WHAT OF THE NIGHT?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 2, 1901

“WHAT OF THE NIGHT?”

An ancient seer records this interesting vision:— “The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye; turn ye, come.” Isa. 21:11, 12.

The word “Dumah” means silence. It may refer to desolate Edom, or Idumea, as the Septuagint indicates.

Here is the picture: A watchman set upon some prominent eminence, there to keep watch thru all the night, and apprise the people in the plain of the approach of danger. The night is long and dark. Wild tempests sweep the sky. Lurid fires throw their baleful light against the black face of the tempest, intensifying the fearful darkness. Pestilence and strife may be raging in the city. Souls are dying; homes are desolate. Revelry is at its height. Mourning is in many homes. In the war of the elements, in the bedlam of strife and pleasure, one thoughtful, anxiously-longing soul goes out and cries to the silent sentinel, pacing his lonely beat with ceaseless vigil, “Watchman, what of the night?” The watchman replies: “I can see the breaking light of the east. The deep gloom is glinting with the gray of dawn. The morning cometh.” But to those who care not for the morning, the breaking of the day will bring no hope; there comes another night. But are you anxious to know?—Inquire, faithfully inquire. Turn from the revel, the strife, and the madness, and come.

This is a faint picture of the present great world, with its strife and pleasure, its madness and revels, its calamity and pestilence, its disease and death, its sorrow and sighing, its storms and darkness,—the long night of sin. Whole nations are bowed under their burdens of war. Rulers are in perplexity. They know not which way to turn. Evils great and tremendous threaten from every side. Modern invention has made all the great nations neighbors, and the ramifications of means of travel and communication, reveal skeleton closets and weakened gates and national prejudices, but unfortunately do not regenerate human hearts. There is much talk of the Christ, but little is known of His power. Theology, in its criticism, has to many minds proved the Bible to be baseless as an infallible guide, and millions are drifting on and on in the great uncertain sea of growing unbelief and darkness. Christ, to them, is a political expedient, a national reformer, an ecclesiastical fetish, a sectarian, a great non-essential, a general meaningless expression of love and good will,—almost anything and everything except “the wisdom of God and the power of God,” “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” “God-with-us,” the personal Friend and Saviour of all who believe. Men use Him to further their plans and schemes and theories, instead of coming to Him as a blank ear, to listen to what He may say; their heart as a blank page, upon which He may write His own law; their will as a blank order-book, in which He may give His directions; He the Lord, His Word the guide, and man the willing, honest servant, doing His will from the heart.

God saw all this condition of things in this world centuries ago. He declared it all in His Word centuries ago. He is, in His providence, writing it again in the events of nations and times, that men may be confirmed in its truth, and so by His Spirit He is stirring every heart to ask: “What do these things mean? Watchman, what of the night?”

God has his watchmen. He has set them to warn the world of its wickedness, to point out the way. God’s watchmen speak with authority. They speak not from the traditions of men, not from the deductions and conclusions of an hypothetical, imperfect, and halting science; not from the expediency of politicians; not from the inferences and decisions of theologians or church councils, howsoever great and learned they may be; but the watchmen of God speak from their own warm, living experience, in the light of a living, present Word of God. Their seeings are the “visions of God.” His message is from on high. They answer from the watch-tower of divine assurance. “The morning cometh, and also the night.” They invite honest inquiry and hearty turning to God. “If ye will inquire, inquire ye; turn ye, come.”

And thru all these elements of strife and blood and war and pestilence, God is calling to the great, weary, wicked, heart-sick world, “Come, come, come, come.” He would have them see in all these happenings, the heralds of Christ’s coming. Over the dense gloom of sin’s dark night, are the gleams of the golden dawn. As in the Red Sea period of Israel’s journey to the promised land, the pillar of fire and cloud, tho seemingly reeking with wrath to the oppressor, was light to the pilgrims of faith, so are these multiplying omens of to-day to the child of God. “The night is far spent.” The day is about to dawn. The gloom is giving place to gray. The night of dreary darkness is about to suddenly fade in the light of the glory of the dawning day. Christ the King is coming, a Saviour to all in whose hearts He reigns now. Is He your King now?—If not, seek Him ere it be too late. He graciously waits for you. It is His message, “If ye will inquire, inquire ye; turn ye, come.”