JULY, 1889.
NUMBER 19.
Whole No. 112,000.
Yol. Y. No. Ill.
sïhe Sebean (Buarterlysí,
jP AND MíSSIONRECORD.	jf
EDITED ΒΓ I. C. WELLCOME, eme, 25 Cents a Year.	(AU Rights Reserved.)
A GOOD CONFESSION !
HRIST’S SECOND COMING,
By Rev. LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D.
HE END OF THIS AGE APPROACHING,
By Rev. D. T. TAYLOR.
HE DEVIL’S MISSION OF AMUSEMENT,
By Rev. A. G. BROWN, Londos.
FOREIGN MISSION REPORTS.
For Special Terms and Particulars, see Hie last page.
YARMOUTH, ME.:
SCRIPTURAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY. Address, I. C. Wellcome.
Entered at tlie Poet-office, Yarmouth, as Secoud-class Matter.
!SÉ COMETH! Mtttttiâ&ER.
uimAiftthi Send the message Over mountain, hill, and vale;
Cry with joyful acclamation,
—4Iail, returning Prince, all hail!
Lo, he cometh ! Let the tidings Pierce to earth’s remotest bound,
Let all kindreds, tongues, and peoples Catch the joyful, fearful sound.
Lo, he cometh ! Silent sleepers In death’s chambers dark and cold,
We the morning watch are keeping,
Soon the gates of day unfold.
Bethany ana Joseph’s garden Witnessed resurrection power;
“Christ, the first fruits,’’ all who slumber Only wait the appointed hour.
Lo, he cometh! Jesus’ martyrs Sleeping in your robes of blood,
Resting yet a little season,
Lo, tne avenging Son of God!
Ye shall lift again your voices,
Silenced long by rack and flame,
And in one triumphant chorus Hail the power of Jesus’ name.
Lo, he cometh ! The creation Groans and staggers to her doom ; Thrones and empires fall before him,
And for David’s throne make room. Earth redressed in Eden glory
Gone the curse the gloom, the night; Here shall stand the city golden,
Where the Lamb himself gives light.
Lo, he cometh ! Friends of Jesus,
Is there sweeter hope than this ?
How it fills the soul with rapture, Foretaste of eternal bliss.
We shall be at home in Zion,
Nevermore in tears to roam ;
Let us cry with hearts and voices,
“ Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come.” Cleveland, Ohio,
CHRIST IS SURELY COMINGI
Possibly the truth may startle, awaken and lead many more into the Gospel light. Gospel tfuth is aggressive and progressive. The Rev. Lyman Abbott, d. d., editor of The Christian Union,, and successor to Henry Ward Beecher, in Plymouth Church pulpit, Brooklyn, N. Y., has seen the glorious light of the personal coming of Christ and confesses it in unmis-takable terms. For many years he has written on the Gospel as a man who “ Saw men as trees walking ’׳ ; uncertain as to the real object of the mission and sac« rifice of Christ. He lately wrote several articles on what he termed “ unsettled questions in theology.” They were “The Nature and Uses of the Bible ; ” “ The Divine End in the Redemption “The Character and Administration of God.” They seemed vague and misleading, without edge or point. But more recently he seems to have struck rock bottom, and found the Golden key to the Gospel plan, and got a new and better view. Brother Abbott is not a superficial student, nor a fanatic, but a cool, studious man. He h 18 had a hard stint in wading through much mystical, blinding, senseless theology. But the Lord has opened to his vision a light which has put him on the Gospel track to aright understanding of “the divine end in the redemption.״ His recent article on the
SECOND COMING OP CHRIST
will be of great interest to our readers, not that it is new to them in any other respect than a new auxiliary
Christ’s second coming.
2
in promulgating the great and all-important Gospel message we have been long engaged in, and under much reproach. It is very pleasant to occasionally have a sturdy, eminent and ripe scholar, like Mr. Ab-bott, to see, and join us in proclaiming the same truths we do.
CHRIST’S SECOND COMING.
BY REY. LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D.
Early education led me to look with prejudice, not to say with contempt, upon all theories of Second Adventism. I imbibed the notion from Sunday-school and pulpit and literature, that the incarnation and death of Christ was the last and supreme mani-festation of God to men ; that the Gospel was the ul-tímate and final message of God to men; that the conversion of the world and the redemption of man-kind were going steadily and surely, though very slowly, on from the birth of Christ as the starting-point, and under the influence of Christian ministra-tirn to their consummation. The notion that
THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION WAS PREPARATORY
to another, as the Old Testament had been prepara-tory to the Gospel ; that the manifestation of God in the man Jesus Christ was preparatory to another manifestation of God in kingly and triumphant form, as the manifestation of God in the law and the prophets had been preparatory to his manifestation in
Christ’s second coming.	3
hie Son, never dawned upon, or, at least, never took lodgment in ray mind. The doctrine of a Second Coming was interwoven in my thought with vague impressions of Millerism, Second Advent camp-meet-ings, prophecies of days and years when the advent should take place, interpretations of the mystic proph-ecies of the book of Daniel and Revelation, mechani-cal conceptions of a physical king with his throne and his courtiers in Jerusalem, and his administration pro-ceeding therefrom ; for all of which I had no respect then, for all of which I ham greater respect the older I grow.
In this spirit I arrived, in the course of systematic and careful study of the New Testament, at the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, of which this thirteenth chapter of Mark is a parallel report. Prev-ious utterances of Christ had already somewhat shaken
MY PRECONCEIVED THEORIES.
I had not gone far in the careful study of this chapter before I reached the conclusion that the interpreta-tions of those commentators who deny the Second Coming were inconsistent with a reverent, unpreju-diced, and impartial acceptance of Christ’s own words. The principles adopted by this interpretation, if ap-plied to other portions of Scripture, will make the Bible mean anything which the Bible student desires it to mean. The whole chapter is reduced to a mere prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the admonition with which Christ closes his discourse, “What I say unto you I say to all, Watch,” is abso-lutely eliminated from it, since no Christian since the
Christ’s second coming.
4
close of the first century has had occasion to watch for that destruction. The sublime description of
earth’s dying days
is robbed of all its sublimity. “ The sun shall be dark-ened, and the moon shall not give her light,” is made to mean, those shall be dark days; “the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken” is interpreted, the great empires of the world shall undergo disturbances; the appearing of the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens is reduced to a declaration that the sign shall appear testifying that the Son of Man is in Heaven ; the mourning of all the tribes of earth is supposed to be fulfilled in the sorrow experienced by the inhabitants of Palestine at the ap-pearance of the army of Titus ; the sending of the angels with the sound of the trumpet becomes, mes-sengers shall call unto the church tho true disciples of Christ; and “from one end of Heaven to the other,” is reduced to, from Dan to Beersheba. I certainly do not mean to impugn the honesty of other interpeters in declaring that this principle of interpretation is not an honest one, and is the product of that vicious, but, alas! common endeavor not to read in the Scripture what it contains, but to read into the Scripture what the reader desires to find there.
In further pursuing this study I found, from parallel passages in the writings of the apostles, borrowing Christ’s phraseology here, in describing pictorially the last judgment, that they who heard him understood him to refer to a future
δ
CHRIST’S SECOND COMING.
COMIMG IN POMP AND POWER.
I fkund that Christ himself employed almost identical language elsewhere under circumstances which forbade all doubts as to his meaning. I found the interpreta-tion put upon this chapter, as the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, unfulfilled by the events; the inhabitants of Palestine did not see in that destruction a sign that the Son of Man was in Heaven, but, on the other hand, remain unbelievers to this day. Christ did not gather his people into one church at that destruction ; on the contrary, they were scat-tered to the four winds by the persecutions which followed.
Do not think, he says in substance, that the end of Jerusalem is the end of the world. Before that end of the world, before I come to take posession of my kingdom, there must be a long period of deceit,-false Messiahs arising, wars and rumors of wars, famines and pestilences and earthquakes. These are but the beginning of that travail out of which the kingdom of God is to be born. This world-anguish is itself a prophecy of a birth of a kingdom of righteousness, of joy, and of peace (,verses 4-8). The church itself shall share in this labor-pain.
POUR SUCCESSIVE ERAS OP TROUBLE
must it pass through. The Gentiles shall hate it, and persecute it ; the Romans shall burn its Bibles, im-prison its disciples, or send them to the mines, or cast them to the wild beasts, or impale them on lofty poles, and pour oil or tar upon them, and light them, to bo
Christ’s second coming.
«
torches for the malignant on-lookers. Following this, Christians shall fall into enmities one with another. They shall hate one another, and betray one another to death. The persecutions by the Roman Catholic Christian of his Protestant Christian brethren shall transcend the persecutions of Christians by the Gen-tiles ; the fire and sword of Alva, the massacer of St. Bartholomew, the inquisition of Spain, shall exceed the cruelties of a Nero, a Caligula, a Diocletian. The age of persecution and internal conflict shall be fol-lowed by
AN AGE OF SCEPTICISM
and false doctrine. False teachers shall rise in the Church itself, who bearing the name of Christ, shall deny the truth of Christianity. The enemies of Chris-táan truth shall be born within the Christian Church— a Strauss, a Baur, a Kuenen. Every tenet of Chris-tian faith—the inspiration of the Scriptures, the incar-nation of the Son of God, the forgiveness of sins, the life everlasting, the living communion of God with his saints—shall be questioned or denied by teachers of religion wearing Christian vestments, and preaching from Christian pulpits. Last, and worst of all, iniqui-ties shall abound, faith shall grow dim, love shall grow cold, the lines of demarkation between the Church and the world shall seemingly be obliterated, and lux-ury shall enervate, and selfishness and greed shall cor-rupt the Church of God itself.
In each and every experience they are to bear wit-ness to God’s truth, as the Spirit of God shall pive them utterance. When the signs of the end of Jeiu-
7
Christ’s second coming.
salem and its temple |draw near, even then they are not to think that the Messiah is coming. They are not to wait in the beleaguered city, expectant for Him. For the temple must fall, and Jerusalem be destroyed, and a new faith must be built up out of the ruins and remnants of the old religion, before the fullness of the time will have come. Not till after that tribulation—how long after no man knows, not the angels, nor even the Son of Man himself—will be the dawning of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
In this paper I propose to draw certain doctrinal and spiritual conclusions which seem to me to be war-ranted.
CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN.
The manifestation of God in humiliation in the incarnation is not the final and consummate raanifes-tation. The disclosure of God to his children by his spiritual communion with them is not the consummate and final disclosure. Paul looked and waited for the coming of his Lord. Peter warned his readers not to be deceived by scoffers asking, Where is the promise of his coming? John bade the Children of God par-ify themselves by the hope that when he shall appear his children shall be like him. James exhorted the disheartened and the discouraged to be patient unto this coming of the Lord. As they understood him we may safely understand him. The first coming of Christ was the spring-time in the Divine seasons; the dispensation of the Spirit is the rich and fruitful sum-mer; there awaits our hope—the ripe and mellow autumn.
CHRIST’S SECOND COMING.
8
When he comes it will be in such guise that no one can question or can doubt. He will come as the flood came; he
WILL COME AS THE LIGHTNING
comes. As the king comes with the trumpeters that precede him, so will he come, and his advent will be proclaimed and emblazoned far and wide. Now he is incognito. Only the spiritual sense, only love and faith, peer beneath his peasant garb and behold a King. Only now and then in his earthly life does his divinity flash forth so that the temple traders flee from the fire of his eyes, and the soldiers fall to the ground when he comes out from the garden to surrender himself to them. Then Caiaphas and Pilate and the centurion and the guard and the soldiers shall recognize him, as well as Peter and James and John. All the tribes of the earth shall mourn, seeing him, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, shall hide themselves, and eall on the mountains and the rocks to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.
HIS COMING WILL BE UNEXPECTED.
Men will he buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage; all the industrial and social life of the world will be going on, and into the midst of it he will break in the suddenness of his glory upon the as-tonished world. No man knows—no, not the angels in Heaven; no, not tlfe Son of Man himself—the hour of his coming. But if the early disciples erred by thinking it must come in their own time, we are in
9
Christ’s second coming.
danger of erring by thinking that it cannot come in our time. They anticipated; we procrastinate.
And if we are humble we shall not pass, as though it concerned us not, Christ’s solemn instruction, “ Watch ; and what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” I chiefly object to the common interpreta-tions of the New Testament prophecy as fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, because they rob the New Testa-ment of
THIS SOLEMN WARNING
and this eloquent incentive to holy, earnest, Christian living. If we believed that to-morrow, any morrow, the lightning may flash out from east to west, that to-morrow, any morrow, the trumpets may sound in the horizon announcing the coming of our King, and our buying and selling, and marrying and giving in mar-riage, may be broken in upon by his second advent, and by the consummation of all things before his judgment throne, we should better understand Paul’s mystical exhortation: “It reraaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none ; and they that weep as though they wept not ; and they that re-joice as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy as though they possessed not ; and they that use this world as not abusing it.” So may each one of us be moved to live, henceforth, from the devout and care-ful study of this hope and warning of Christ ; ever looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appear-anee of our great God and Savior, with this prayer ever in our hearts : Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
RISING IN THE EASTER GLORY.
REV. GEO. R. KRAMER.
I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.
Psa. 17: 15.
Rising in the Easter glory At the resurrection light,
Singing then the wondrous story 01 the love that banished night;
Shall we murmur at the sleeping ’Till that great effulgent day?
Will it be a cause for weeping When our tears are wiped away?
Seeing then the saints all beaming In their crowns and robes of white,
Seeing then our loved ones gleaming With their forms so pure and bright; Meeting then beyond the sighing In that home beyond the gloom,
Shall we grieve because of lying In the dark and silent tomb ?
Viewing then the harvest glowing In those grand, eternal rays Gladly reaping then from sowing In these tears through sorrow’s days, Shall we then be heard repining,
Though the seed in earth remain? Waving in that morning’s shining Will be seen the golden grain.
Waiting then for Christ from Heaven As the church in days of old —
Crowns of joy will then be given,
We will walk the streets of gold —
We will find no cause for sadness That we parted — that we died;
All shall be in perfect gladness With the Psalmist — satisfied.
3
THE CRY OF PEACE.
our observation.” So terrible and universal was the state of things “that one might almost be forgiven for supposing that the end of everything was really at hand, and that the universe itself was about to dis-appear.” And the Christian Advocate, in January, 1864, said the “ mighty agitations were omens of great events, and that we are even now moving close up to the world’s great crisis, is the general, if not the uni-versal belief.”
The Boston Recorder declared that “ If war breaks out in earnest in Europe, it is easy to believe that it will be the greatest war ever known. The Scripture predictions of the last great battles are drawing nigh. The Lord will come suddenly. The great gatherings for the final war of Armageddon precede the thousand years, and the Great Day and momentous events may be nearer than we think.” There seemed to be a general impression all abroad on thoughtful minds that the nations were about entering upon a stage of vast military preparations, and that this hostile attitude would finally end in a general strife with warring na-tions locked in the throes of mortal combat. The augury appeared to be an inspiration.
We have now reached the last decade, and in 1877 find from current figures the footing up of the stand-ing armies of but seven of the Continental powers— some of them now grown much larger and stronger— to reach the number of 6,142,000 soldiers. A new־ impulse had been added and mammoth armaments be-gun to be the rage with nations that constitute the figments and fractions of the old Roman empire.
THE CRY OF PEACE.
4
By the year 1880 various authorities put the mili tary force of Europe as numbering ten millions of men. And now a new decade opening, the figures leap up-ward in the most astonishing manner. The Boston Journal oï August 8,1887, informed us that the men on a war footing in European armies had perhaps gone up to 11,000,000, and the yearly cost to maintain this armed host was $2,000,000,000.
The year 1888 opened with fearful war aspects. In February of that year the European armaments were given as 14,580,165 soldiers; not every one under arms, but ordered to stand prepared to be hurled to the shock of battle at the beck of the crowned heads. In the fall of the year (Nov. 13), the Journal of Bos-ton told us from official sources that w The five great Continental powers alone now have 12,000,000 men under arms, not to mention the naval armaments, almost double in size of the whole sea-fighting force of the world twenty years ago.״
In September, 1888, the Reme Générale de Etat Major, a good and high authority, stated the forces of all Europe : “ The armies on a war-footing have in-creased since 1869, from 6,918,000 men to 16,000,000 men, and under the new compulsory military laws will soon be 19,000,000 armed men.״ Is it any wonder that in January—a few months later—the London Christian Commonwealth> viewing the awful situa-tion, should give utterance to these words, viz., “ With more than half the able-bodied men in Europe engaged in drilling to kill oech other, it is useless for us to say much in defense of our modern Christian nations.״
5
THE CEY OF PEACE.
When the present year opened, Emperor William in his speech said: “Our relations with all foreign powers are peaceful.” Russia, by the month of her government organ, expressed her desire for peace. Austria, by the mouth of her minister, Herr Tisza, dé-dared that “ European powers offer a most permanent guarantee of peace;” and again, “There is not a state in Europe absolutely desirous of war ; ” again;“ Europe absolutely desires peace.” Lord Salisbury affirmed in the name of England that “ All the European rulers have an intense desire to maintain peace.” President Carnot of France, said in substance the same, while Italy, by the mouth of King Humbert, stated : “ His belief was that for this year peace is assured.” But “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked ” (Isa. 57: 21). And while ten thousand journals in all the world echoed the cry of Peace, Peace, the mighty prep-arations for war stayed not, but went on more fiercely than ever. “ The Christinas season has scarcely passed away,” said a prominent London paper, “and yet the war preparations are assuming more gigantic propor-tiens than ever before”; (Christian Commonwealth, January 17); and the Boston Journal declared : “An uneasy expectancy of war has haunted the year 1888, and the shadow of it is projected forward upon the new year” (Dec. 31, 1888).
“My earnest wish is for peace,” said Italy’s King; and the Italian Parliament, besides the usual war budget, immediately voted $30,000,000 for military and naval purposes. Germany proposed to spend $50,000,000 building new armor-clad battle-ships.
THE CRY OF PEACE.
6
Russia loaned 1140,000,000 for war purposes. France asked for $40,000,000 to expend on military railway cars, and $200,000,000 to expend on defences on her eastern or German frontier to protect her from her foe. Great Britain proposed $500,000,000 for defense of her coast, of which sum $100,000,000 was to be ex-pended within seven years. Every power, great and small, made some added move toward “The War.” Little Switzerland, whose military budget was less than $2,000,000 in 1879, now ten years later, borrows the sum of $4,000,000 to meet her war expenses, and with all the others shouted, “ Let us re-arm ! ” At this period the Boston Herald (March, 1889,) in an article on the strained situation, testified that the total war force of Russia, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, Roumania and England, with all the smaller states, was no less than 28,810,000 armed men, this being the number actually enrolled.
The London News runs the figures still higher, and in its issue of January 4, gave the following remark-able presentation of affairs on the Continent. It said :
“During the past eighteen years—a period which, upon the whole, has been a peaceful one—the armies of the Continental powers have assumed proportions such as were never dreamed of at an era in the pre-vious history of the world. The increase in their strength, and also of course in their cost, has been steady and continuous ever since the days of the Franco-German war. It is now no exaggeration to speak of Europe as an armed camp. The following table, which has been prepared after reference to the
7
THE CBY OF PEACE.
most recent official documents and declarations on the subject, shows (1) in the column headed “War strength,” the approximate number of men disposable for offensive purposes in the event of the outbreak of war in 1889; (2) in the column headed “Second Re-6erves,” the approximate number of men who in the event of the outbreak of war would join the colors, but remain at home unless their services were very urgently needed at the front; (3) in the column headed, “ Final Reserves,” the number of men who, in addition to all the above, would be available for defensive purposes in case of their country being in-vaded. All the men in the first two columns are trained soldiers who have served with the colors. Many, but not all, of the men in the last column are
also veterans.	War	Second	Final
	Strength.	Reserves.	Reserves.
Germany,	2,520,000	1,520,000	1,800,000
France,	2,440,000	1,570,000	1,700,000
Russia,	2,495,000	1,980,000	2,200,000
Italy,	1,010,000	1,320,000	1,200,000 1,700,000
Austria,	1,145,000	1,470,000	
Turkey,	620,000	310,000	340,000
Balkan States,	250,000	165,000	195,000
	10,480,000	8,335,000	9,195,000
Here we have a mass of men, in number equal to the population of a first-class State, who may at any mo-ment be called upon to take the field. Over twenty-eight miUions of Europeans, all in the prime of man-hood, are liable to expose their lives in the next great war. More than two thirds of them are at present engaged in civil pursuits; but war might drag every one of them from the office, the field and the work-
THE CRY OF PEACE.
8
shop, and thus, at a few hoar’s notice, the commercial; manufacturing and agricultural interests of half of Europe might be paralyzed by the withdrawal of all the best and most active workers.
To this startling and absolutely awful array of the armies of the nations of Europe, we add but one more testimony ; that of Archdeacon Farrar, the well-known English clergyman, who in making the statement we present, must have made it authoritatively and with official sources of information at hand, and who in February, in a sermon in Westminister Abbey said : “Of 1,500,000,000 on earth, only one in three are nominally Christian ; and in the Christian nations of Europe 36,000,000 of men are under arms, crushing the happy development of peace.” (London Chris-tian Commonwealth of Feb. 7,1889.)
In conclusion we inquire, Is not this vast movement prophetically announced ? Does it not meet the terms of the sacred predictions we have quoted ? Can the state of things be otherwise explained? Can this dreadful strain be much longer endured? What does it* all mean? The church of God desires to know, should know. We are not yet through, but have said enough, in this paper to occasion the the most solemn reflections and awaken anxious inquiry. It is our conviction that the kingly rider on the white horse, who leads the armies of Heaven, is ere long to ride down the skies to the slaughter of Armageddon, and the deceiving demons under the sixth vial are creating a military madness and gathering the evil world powers aud their armed hosts to the great and flual doom.
9
THE CRY OF PEACE.
Tokens, The Final Crisis.
raining to notice the war-debts of the nations of our world, we are filled with amazement. M. G. Mulhall, the distinguished European statistician, is authority for our figures. He says the total national debt of the world was in 1713, $595,000,000; in 1763 it was $1,414,000,000; in 1793 it was $2,845,000,000. By the year 1816, through the great wars of Bona-parte, it had risen to $7,185,000,000 ; in 1848 it was $19,1500,00,000, and by 1884 it had reached the enor-mous aggragate of $27,155,000,000, of which vast sum all but about three billions is incurred by Europe alone (see Balance Sheet of the World).
In every other nation on earth the debt rate to wealth is larger than in the United States, where it is but 2.9 per cent of the total wealth. But in Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal — eight powers — it averages 15.2 per cent. Our readers will not fail to notice the rapid increase in the debts of all nations since the European revolution of 1848, it being over four-fold, and all for war. At the present the total annual expenditure on army and navy in Europe is $867,-500,000. All goes to “ Prepare war.”
Meanwhile, it requires annually to support the royal families of Germany $16,500,000 ; Turkey $16,000,000; Russia $12 000,000; Austria and Great Britian each $4,500,000 ; Spain $2,000,000 ; and the people pay these costs and millions more year after year in crushing taxes. Thus do miserly, extrava-gant, despotic kings hold sway over the crumbling Roman world. “There must come,” says the Even-iiHj Post, (N. Y.,)“a great social or financial catas-trophe of some kind, for the simple reason that the
THE CRY OF PEACE.
10
tillers of the soil on whom these prodigious burdens rest will not be able to stand the strain.” Rev. H. L. Hastings, in The Christian, states in the following forcible words : “ The national debts of the world are war debts. They represent, not art, science, nor improvement; not steamships, railways, commerce, nor discovery, but simply war, bloodshed, butchery and slaughter. The national debts of the world are almost entirely caused by the accumulated cost of wars. Most nations cannot go to war except on bor-rowed money; but having stirred up some infernal quarrel among themselves, they sound the trumpet, beat the drums, collect a lot of baubles aud gewgaws to beguile fools from their homes, and so entice and compel the young and strong, the bone and sinew of the land, to engage in mutual butchery; and then they borrow money, issue bonds, contract debts, and mortgage the toils of future generations, in order to buy arms and accoutrements, muskets and cannon, powder, shot, and shell, with which to blow out the brains of their fellowmen !
“At the same time that war imposes taxes, it reduces the ability to pay them, by drafting, drilling and butchering the young, strong and able-bodied men, leaving the aged, the infirm, the cripples, the woman and the children to produce their own living, maintain the national life, and earn money to pay these dressed up idlers for parading and marching, for drilling and killing, and scattering blood, rapine, conflagration, and havoc everywhere ! ”
And should the great nations of expiring world-empire begin the strife, how would they fight ? Evi-dently just as “ angry nations ” always fight, in mad-ness and desperation. “ Were angry” is the picture
THE CRT OF PEACE.	11
given of Europe drawn by inspiration. It is the last picture of the hour when the last trumpet summons them to the “Valley of Judgment.” M. Stead of the Pall Matt Gazette (London), in January said: “The embattled millions will strike terror. It will be a contest of Titans wnged with the ruthlessness of fiends.” Prince Bismark in January said: “We shall fight, if we do fight, until we are bled as white as veal.” Are his words prophetic? One is re-minded of the pale warriors of Senacharib, “dead corpses ” on the field after an angel’s dreadful visita-tion (Isa. 37: 36), with which compare Joel 3: 11: “ Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.” “We Europeans tremble,” exclaims Lord Salisbury, England’s Prime Minister, “ at the thought that tomorrow, perhaps, will commence this tembló conflict, which now ail regard as inevitable and immi-nent. We are approaching a moment in history when the destinies of the East and of the whole of Europe will be decided.” (Speech at Guildhall.) “Not mere armies, but armed nations,” declares Major Von Goltz, a Prussian military writer, “are hereafter to meet upon the battlefield.” And it is precisely the kingdoms and nations that God declares he will assemble and gather for the great slaughter (Zep. 3:8). Vast Russia—the huge northern Gog of the land of Magog—will be one of the combat-ants ; and Sir Charles Dilke says : “ Russia is the greatest military power in the world.” On the sea, England and France have almost invincible war-vessels, and Italy — last remnant of reconstructed Rome, planted on the Seven Hills—possesses a navy which in 1866 was valued at $30,000,000, but which today is valued at $70,000,000.
THE CRY OP PEACE.
12
“Let slip the war-dogs.” Will it be done ? Will the armed nations be at actual war at the very instant our Lord appears in the clouds of Heaven ? I have already expressed a conviction that they will not be. Most obviously, fancied security and prevailing opti-mism will give rise to the Pauline prediction of an exultant outcry of “Peace and safety.” We cannot doubt the great Apostle’s words, nor can we refer them to aught else but the period of final crisis (2 Thess. 5: 1, 2). Such appears to us to be the secular situation then. The very hugeness and terribleness of the preparation is with a thousand writers a rea-son to think there will be no real war, but rather peace. But it is as before the Deluge when “ They knew not until the flood came.” (Matt. 24: 39). Hence we judge that the national armies though gathered and in hostile attitude, armed and still arm-ing, are not at war. The last scene is of uking8i chief captains, mighty men ” with “ armies,” all at the front (Rev. 6: 15; and 19: 18). That the evil conditions prevailing just prior to the Flood will exist, our Lord plainly tells us. Then there was careless security mingled with “violence,” i. e., injus-tice, cruelty, wrong that “ filled the earth,” but there was no war (Gen. 6:13). We are unable to see how to reconcile the prediction of peace with actual war, but we can with the insane cry, “ Prepare war,” and such a waking up of earth’s mighty men as never in all history occurred previous to our times. Concerning Armageddon, about which so much has been written, we read in it but a symbol of slaughter, and it is to occur not before the advent of Christ. The Greek in Rev. 16 : 14, is polem on, war, and war may exist without actual battle. The war of the
13
THE CRY OF PEACE.
kings Against the Lamb is hostility, opposition, anti-chrietianism — it is not actual fighting. So “the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and His Christ ” at his first advent but not in real battles (Acts 4 : 25, 26). So the Papacy “makes war” against the Church today, but not on battlefields (Dan. 7 : 21). Armageddon is not a Waterloo or Gettysburg — it is a world-wide slaughter (Jer. 25 : 33 !. All the kings, armies, and leaders connected with the ten horned beast, the latest civil form of Rome, go down in death (Rev. 17: 14). The right and might are all on one side. The Lamb conquers. All evil powers must drink of the cup of God’s fury (Jer. 25 : 15-26). “The war of the great day of God Almighty,” to which the kings are gathered is limited to that day, and cannot come in this side of it. The slaughter follows his advent (Luke 19: 1427־). So we read the sacred prophecies.
And now all men wonder at the situation, which outside of Divine prophecy is inexplicable.
“ It is a strange thing,” said Lord Woolsey, in January, as this a7mvs mirabilis opened, “ that the older the world becomes1 the larger are the sums of money devoted to the purposes of warlike imple-ments, and the greater portion of the population in every country are trained to arms.” Men should read passing events in the light of Scripture prophecy. “ Strange ” indeed to the worldling is Europe’s mad arming. But the time has arrived for the Word of God to be accomplished in the destruction of the fourth monarchy, and in the world’s old age the war-demons have been permitted to come upon the ungodly nations in judgment as they came upon
THE SOLEMN WARNING.
14
Ahab and bis prophets (1 Kings 22: 19-23). It may appear 44 strange ” and unaccountable even to great statesmen, and appalling to lovers of peace : never-theless the holy Word is fulfilling before our eyes I Let us remember the solemn words of Dean Alford, who though dead, yet speakoth : 44 It is certain that this present state of things will come to a sudden end by the advent of our Lord.”
THE SOLEMN WARNING.
Time’s sun is fast setting,
Its twilight is nigh;
Its evening is falling In cloud o’er the sky.
Its shadows are stretching In ominous gloom;
Its midnight approaches —
The midnight of doom.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing — flee, lingerer, flee!
Rides forth the fierce tempest On the wing of the cloud ;
The moan of the night-blast Is fitful and loud.
The mountains are heaving,
The forests are bowed ;
The ocean is surging,
Earth gathers its shroud.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee!
The vision is nearing —
The Judge and the Throne;
The voice of the Angel Proclaims “It is done!”
On the whirl of the tempest Its ruler shall come,
15
THE SOLEMN WARNING.
And the blaze of his glory Flash out from its gloom.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing — flee, lingerer, flee !
With cloud he is coming!
His people shall sing;
With gladness they hail him Redeemer and King.
His iron rod wielding—
The rod of his ire,
He cometh to kindle Earth’s last fatal fire !
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee, And wrath is preparing—flee, lingerer, flee!
— Bev. Dr. Hardey.
REPORTS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS.
The Lord continues to bless our efforts in publish-ing the Gospel of the coming and kingdom of our Lord and of eternal life in Him, in foreign lands, and in the new States, Provinces and Territories all over the American continent.
We never before had so much encouragement to sow the good seed as now. Although the multitudes are rushing on in their worldly schemes and increased facilities for pleasures in heedless madness to the judgement. Yet this very fact is leading the careful and thinking class to inquire for the cause of such a rushing, rash, reckless state of society and to listen to the Scripture prophecies concerning this skeptical, lawless, lewd, and perilous time, as a prelude to the swift approach to the day of God. A change of His administration and the enthronement of His Son. Never has our Scriptural literature been so much called for nor so widely read, as now. Though many, other churches, ask it sent them free. Nearly every week brings us news of one, two, three or more, of the studious and earnest mimsters of the Gospel whose eyes the Lord has just opened to see and teach th: t the judgment day is about to usher in all those stu-pendous events predicted to follow that day of final judgment for the misconduct of all the past.
IN INDIA.
Our work in India has gone steadily on, with small means, to very important results; producing many interested readers and inquirers, and some genuine
FOUEIGN MISSIONS.
converts to Christ. The demand for reading free books and tracts has greatly increased throughout a large portion of the country. Our printing press at Madras is constantly turning out one and a half reams of printed paper per day, under the supervis-ion of our faithful agent and co-worker, Brother James Spence. We also now publish on “the Scripture Publication Society Press” at Madras, three monthly magazines. One, “ The Berean Monthly” in English, one “A Prophetic Monthly” in Tamil, one “A prophetic Monthly” in Telegu. We are also publishing tracts in these and several other languages. Lately we have obtained a transía-tor who has put some of our tracts into the Hindoo-stani language and they are published. More will follow. Daniel is studying that language and says he will soon master it, and that we may then send him to any part of India to preach. Several men who have lately been converted occupy very important situa-tions to aid in circulating the message. One is a mail agent, who travels eight hundred miles per week on railroads, and has enthusiastically entered upon circulating our tracts in various tongues by establishing distributaries ail along the railroad lines. In this way he can take out many thousands each week. Another who has newly come to the faith is a Lutheran minister. He is active in publishing “ The Truth.” Who of the Lord’s stewards wants to help make tracts to increase this work? Some of our poorer brethren are helping nobly. But strange as it appears to them and yet more strange to other classes of Christians who watch our work, many of our most wealthy and most able brethren who make strong professions of faith in these truths and have
FOREIGN MISSIONS.
an abundance of means are too worldly to give much to publish it, or do not appreciate the importance of the opportunities of the hour to set before their benighted and heathen fellowmen the glorious Gospel of the coming and kingdom of our Lord and of eternal life in Him. Wo use all the means in this work which is sent in by those who obey the con-victions of duty, without any pay for our services, and could use to as much advantage one hundred dol-lore per week more than we do if friends wished their money to be so used. The time is short, now is the time to work.
THE WORK IN ITALY.
Our work goes steadily but slowly on in Italy. Our means are small and it is a hard country to work. Brother Cocorda is doing all he can in preaching, and with means I send is publishing “ The Truth,” a small paper, twice a month, to circulate among the Waldenses. We are hoping yet to resume the publication of the monthly “ Italian Bee,” but lack the means to do it at present. Much good was done while it was published and its former read-ers are earnestly calling for it. But they are too poor to support it. We ought also to continue the publication of tracts there. The lack of money pre-vents it. More money means more work for the sal-vation of souls. We are yet hoping and praying for means to purchase a printing press for Italy, and to keep it at work in publishing the good news. We wait the hand of the Lord.
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
The Devil’s Mission Of Amusement.
BT THE BEV. ARCHIBALD G. BROWN, LONDON.
Different days demand their own special testimony. The watchman who would be faithful to his Lord and the city of his God, has need to carefully note the signs of the times and emphasize his witness accord-ingly. Concerning the testimony needed now, there can be little, if any, doubt. An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross, so brazen in its impu-dence, that the most shortsighted of spiritual men can hardly fail to notice it.
During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, ever for evil. It has worked like leaven, until now the whole lump ferments. Look which way you may, its presence makes itself manifest. There is little, if anything, to choose between church, chapel or mission hall. However these may differ in some re-spects, they bear a striking likeness to the postera that figure upon and disfigure their notice boards. Amusements for the people is the leading article ad-vertised by each. If any of my readers doubt my statement, or think my utterance too sweeping, let them take a tour of inspection and study “ the an-nouncements of the week ” at the doors of the sanctu-aries of their neighborhood ; or let them read the re-
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
ligious advertisements in their local papers. I have done this again and again, until the hideous fact has been proved up to the hilt, that “amusement” is ousting “the preaching of the Gospel” as the great attraction. “Concerts,” “Entertainments,” “Fancy Fairs,” “Smoking Conferences,” “Dramatic Perform-anees,” are the words honored with biggest type and most startling colors. The concert is fast becoming as much a recognized part of church life as the prayer-meeting, and is already, in most places, far better attended.
“Providing recreation for the people” will soon be looked upon as a necessary part of Christian work, and as binding upon the church of God, as though it were a Divine command, unless some strong voices be raised which will make themselves heard. I do not presume to possess such a voice ; but I do entertain the hope that I may awaken some louder echoes. Anyway, the burden of the Lord is upon me in this matter, and I leave it with Him to give ray testimony ringing tone, or to let it die away in silence. I shall have delivered my soul in either case. Yet the con-viction fills my mind that in all parts of the country there are faithful men and women who see the danger and deplore it, and will indorse my witness and my warning.
It is only during the past few years that “ amuse-ment” has become a recognized weapon of our warfare, and developed into a mission. There has been a steady “down gra^e” in this respect. From “speak-ing out,” as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony ; then winked at and ex-
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
cased the frivolities of the day. Then she has toler-ated them in her borders, and now she has adopted them and provided a home for them under the plea of * reaching the masses and getting the ear of the peo-pie.״ The Devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the charch of Christ that part of her mis-sion is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them into her ranks. The human nature that lies in every heart has risen to the bait. Here, now, is an opportunity of gratifying the flesh and yet retaining a comfortable conscience. We can now please ourselves in order to do good to others. The rough old cross can be exchanged fora weos-turne,” and the exchange can be made with the be-nevolent purpose of elevating the people.
All this is terribly sad, and the more so because truly gracious souls are being led away by the specious pretext that it is a form of Christian work. They for-get that a seemingly beautiful angel may be the Devil himself, “ for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Cor. 11: 14.
NOT CHRISTIAN WORK.
My first contention is, that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in Holy Scripture as one of the functions of the church. What her duties are will come under our notice later on. At present it is the negative side of the question that we are deal-ing with. Now surely, if our Lord had intended His church to be the caterer of entertainment, and so counteract the god of this world, He would hardly have left so important a branch of service unmentioned.
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THIS NIGHT ?
.If it 16 Christian work, why did not Christ at least hint it? ״Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature,״ is clear enough. So would it have been if He had added, “ and provide amusement for those who do not relish the Gospel.״ No such adders dumi however, is to be found, nor even an equivalent for such in any one of our Lord’s utterances. This style of work did not seem to ooour to His mind. Then again, Christ, as an ascended Lord, gives to His church specially qualified men for the carrying on of His work, but no mention of any gift for this branch of service occurs in the list. “ He gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers—for the perfecting of saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Where do the “ public entertainers ” come in? The Holy Ghost is silent concerning them; and His silence is eloquence.
If “providing recreation” be a part of the church’s work, surely we may look for some promise to en-courage her in the toilsome task. Where is it? There is a promise for “ My word” : “ It shall not return unto Me void.” There is the heart-rejoicing declara-tion concerning the Gospel : “ It is the power of God.” There is the sweet assurance for the preacher of Christ that whether he be successful or no—as the world judges success—he is a “sweet savor unto God.” There is the glorious benediction for those whose tes-timony, so far from amusing the world, rouses its wrath : “ Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be ex-
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
Qeeding glad : for great is your reward in Heaven : for so persecuted they the prophets which were ־ before you.״ Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people, or because they refused to? The gospel of amusement has no martyrology. In vain does one look for a promise from God for providing recreation for a godless world. That which hae no authority from Christ, no provision made for it by the Spirit, no promise attached to it by God, can only be a lying hypocrite when it lays claim to be “ a branch of the work of the Lord.”
But again. Providing amusement for the people is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What is to be the attitude of the church toward the world according to our Lord’s teaching ? Strict separation and uncompromising hos-tility. While no hint ever passed His lips of winning the world by pleasing it, or accommodating methods to its taste, His demand for unworldliness was con* stant and emphatic. He sets forth in one short sen«· tence what he would have His disciples to be: “ Ye are the salt of the earth.” Yes, the salt: not the sugar-candy nor a Ulump of delight.” Something the world will be more inclined to spit out, than swallow with a smile. Something more calculated to bring water to the eye than laughter to the lip.
what were Christ’s methods?
Short and sharp is the utterance, “Let the dead bury their dead : but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” “If ye were of the world the world would love his own : but because ye are not of the world, but
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
I have chosen you ont of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” “ In the world ye shall have trib-illation : but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world.” “I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” “ My kingdom is not of this world.”
These passages are hard to reconcile with the mod-ern idea of the church providing recreation for those who have no taste for more serious things—in other words, of conciliating the world. If they teach any-thing at all, it is that fidelity to Christ will bring down the world’s wrath, and that Christ intended His disci-pies to share with Him the world’s scorn and rojeo-tion. How did Jesus act? What were the methods of the only perfectly “faithful witness” the Father has ever had ?
As none will question that He is to be the worker’s model, let us gaze upon Him. How significant the in-troductory account given by Mark, “ Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preach-ing the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe the Gospel.” And again, in the same chapter, I find Him saying, in answer to the announcement of His disciples that all men were seeking for Him, “ Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also : for therefore came I forth.” Matthew tells us, “ and it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.” In answer to John’s question, “Art thou He
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