NATURALLY enough at the opening of a new century thinking men inquire each other's views respecting the outlook. Naturally enough, too, hopes and fears chase each other through these imaginings, according to the temperaments of the thinkers and their experiences and their light.
The child of God, with his Father's Word of revelation in his hand, surely has much advantage every way over others as he seeks to scan the horizon of the twentieth century. But alas! how few among the millions of Christendom are in this position scanning the future through the glass of divine revelation. The masses nominally assent to the wisdom of such a course, yet will not follow it, confessing themselves "babes" as respects the Bible,—"unskilful in the word of righteousness." (Heb. 5:11-14.) Such "babes," realizing their own inabilities, look to their teachers as to nurses, care-takers; and the latter, sad to relate, are fulfilling prophecy in turning away their ears from the truth unto fables,—evolution theories and higher criticism unbelief.—2 Tim. 4:3,4.
But the few, the very few, the Lord's "little flock," those who do trust the Lord and search his Word—the very class to whom our Lord declares, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom"—the very class specified by the Apostle as "taught of God" and guided by his holy spirit to an understanding of his Word—these certainly have much advantage every way; notably as respects the Kingdom, but also in respect to the affairs of the present evil world.—1 Cor. 2:6-16; Matt. 13:11.
As this class faces toward the sunrise to note the world's prospects for the twentieth century, what a sun-burst meets their eye of faith peering with the aid of the divine glass—God's Word—through the clouds and mists! They see, just beyond the vail, the Lord of Glory ready to take possession of earth's empire, just as soon as the allotted "Times of the Gentiles" shall have run out! They see, with the same eye of faith, the Lord's jewels, his bride, his joint-heir in the Kingdom, mostly with him and waiting now while the remainder of the 144,000 finish their course and make their calling and election sure—passing one by one beyond the vail—changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to the glorious perfection of the First Resurrection, with its glory, honor and immortality, which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, but which, as the Apostle declares, God hath revealed unto us by his spirit.
Then looking for the world's portion through the same inspired glass and with the same eye of faith they see still other wonders and glories. They see God's (spiritual) Kingdom about to be established in the earth: they see its wonderful provisions of heavenly love,—for justice, equity, righteousness and the resultant blessings of peace on earth, good-will toward men: they see the binding of Satan and every evil principle and thing: they see the release of earth's dead and dying millions from the curse to an opportunity then to be theirs to return to full heart-harmony with the Creator through their Redeemer: they see the channel of this favor to be Christ and that the knowledge of this grace of God is yet to fill the whole earth as the waters cover the great deep.
Seeing these things their hearts rejoice and their
faces are glad;—truly the holy anointing oil, the holy
spirit and the blessed enlightenment which it brings
them, is the oil of joy which replaces the spirit of
heaviness.
True, they see also the intervening trials
of faith to themselves, and the sharp experiences which
lie before them in the narrow way ere the goal is [R2767 : page 68] reached, and they see with even clearer distinctness
than do the worldly-wise the great time of trouble
coming upon nominal Christendom; but realizing all
these things to be but incidentals preparing the way
for the great blessing so soon to follow, they can and
do lift up their heads and rejoice in the God of our
salvation, saying—"Great and marvelous are thy
works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy
ways, thou King of saints."
"What if the clouds do for a moment
But now let us contrast with the above bright
prospect the fears and doubts which trouble the wisest
of the "children of this world," because they see only
with their own mental eyes and lack the hearing enlightenment
of the Bible spy-glass.
These views have
been collated by the New York World, which sent out
some time since to prominent people a query respecting
their view of the greatest menace to twentieth
century progress.
Some of the replies are summarized as follows:—
"I believe that ere the twentieth century closes,
the earth will be purged of its foulest shame, the killing
of men by men in battle under the name of war,"
says Andrew Carnegie.
W. T. Stead declares that the chief menace to
man's progress is "war, which threatens Christendom
as the result of ignoring Christian principles in its
dealings with one-fourth of the human race which is
born inside a yellow skin."
Sir Walter Besant fears [R2768 : page 68] especially the increasing naval armaments, designed
"apparently for self-protection," but in reality for
aggression; while Lord Charles Beresford regards "the
Chinese question" with most apprehension.
In many quarters the greatest menace is believed
to be of a social rather than international nature.
The
Earl of Wemyss states it as his opinion that Socialism
is blocking the march of human progress, and Arthur
W. Pinero, the dramatist, attacks trades-unionism.
Joseph Arch, the English labor leader, retaliates by
declaring that "a large accumulation of wealth on the
one hand, and a large increase of pauperism on the
other" is the growing evil in society; and Samuel
Gompers expresses fears for the lowering of the American
standard of living, by Oriental competition.
"The greatest political danger of the twentieth
century is that the increasing influence of wealth will
lead to increasing disregard of the inalienable rights
of man," says William Jennings Bryan.
President
Schurman, of Cornell University, fears most the "exaltation,
worship, and pursuit of money as the foremost
good of life.
The salt that may save us from
this blight," he adds, "is to be found in our schools
and churches; in every union for a righteous cause;
and most of all, in the ideals and aspirations of the
noble souls who will not suffer human society to degenerate
into a mere brutish struggle for life and
the survival of the fittest."
President Hadley, of
Yale University, finds the threat to the public welfare
in "legislation based on the self-interest of individuals,
or classes, instead of on public sentiment and
public spirit."
Among the ecclesiastics, emphasis is laid on the
moral virtues.
When questioned regarding coming
dangers, the Bishop of Hereford replied, in the words
of Col. 3:5: "Evil desires and covetousness."
The
Bishop of Llandaff answered: "Infidelity, anarchy."
Cardinal Gibbons says that "the greatest dangers that
now seem to confront us are political corruption and
lust for gain and the unholy purposes to which it is
perverted."
"MEN'S HEARTS FAILING THEM FOR FEAR."
"The view ten years ago showed a placid, smiling
river; now we see the boiling rapids of a torrent plunging
toward what abyss no one knows.
War has followed
war with swift succession....What the next stroke will be, who can say?"—Springfield Republican.
Lord Salisbury said of threatened wars:—
"These wars come upon us absolutely unannounced
and with terrible rapidity.
The war cloud
rises in the horizon with a rapidity that obviates all
calculation, and, it may be, a month or two months
after the first warning you receive, you find you are engaged
in, or in prospect of a war on which your very
existence is staked."
Gen. N. A. Miles, after his European tour said:—
"I have seen all the great armies of Europe except
the Spanish army.
What I have seen does not
indicate that the millennium is at hand, when swords
shall be beaten into plowshares."
The late Bishop Newman gave his view thus:—
"This is the most unsettled condition of the world
since the crucifixion of Christ.
The stability of government
is no longer a fact.
Change is in the atmosphere.
It is just as true now as a thousand years ago,
'Thou knowest not what a day will bring forth.'...Statesmen are at their wits' end.
Philosophers speculate
in vain."
Archbishop Ireland, Roman Catholic, declares:—
"The bonds of society are relaxed; traditional
principles are losing their sacredness, and perils hitherto
unknown are menacing the life of the social organism."
Prof. Andrews, ex-president of Brown University, says:—
"No well-informed person in Europe seems to believe
that peace is destined to endure there very long.
On all hands people are preparing for war.
Armies
and navies are strengthened; fortifications multiplied;
immense war treasures of gold piled up; all possible
hypothetical plans of campaign, offensive and defensive, [R2768 : page 69] studied and discussed; firearms, great and small,
ceaselessly experimented upon and improved; civil
measures subordinate to military, and statesmen to
great army men and navy men."
Signor Crispi, ex-prime minister of Italy, says:—
"Europe resembles Spain from a certain point of
view.
Anarchy is dominant everywhere. To speak
frankly, there is no Europe.
The European concert
is only a sinister joke.
Nothing can be expected from
the concert of the powers.
We are marching toward
the unknown.
Who knows what tomorrow has in
store for us?"
All of these are right to some extent, for indeed
and in truth the new King, Immanuel, will bring in
an everlasting peace, but his reign will be ushered in
by the political and social and ecclesiastical troubles,
which Bishop Heresford properly ascribes to "evil desires
and covetousness"—otherwise selfishness, which,
as Bishop Llandaff declares, lead to anarchy.
RELIGIOUS FEDERATION IN UNBELIEF AND WORKS.
In Great Britain and in various quarters in the
United States religious federation is making progress.
These unions are for greater and more effective works of righteousness according to their own statements, and religious conviction, faith, is generally lost sight of—denominations of opposite faiths seeking rapprochement,—in growing unbelief as respects Bible doctrines.
Note the following public affirmation of unbelief in
the reliability of the Scriptures by Rev. Rainsford,
D.D., of New York City, reported in the New York Journal.
"In his sermon at St. George's Protestant Episcopal
Church, Rev. Dr. W. S. Rainsford said that the
teachings of Jesus Christ in regard to his second coming
had been grossly misunderstood by the Apostles;
that they had incorporated their mistakes into the New
Testament; that the Church had been grossly misled;
and that the Prayer Book's teachings had been largely
influenced by a handling of the Bible which did not
discriminate between the spiritual teachings of Jesus
and the concepts of men.
"The preacher's thesis was that the Kingdom of
God was not a world power at all, but a spiritual
kingdom in all men's hearts, which could never be established
by force, but could be wrought only by the
persuasion of truth.
Dr. Rainsford said that the
prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem, in the Gospel
of St. Mark, had been understood to include the
promise that the Lord would come again within the
generation of the Apostles.
When he did not come,
St. Jude attempted to explain the apparent failure of
the prophecy by saying that one day was with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day.
"'A delightful theological subterfuge,' remarked
the preacher; 'a complete twisting of the meaning of
Jesus.
There is no terrible judgment ahead, no physically
burning hell.
Judgment is a process here and
now; salvation is a process here and now.
There is
no standing before an awful throne and the separation
of impossible sheep and goats; but the separation is
here and now, as men go on up or slip down into the
bog and mire.'"
Here we have one of the nominal church's great
men, one of its "princes," doing his best to undermine
the faith of the people who pay him a princely salary
to help them to see and follow the Lord's paths.
Nor
must we condemn the man as a hypocrite, for doubtless
it is but another case of the blind leading the blind
into the ditch.
This learned man has possibly not
yet learned that it was not Jude who wrote the words
to which he objects, but Peter. (2 Peter 3:8.)
He
perhaps has not noted, either, that the same holy spirit
indited the same lesson through the Prophet David
centuries before Peter's day, saying, "A thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday." (Psa. 90:4.)
The expression was so used by the Lord himself also.—Gen. 2:17.
However, Dr. Rainsford is only following the
logical course of all "higher critics," who, starting
out with too much egotism, find fault not only with
all of the Old Testament but also with the New—confounding
both prophets and apostles by their superior
wisdom, and classing our Lord with these because he
quoted those very prophecies which the superior wisdom
of the higher critics show to be spurious, while
our Lord, lacking their wisdom, thought these to be
genuine prophecies and quoted them as such.
Truly,
as the Prophet Isaiah foretold, the wisdom of their wise men is perished.—Isa. 29:13,14,9-12.
A PLAIN STATEMENT OF THE CASE.
The Rev. M. O. Simons, a Cleveland minister, is
reported by the Plain Dealer to have summed up present conditions in Christendom as follows:—
"Rev. Simons referred to some of the old battle
fields in this warfare of ideas, and indicated how recent
have been the great changes in religious thinking,
by referring to the fact that only in 1876 Dr. Minot
J. Savage preached a series of sermons on "The Religion
of Evolution."
So far as known, he was the
first minister in Europe and America in the regular
course of pulpit work to frankly accept evolution and
to frankly attempt a reconstruction of religious thinking.
'And it is hard for us to realize now,' said Mr.
Simons, 'the hue and cry that was raised over these
sermons.
Where are we now in this conflict between
the old and the new?
I believe we are on the verge
of a frank confession that there must be a complete
religious reconstruction.
The old system of Christian
doctrine rested upon the fall of man as a foundation.
But now modern thought has utterly discredited this
story of the fall and the subsequent depravity of all
human nature.
What then becomes of the system
that is built upon it?'
"Mr. Simons then referred briefly to some of the [R2769 : page 70] great Christian bodies to show how every one of them is yielding to the broader and more liberal interpretation of Christian doctrine. He said: 'Officially, the Catholic
Church stands squarely opposed to all modern
tendencies, and yet its people cannot be prevented from
thinking.
We find much unrest among Catholic leaders,
much suspicion in European Catholicism of American
Catholicism.
The Catholic Church has its radical
wing as truly as any Christian denomination.
In
the Church of England we find reactionary tendencies,
but these simply indicate that the conservative element
has turned to the only things left to it, the traditional
value of church machinery and apostolic succession.
That reaction does not represent the whole church.
Some of the most enlightened scholars in the world
are in that church; the great liberal interpretation of
all doctrinal points is winning its way and the future
of the English church is in the hands of those who
are rebuilding their religious thought on new
foundations.
"I may say much the same of the Episcopal
Church in America.
It has its conservative reactions,
but the growing sentiment in the church is broad and
liberal.
I have friends in its ministry who are as liberal
as I am.
In the Congregational Church there is
going on a rapid reconstruction of religious thought.
A book like Dr. Gordon's 'The Christ of Today' is
proof of this, not only because of its ideas, but because
it did not convulse the whole Congregational body as
it once would have done.
"In the great Presbyterian Church there is a
great rising tide of liberal thinking.
The movement
for revision of the Westminster Confession, or for some
relief from the outgrown ideas of that document, is
plain evidence.
"In all the great Christian denominations the
conservatives who would keep fighting the church
upon its old foundations, are fighting a losing battle.
The advance of liberal thought is irresistible."
We quote the above to prove the reverse of what
the speaker intended—to prove the great falling away
from the truth to vanity and fables and from vital godliness
to moralizing infidelity.
However, the wider
the chasm grows between the "wheat" and the
"tares," between the children of light and the children
of darkness, the easier it will be for each to know
his place, and by taking it he will make the division
the more quick and complete.
Who is on the Lord's
side?
Who?—Speak and live accordingly!
Hide the blue sky where morn appears?
Soon the glad sun of promise given
Rises to shine a thousand years!"