glorious theme of sanctification until we study it in the light of the sanctuary; for sanctification is God doing in us, and through us, and with us, just what He did in, and through, and with the sanctuary.
In the inner department of the sanctuary was the ark of the testament. This was a golden box, in which were the tables of stone on which God had written the divine law. Above this box was the mercy-seat. On either end of the mercy-seat were the cherubim, with outstretched wings overshadowing the ark. Above this mercy-seat, between the cherubim, was the Shekinah, the visible manifestation of the divine glory. Inwrought into the inner curtain of the sanctuary were multitudes of angel forms, as if they hovered around, waiting to do God's bidding. All this was an image of God's throne. The prayer of David was, "O Shepherd of Israel, . . . Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth." Says the Scripture, "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary."
In prophetic vision John saw this throne in heaven. He says, "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament." But Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." If His kingdom is within us, His throne is within us also. So this most holy place in the sanctuary not only represents the throne of God on high, the center of His government for the universe, but it was the throne of God in the center of the Jewish theocracy, and the Jewish theocracy was an image of His kingdom on earth. But God reigns in His church as king only by reigning thus in the individual hearts of the members of that church. So the most important thing of all is to see that this represents the throne God wishes to establish in every human soul. The whole of Christian experience is here. When God through Christ is enthroned in the heart as King of kings and Lord of lords, and our every prayer is, "Thy will, not mine be done," that soul is wholly His.
The meaning of the word "sanctuary" is, a sacred, a holy place, the dwelling-place of God. But God says, "I dwell in the high and holy5place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." But wherever God dwells is His sanctuary, or temple, and one place where God has His temple is in the human heart. All this Christ recognized when He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "But He spake of the temple of His body." The Jews ought to have understood Him, and they would have done so had they not lost the spiritual truth out of their own religion. There can be nothing plainer than Paul's statement of the meaning of the sanctuary or temple: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" Paul would not have spoken thus unless they ought to have known this from the teachings of the past. Again he said, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them." That is, God promises to do in us all He did in the sanctuary,—to abide in us, and also to walk in us, or direct our movements from place to place. It is surely worth our while then to study what God did in the sanctuary.
This sanctuary was not built after human ideals. No human architect drew the plans. God showed them to Moses, and said to him, "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." Again, "And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount." So God wants to build His ideals, not our own, into our lives. Dear heart, if you will only let Him, it is His covenant to "make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight." And why should we not let Him? Are not His ideals better than our ideals, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts, as the heavens are high above the earth?
Christ called the disciples from the fisherman's nets to make them fishers of men, to associate their names with His as second only to His in honor, and send them thus down to the latest generations of mankind. Much more than this, He called them from those nets, that He might make them sit with Him forever upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of the redeemed Israel. How little they dreamed of so much glory! The same Christ called David from the humble shepherd life, to make him the conqueror of Goliath, musician to the king, poet to write these splendid psalms to guide the devotion of all succeeding ages, and king to carry the kingdom of Israel to the height of its glory. More than this, He made the kingdom of David the type of the future eternal kingdom of Christ, so that it is said that Christ shall sit forever upon the throne of His father David. How little the boy David could imagine this fulness of glory that God's ideal held for him!
But the Lord says: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfeth not? harken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." God is no respecter of persons. To every one who is weary of his own works, and of his own ideals, and who will yield his heart to Him, God holds out the splendid promise to build his life into a glorious temple for His own indwelling—a temple, too, built after His own divine ideals. The pattern of the sanctuary was given to Moses in the mountain, by the Lord Himself, and so Paul says that it was "the pattern of heavenly things."
Here, too, is a sweet mystery. Every beautiful form of vegetable or animal life on this earth first existed as a thought in the mind of God, before it was materialized here in the creation. So in the spiritual creation: "In Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." There will be an infinite variety of beautiful characters there, as there are of beautiful forms here, but there will be none that God did not plan for here, and so there will be none that have escaped His notice. All will be His handiwork. In each one of us, if we will only let Him, He will realize one of these divine types of heavenly beauty that He holds now in His mind and heart.
In this sanctuary, too, there are two apartments. There is the outer, or intellectual apartment, where God wants to rule and reign in our thoughts, and the inner, or holy of holies, where He wants to be supreme in the affections of the soul. In that inner ancient sanctuary was His law written on tables of stone. His covenant with us is, "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Above that law was the mercy-seat, where God abode in the visible glory of His presence. All this is to show that He will write His law on the tables of the stoniest heart that will yield itself to Him, that He will make that heart the seat of mercy and love, and so glorify that life by His presence that others shall see His glory. And from that sanctuary, also, the living waters shall flow out to bless the world.
Did not Jesus say, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him"? This is Emmanuel, God with us, God abiding in the sanctuary. Whittier well says:—
"No legend old, or mythic lore
No dream of bard or seers,
No dead fact stranded on the shore
Of the oblivious years;
But warm, sweet, tender, even yet,
A present help is He,
And faith hath still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in the throng and press,
And we are whole again."
Nor is the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, a thing only of the past, light when they needed light, shadow when they needed shadow, guidance all the time. Even thus to-day will the Holy Spirit abide above that soul that allows itself to be built into a sanctuary for the divine indwelling.
Where could there be a more perfect or a more beautiful revelation of the everlasting Gospel? Surely, the waters of the river of life issued out of this sanctuary, even as they do from the throne in the sanctuary on high, even also as God has promised they shall flow out from every soul that is builded into a sanctuary after His ideals.
What we see in the sanctuary, we see also in the life of Jesus. "Look on this picture, and then on that." The one is a perfect counterpart of the other. The sanctuary was a perfect revelation of the everlasting Gospel. Jesus too was a perfect revelation and a perfect manifestation of the same Gospel. And, praise be to God through Jesus Christ, as we accept of Christ, we too shall become revelations and manifestations of this same saving Gospel to others. And so still the "waters, they issue out of the sanctuary."
REASONS FOR SUNDAY OBSERVANCE.
By L. A. P.
IT is astonishing and sometimes sadly amusing to note some of the reasons given to support the keeping of Sunday as a day of rest. Not always, tho, do upholders of the sacredness of that day put forth in so brief a space so much error as is found in the following words delivered by the Rev. William Morris Kincaid, in his Easter sermon in the Central Union Church, Honolulu, H. I. In the course of the address the gentleman said:—
At the beginning of the Christian era the Jewish people celebrated the last day of the week as their religious festival day, while the pagan world celebrated the day sacred to the sun as theirs. But the followers of Christ could not keep as a festive day the day in which their Lord had lain in the tomb, nor pass by without rejoicing the day on which He rose from that tomb; so, without ecclesiastical law, without divine authority, or prophetic utterance, saying, Thou shalt change the day, the day was changed; the old day was swept away, and a new one came in.
It seems almost incredible that the above could have been spoken soberly, and yet we must assume that it was, appearing as it does in the columns of one of Honolulu’s largest dailies, among reports of the previous day’s events. Note some of the thoughts advanced.
The Jewish “religious festival day” is placed on a level with the pagan festival of Sunday. The Bible instruction concerning the Sabbath in nowise warrants this language. In the first place, it was not “their”—the Jews’—day; it was the rest day of Jehovah. Second, while it was to be a “delight” (Isa. 58:13), a day of true happiness, it was not a gala day, nor was it ever designed to be such, as was the pagan Sunday, whose “sacredness” was the sacredness of its celebrants only, and they were idolaters. The Sunday was their day; the Sabbath was and is the Lord’s.
To assert that the followers of Christ could not—did not desire to—rest henceforth on the sacred Sabbath of Jehovah and of Christ, the6day set apart and made holy by the Author of holiness then and now, is more than assumption. Inasmuch as all their lifetime the disciples had regarded as holy the seventh day, and their Master, its Author, had Himself honored it, and no intimation had fallen from His divine lips that it should cease to be loved and honored, to say that after the resurrection of Christ the disciples changed the day—swept away the old—"without ecclesiastical law, without divine authority or prophetic utterance, saying, Thou shalt change the day," is to charge them with having no realization whatever or appreciation of divine things. It is to charge them with being utterly devoid of any fear or love of God, and with having received into their hearts not one principle of righteousness taught and exemplified by their Master. It is to charge them with having deliberately placed themselves "above all that is called God," for He changes not, and that He could not lightly regard violation of His law had just been manifest by the death of Jesus, who died to witness to its perpetuity and sacredness. This language charges the early disciples of Jesus with doing just what the great apostasy—the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3, 4)—attempted to do in the centuries that followed, and in which he has, apparently, been so successful. "Without divine authority, or prophetic utterance, saying, Thou shalt change the day," the apostate Roman Church has attempted to sweep away the Sabbath of Jehovah, and institute in its place the "day sacred to the sun," borrowed from the pagans.
But the disciples made no such change, as all Bible students know. First, they could not, for they had no such authority; secondly, they did not attempt it, for they loved and feared God. Instead, therefore, of following the example of the disciples, observers of the first day, or Sunday sabbath, are following—perhaps unwittingly—the behests of that great system of iniquity which the Word of God calls Babylon the great. Rev. 18:2. We do not believe Mr. Kincaid nor any honest follower of Jesus will be pleased to be entangled in the meshes of that system, where the logic of his statements places him.
No, the Sabbath of Jehovah still stands. It is not changed, and God is calling for a reformation on the part of those who have wandered from it. To every one, consciously or otherwise, honoring any institution not of His planting, He says, "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:4. Come out, and rejoice in honoring Christ, the Creator, by resting on the day sanctified by Him as His holy Sabbath day, and let that rest be a type of the calm rest of your soul in Christ your Redeemer. L. A. P.
GOD'S REST DAY UNCHANGED.
By H. C. GILES
GOD changes not. One of God's attributes is rest. God's law is but the reflection of Himself. The Sabbath precept is simply the revelation of the Creator's attribute of rest, reflected earthward "for man." If God had changed the Sabbath, it would mean the changing of one of His attributes, which is impossible. The Gospel is rest. Matt. 11:28. The Gospel is God's power to create anew. Eph. 2:10. That brings rest. The seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of that rest. Ex. 31:13, 15. Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath is the sign of the Gospel. Hence no other sabbath is needed. God's power to save man is the Gospel. Rom. 1:16. He has no other. So also He has no other Sabbath for man than that in the seventh day. When man is redeemed finally, he will be upheld by the same Almighty power. God's Sabbath of rest in the seventh day, therefore, will be observed by the redeemed throughout eternity. Isa. 66:22. A change of the Sabbath is, therefore, not only impossible, but unnecessary. Hence God has never made it, and all that could be done by any power is to "think" to change it, and that the Papacy has done.
But the Sabbath, tho trodden down by apostasy, still remains unaltered. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Heb. 4:9. God's Sabbath of rest in the seventh day, instituted at creation, still remains for His people, and will continue to be observed by them as the blessed and hallowed channel through which the Creator's blessings will flow in continuous and refreshing streams to His children throughout the ages of eternity.
H. C. GILES.
OPEN LETTER. No. 2.
By S. D. Heady
ALBUQUERQUE, N. M., June 19, 1900. TO THE READERS OF THE "SIGNS OF THE TIMES," OAKLAND, CAL., AND ALL CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE—Friends: Since writing the "Open Letter" published in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, I have been the recipient of many letters, a few of which are from the clergy. Those from the clergy, in all cases, have been against the position that I took in the "Open Letter," and in nearly all cases, those from other than the clergy have been in favor of the position taken in the "Open Letter." From the reading of some of the letters I should judge the writers to be anything but Christian, and many others most certainly are Christian in every sense of the word as far as I can judge from letters. To the non-Christian I will say: I am truly gratified if your eyes are open as mine are; and I exhort you to be particular to keep your eyes on religious legislation. We as a nation do not need any religious legislation, as it enables those who would to apply the legal birch to the backs of those who differ in opinion with so-called Christians. What we want is an entire separation of Church and State forever, entire religious and political freedom. Vote as you deem best; worship as you deem best; regard and keep any day, all days, or no day, as you like; worship God according to the dictates of your own conscience. In the end God will be the Judge as to who has done right and who has done wrong, God, not man, is our Judge in all matters pertaining to religion.
I would that all men everywhere keep their business eye on religious legislation, remembering that the honest do not mind being watched, all others need it; and when I, or any other person, seek to compel any one to yield to our religious or political opinions, it is time that a stop was put to us, the other man will take care of himself.—"Equal and exact justice to all," regardless of all or any religious belief; for religion is weighed only by God Himself, and of a necessity can not be weighed by man. We must be willing to grant to the other fellow the same privilege that we want him to grant to us, and in so doing, we will have no trouble, and harmony will prevail.
To those of my correspondents who are Christians indeed, I will say: Go on as you are doing, believing nothing that you can not see a "Thus saith the Lord" for, and when the Lord speaks obey Him, just as you profess to do. Let your light so shine that others seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in Heaven. Never get into that popular rut of formalism; be Christians indeed. If any of you lack light, ask of your Father in heaven, and I know He will give you abundantly. Light and much light has been given me by asking and study, and if God will give the sinner like myself light and reveal Bible truths so plainly to me, how much more abundantly will He give it to you who are of the flock? In conclusion I will say, Read Phil. 4:4-9, and let your every action accord fully to what the apostle tells you in the Scripture.
And now a word to the popular clergy. With due respect to all I will say: In the name of common sense quit trying to control the sinner by legislation. You rob yourselves of the good that might come of your preaching, by trying to have laws passed, making things a crime on Sunday that are not a crime on any other day. Attend to your flocks; preach the Gospel in all of its purity; teach only those things that Christ told His followers to teach,—"All things whatsoever I have commanded you,"—and do not try to tell us anything for doctrine that is not in the Bible.
As many persons like myself are making those things a study, they can see that your doctrine is defective; that it won't stand the test, and thereby they conclude that you ought to know better; and that if you do not then you ought not to be a teacher; and if you do know better, then they conclude, and rightly too, that those who teach such things and know better, are deceivers, and consequently worthy of no confidence. You will certainly agree with me that any one who tells us something for a Bible doctrine that is not contained within the lids of the Bible is either himself mistaken or else he is trying to deceive his hearers; and in either case he is in the wrong position. I am a railroad conductor, and my company would accept no excuse for me making a mistake, and it would not be right if they did. Why, then, should the world excuse those who daily and weekly preach error and know it themselves.
Now, ministers all over the world, I ask you in all kindness, to consider well, weigh well, all things you teach your flocks. If you are the watchmen set on the walls of Zion, be sure to give good account of your watchmanship. Let your sermon be fraught with a "Thus saith the Lord." The signature of the Lord is what every honest person wants to all doctrine, and without a "Thus saith the Lord," no man's word is worthy of consideration in the things of eternity. At all times remember that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God," and that God will in the end judge the world in righteousness.
With due respect to all, I am yours for truth, justice, and equality. S. D. HEADY.
PROPHECY OF JOSEPH HOAG.
By Joseph Hoag
JOSEPH HOAG, a member of the Society of Friends, was born in Duchess County, N. Y., April 23, 1762. He began to preach when eighteen years of age. After a long life of ministry, traveling extensively in all parts of the United States and Canada, he died at Charlotte, Vt., Nov. 2, 1846, in his eighty-fifth year. He was known as a godly man, as having great power over bad men, and having the gift of prophecy. The following vision, which we publish by request, was given him in the year 1803, at Charlotte, Vt.:—
In the year 1803, in the eighth or ninth month, I was working one day alone in the field and observed that the sun shone clear, but a mist eclipsed its brightness. As I reflected upon the singularity of the event, my mind was struck into a silence the most solemn I ever remember to have witnessed, for all my faculties were low and unusually brought into deep silence. I said to myself, "What can this mean?" I do not recollect ever before to have been sensible of such feeling. And I heard a voice from heaven say:—
"This which thou seest, which dims the brightness of the sun, is a sign of the present and coming times. I took the forefathers of this country from a land of oppression, and planted them here among the people of the forest. I sustained them, and while they were humble, I blessed them and fed them, and they became a numerous people. But now they have become proud and lifted up, and have forgotten Me, who nourished them and protected them in the wilderness, and are running into every abomination and evil practise of which the old countries are guilty, and have taken quietude from the land, and have suffered a dividing spirit to come among them. Lift up thine eyes and behold."
And I saw them dividing in great heat. The division began in the church on the points of doctrine. It commenced in the Presbyterian Society and went through the various religious denominations, and in its progress its effects were the same; those that dissented went off with high heads and taunting language, and those who kept to their original sentiments appeared exercised and sorrowful.
And when the dividing spirit entered the Society of Friends, it raged in as high a degree as in any I had before discovered; as before, those who kept to their ancient principles retired by themselves. It next appeared in the lodges of the Free Masons, where it broke out in appearance like a volcano, inasmuch as it set the country in an uproar for a length of time. Then it entered politics, through the United States, and did not stop until it produced a civil war, and an abundance of human blood was shed in the course of the combat. The Southern States lost their power, and slavery was annihilated from their borders.
Then a monarchical power arose, took the government of the States, established a national religion, and made all societies tributary to support its expenses. I saw them take property from the Friends to a large amount. I was amazed at beholding all this, and I heard a voice from heaven proclaim: "This power shall not always stand, but with it I will chastise My church until they return to the faithfulness of their forefathers. Thou seest what is coming upon thy native land, for their iniquities, and the blood of Africa, the remembrance of which has come up before Me."
This vision was sent for many days. I had no idea of writing it for many years, until it became such a burden that, for my own relief, I have written it. JOSEPH HOAG.
“DISTRESS OF NATIONS, WITH PERPLEXITY.”
NEAR the close of Christ’s personal earthly ministry, He was asked by His disciples, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world [age]?”
In His reply, Jesus not only gave them a sign, but signs. Such a momentous event was to be ushered in by more than a single portent. It should not be one herald, but many. In fact, the divine idea of a sure witness would be abundantly manifest. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established,” is the Bible rule. No reputation was to be impugned, no life put in jeopardy, save at the mouth of two or three agreeing witnesses.
So in the greatest and most decisive event that is to come upon the world,—an event that is forever to fix the fate of all; that is to bring death to all opposers of truth and righteousness; that is to bring to the righteous, glorious immortality; that is to usher in the everlasting reign of the Prince of Peace,—God will announce that event by a multitude of heralds, a company of witnesses, that we may know that “it is near, even at the doors.”
One class of witnesses is composed of those predictions God has given us in His Word of the various signs which should precede His coming. Another class of complementary and confirming witnesses is the fulfilment of all these predictions, the writing of them in God’s providence in earth and sea and sky.
And therefore Jesus declares: “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.” Luke 21:25–27.
Specific signs in the sun, moon, and stars, as outlined in other prophecies, are in the past. They came as the Lord declared they would; they came when He declared they would.
Now, pre-eminently, we have the “distress of nations.” Think of the famine in India, among the greatest known, notwithstanding all that men have done to forestall its dread ravages. If the present famine conditions had occurred before English control, it would doubtless have been the worst that India ever knew. With the famine are smallpox, plague, and various fevers.
There is also famine in districts in Russia, famine in the United States among the Arizona Indians. And the ports of the whole civilized world are armed and guarded to shut out the microscopic foe, the disease germ.
And now war, desolating, devastating, bitter, unrelenting, cruel war, is bleeding the world of men and means. Spain, the United States, the Philippines, the Antilles, England, South Africa, and now the whole world, are at war. Last month some of the magazine writers were telling us of China and peace with this country. Others were marking out Europe’s day’s diversion in carving and serving the great Chinese pie among themselves, even as English papers talked of the little recreation in South Africa. But England found her South African war the largest in her history; and now we are told by those acquainted with the Chinese that the most that all the world can do is to inclose the great dragon in a girdle of steel. Seemingly the greatest war the world has known is here.
What does it mean? Men do not know. They stand aghast at the spectacle, and ask in uncertain and fearful tones, “What next?”
But the world does not know. The world will not know. Science can not answer. Statecraft can not tell us. The optimistic prophets of peace prophesy falsely. There is but one sure source of information,—God’s Word. And that tells us that just before us is the great battle of Armageddon and the end of all earthly rule.
Christians will believe it. They can not do otherwise if they know and believe the Book. As truly as Christ came is He coming again. As truly as He is coming again, He has given us signs by which we may know that His coming is near. The signs are here. The Lord is at the door. Are you ready to meet Him? If not, get ready.
