An Eternal Kingdom Promised—Events Show It to Be Near
By William H. Edwards
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12: 32. To some, this declaration of Jesus appears only poetic. But taken in connection with many of the strong prophetic utterances of the Word, it comes within the range of the real and the believable.
Apparently Impossible
To look at the little handful of followers of Christ as compared with the vast world of unbelievers, certainly there seems, from a human view, that no kingdom is waiting for them. Theirs is the privilege of living a life of sacrifice, abstinence from the expensive pleasures of the world that the majority feel to be so needful to happiness; and they must always set an example of righteousness and dignity to represent properly the religion of the Saviour. Of course to the Christian these are not irksome duties, but joyous privileges; but to the worldly onlooker, such a life may seem to be nothing to be coveted.
Was the Lord falsifying to His children? At the time the promise was made, He did not own a kingdom, and was one of the poorest of earth’s citizens, and as He said, had “not where to lay His head.” Yet He said to342them, notwithstanding these appearances, You are to have a kingdom.
It is not the nature of our kind heavenly Parent to make meaningless promises, and hold out to the oppressed children of men hopes that He could not or did not intend to fulfill.
The God of Heaven Sets Up a Kingdom
Dan. 2: 44 says, “In the days of these kings [the fragmentary parts of the fourth and last universal kingdom] shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.” And Dan. 7: 17, 18 states: “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings [or kingdoms], which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.”
Again, verses 21 and 22: “I beheld,” says the prophet Daniel, “and the same horn [kingdom] made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.”
But how are the children of God to secure the kingdom? For, says Paul, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” 2 Cor. 10: 4. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but . . . against spiritual wickedness”—margin, “wicked spirits.” Eph. 6: 12. And Jesus said, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Matt. 26: 52.
Gained by Endurance
God gave to ancient Israel the land of their enemies; but they had to fight for it, and He gave them the victory. In the last days, the kingdom is promised; but this time, the children of God do not fight, but simply endure and are patient while God fights for His church.
“Therefore wait ye upon Me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure lip [margin], that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” Zeph. 3: 8, 9.
Events That Reveal It
Turning to Luke’s gospel, the twenty-first chapter, we discover specifications which enable us to determine that the age in which we find ourselves living is in the end of time. Christ spoke of wars and commotions that would occur, but charged His disciples not to be terrified, for these things must first come to pass. Nation should rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, but the end is not distinguished by that alone.
He stated further that there would be great earthquakes in many places. This prediction has been and still continues to be fulfilled; for from sixteen earthquakes in 1,700 years prior to the advent of Christ, the number has increased to 120,000 in the last fifty years, occurring in all parts of Europe, in the United States, Mexico, South America, Central America, Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. Two thousand occurred in the year 1907, and they are felt now at the rate of eighty-two a day, or thirty thousand a year. It is estimated that there have been six million earthquakes since the Christian era began. Still the end is not yet, and the record of the Scriptures is that these are but the beginnings of sorrows.
The best evidence that the kingdom is in sight is the moral condition of the world today, approximating if not exceeding that of Sodom and Gomorrah in God-defying effrontery to commit all kinds of sin. Satan, the great author and agent of sin and rebellion, has been properly uncovered before the angels and the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds through the wickedness he has caused men to commit. To prolong time much further would but add to the misery of the miserable, and accomplish no good; so God promises that “He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” Rom. 9: 28.
“In the Days of These Kings”
Referring again to Daniel’s prophecy, God says that “in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.” What kings is He speaking of?
John says, in the Revelation, the seventeenth chapter and the tenth verse, that there are seven kings, or forms of kingdoms, shown in his vision as being controlled by a church power under the appearance of a woman. This generation has to deal with the eighth head (verse 11), which is of the seven, and this eighth beast is the one that goes into perdition.
Can we locate that power characterized by the eighth beast? It is described by the prophet in his own words as one that he saw, and then he did not see it, and again he did see it. What power has played such a part as this since the establishment of the Christian church? Only one—papal Rome, existent, then for two years nonexistent, and then reestablished—receiving the death stroke in 1798, and starting again into new life in 1800. This can be no other than the deadly wound that was healed. Rev. 13: 3.
It is believed that the deadly wound was inflicted when General Berthier, of the French army, took the pope, Pius VI, prisoner, in 1798, and he died in exile at Valence, France, August 29, 1799. But the healing process was begun when the papacy was reestablished in 1800; and it will be healed when she can use the words prophesied in Rev. 18: 7, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”
The Kingdoms Unite Their Power
This “king maker,” for whom is claimed the power to dethrone or set up princes at his will, may again have the deciding voice in the formation of a map in the Old World. The line of demarcation of the original ten kingdoms of Europe into which the Roman Empire was divided by the hordes from the north, later reduced to seven by the uprooting of the three Arian kingdoms by the “little horn” power which took their place, has been so changed or obliterated as to be unrecognizable to-day; but these kingdoms served as landmarks in history long enough to verify prophecy referring to the past. But however much those kingdoms have been or may become changed, merged, or obliterated, ten kingdoms belonging to that church power will exist contemporaneously with the beast for one hour, or a brief time, in the end of the world; and Rev. 17: 13, 14 states that these ten kingdoms give power and strength to the beast, and are of one mind to make war with the Lamb.
They make war with the Lamb when they interfere with His business on earth, His church, His people. But the record says that the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord above lords, and King above kings. The ten kingdoms belonging to this beast power very soon learn the falsity of their ground, and hate the church kingdom, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire; for God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His will, and give their kingdom to the church power, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the last verse of the chapter says that the woman John saw sitting on the scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, is that church which looked to the prophet like a great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.
“Come Out of Her”
The call is now sounding all over the world, by voice and pen, to “come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Rev. 18: 4, 5.
The time is here when the statement of Rev. 13: 8 is fast fulfilling, that “all that dwelt upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Millions upon millions who never intend to unite with Rome are intimidated by her, and must eventually be swept into her fold. But the statement of God’s word is still sure, that the saints possess the kingdom, those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
That the time for the saints to take possession of the kingdom is near at hand is proved by wars; many and great earthquakes; distress of nations, with perplexity, and men’s hearts failing them for fear of what is coming next; the poor increasing in number and wretchedness, while great fortunes they have helped to amass are held by a few; evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse, and increasing vastly in numbers, so that it is dangerous to life to have wealth or beauty, and men stealers and women stealers are everywhere to entrap and to destroy.
Thinking men, who are not Christians, admit and declare that the world is becoming so wicked that it must fall to destruction by its own weight of evil, unless some power for good shall soon turn the tide, and the current flow in an opposite direction. But the student of the Bible, the child of faith, knows that343this frightful condition is portentous of the end, when the time is ripe that the saints are to possess the kingdom.
Fear not, little flock; for, says Christ, it is a pleasure for your Father soon to give you the kingdom.
The Newspaper and the “Good News”
By W. L. Burgan
The Interest of the Secular Press in Religious Questions
By W. L. Burgan
PERHAPS the greatest agency for the heralding of the gospel is the newspaper. Many religious organizations are realizing the importance of this medium, and systematic campaigns are being carried on by clergymen for the voicing of their doctrines to the readers of the secular press.
Newspapers are circulating in all parts of the world. The only thing that goes into every home in the city, that can carry the gospel with it, is the newspaper. Practically every person in the cities and the towns is, through the newspaper, made acquainted with the current news and happenings of the day. Out along every railroad line the newspaper goes. The trolley carries it to the villages and the towns, and the rural mail carrier delivers it to the homes along every country road and lane. Everywhere in America the newspaper is read.
NEWS GATHERERS AND THE READERS
Editors, like missionaries and school-teachers, are always looking out for new fields to enter. The most persistent readers, however, are in the large cities. Here the newspaper is a daily necessity.
Even the immigrant, newly arrived and long downtrodden, finds it impossible to wait until he can read English to have the newspaper. He must have his daily paper in his native language. The thirst for information is in the air.
In the crowded cars that carry the people to the offices, the stores, and the factories in the morning, there is hardly a person who does not carry a paper; and returning from work in the evening, those who are not reading, or carrying papers as evidence that they intend to read, are very few.
Many of the large morning dailies have set apart a page each Monday for news items from the churches. All denominations have the privilege of being contributors; and as a rule, the papers will give extracts of sermons delivered in various pulpits. Likewise, afternoon papers in many of the large cities have set aside a page in their Saturday edition for the presentation of religious topics. And when discourses delivered on other days of the week are unusual enough, the editors will gladly publish extracts of them along with the other news of the day.
PERSISTENTLY THE MESSAGE HAS GONE
In recent years, considerable has been done in heralding the message of the second advent of Christ to millions of readers in all parts of North America, and also in different countries in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as Australia and the islands of the sea. There are thousands of persons who will read reports on religious topics who never attend a church service nor would invite a minister or a Bible worker to their homes.
THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT
In lauding the press, the Rev. John Compton Ball, a noted Baptist minister of Washington, D. C., recently said:
“The spiritual awakening of the American press should be a cause for thanksgiving. The press has become one of the foremost mediums for furthering the Christian religion. Never before in the history of this country have the newspapers devoted so much space to religious news. The press is doing a grand work, and the people should thank God for what the newspapers have done and for what they can do.”
The Very Rev. William MacCormack, in a specially prepared article on “The Pulpit and Press,” in the Los Angeles Tribune, said:
“The relationship of these two institutions is very close. They are allies and not antagonists, and they do their best work in union rather than in separation. I always have attached a very great significance to the power of the press.”
“The preacher speaks through the living voice; the newspaper preaches through the living word. The first reaches thousands, and the latter reaches tens of thousands.
“I believe that much of the power of the church to-day would be curtailed were it not for the kindly and gratuitous cooperation of the press. Her programs are printed freely and scattered broadcast amongst all sorts and conditions of people.
“There is no institution under the canopy of heaven that is so largely a legatee of the benefactions of the newspaper as the church, hence this vital and living bond of relationship that binds and holds these two servants of mankind together.”
The Hopeful View
By William R. Patterson
By William R. Patterson
There'll come a time, with the coming years,
When the right will win, I'm told;
When truth cast down will rise again,
And rival burnished gold;
When wrong no more will rule the world,
And each receive his own;
When all will find e'er true to kind
The fruits of what they've sown.
There comes a time, to one and all,
That bounds life's fleeting day,
When evenings' twilights gently fall,
And slumber steals the sense away;
When sinks the troubled soul to rest,
And ceaseless toil and mad'ning cares
Disturb no more the quiet breast—
The end of toil, the end of fears.
There'll come a day when the clouds will lift,
And light shine o'er the darkened way,—
When through the burnished, silvered rift
Will gleam the light of cloudless day;
When Death will loose his prison bars,
And earth will throb with life again;
When once again the morning stars
Will join her in a sweet refrain.
Is God Particular?
By Allen Moon
“YE shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deut. 4:2.
Saul, the first king of Israel, received commandment to go and smite Amalek, “and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” 1 Sam. 15:3. Saul went as he was directed, but brought back the best of the sheep and fatlings and lambs. In this he diminished from the word of the Lord.
Saul proposed to offer to the Lord a great sacrifice of these sheep and oxen obtained from the Amalekites. Thus he would add to the word of the Lord.
In both diminishing from and adding to the word of the Lord, he rebelled, and became disobedient to the Lord; and in his rebellion, he proposed to offer to the Lord the sheep and oxen that had been dedicated to the gods of Amalek, instead of the sheep and oxen that had been dedicated to the God of Israel, thus adding insult to rebellion. For this sin he lost his kingdom and his life.
Is God particular? Will He to-day accept an offering of that which has been offered to heathen gods, in place of that which He has commanded? ALLEN MOON.
The Curse
By J. H. Hartig
MAN may curse, but Prov. 26: 2 assures us that a causeless curse shall not come. How is it when God pronounces His curse? He says, according to Gen. 3: 17, “Cursed is the ground.” In Deut. 27: 26 we find that to break the law would entail a curse; and in Deut. 21: 23, that one hanged on the tree was accursed.
The Romans introduced crucifixion among the Jews, whose method of inflicting the death penalty was stoning, as was done to Stephen, and as was threatened against the Messiah. But it was not only His death that was required to set us free, but emphatically the death on the cross, that He might be accursed by hanging there and bearing the curse for us.
The Romans did not have this feeling of what a terrible thing it meant to be crucified, but the Jew did; and to make sure that the hated Messiah was not only killed, but accursed, they cried out, not, “Kill Him, kill Him,” but, “Crucify Him.”
It has been argued that Jesus died on the cross to fulfill prophecy. But there was even a more important reason than that: He was to take away the curse. Clad in humanity, no more terrible thing could have come into His soul than to be condemned to the accursed tree. J. H. HARTIG.
Obedience and Freedom
By James White
SOME people think of obedience as if it were nothing else than servitude. And it must be admitted that constrained obedience is so. He who obeys by compulsion, wears a chain upon his spirit which continually frets and torments, while it confines him. On the contrary, true obedience, that which has its seat in the affections, and which flows out like the gushing of water, may be said, in a very important sense, to possess not only the nature, but the very essence of freedom. — James White.
New Manna Every Day
By John Nevins Andrews
We want a new experience daily in the things of God. If we gather our manna every day, it will always be fresh and new and acceptable. It is old manna that is stale and offensive. We do not want something instead of manna, but we want new manna every day.—J. N. Andrews.
HELP SENT IN TIME OF NEED
Destitute and Afflicted — Miraculously Delivered
IN that wonderful hundred and seventh psalm, the psalmist sums up centuries of providential deliverances in olden time, declaring over and over that the Lord is good, and calling upon “the redeemed” to “say so”:
“Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.” Verses 5, 6.
It is the psalm of praise for watchful providences in time of need; and by these experiences of old, many a believing soul has been led to trust in the same living God for deliverance.
Story of Deliverance
Here is a modern story of deliverance, told, it is said, by the son of the woman whom God used as the messenger of mercy:
“One winter morning, a Christian woman, who had often distributed to the necessity of the saints, sat alone in the room where advanced age and the beginning of what proved to be her last illness confined her.
“Roused from her meditation by the entrance of her daughter, she said: ‘My dear, old Mr. and Mrs. W—— have been on my mind all night. I hear they were not at church on Sunday. I know that they are poor. They may be sick and in want. I wish you would take a basket, call a cab, drive to the market, buy a goodly supply of provisions, and take it to them.’ Here she gave the address; and as her daughter was leaving the room, she added, handing her a thick flannel skirt: ‘Perhaps you would do well to take this too. The weather is cold, and Mrs. W—— may need it.’
“The young woman went. The provisions were bought; and at the head of the third flight of stairs in the tenement house to which she had been directed, she stopped. Through the door she heard Mr. W——’s voice asking a blessing upon the food before him.
“At the conclusion of the grace, and smiling at what she now believed to be her mother’s unnecessary anxiety, she knocked and entered. Sure enough, there they were at dinner, the wife at the foot of the table, waiting to be helped, the husband at the head, carving — one large apple, all the food they had!
“With tears in her eyes, the young woman drew forth her kindly stores; and while a comfortable meal was prepared, she listened to their grateful thanks, and heard from uncomplaining lips their pitiful story,—how they earned a precarious living as clear starchers; how the husband had been attacked with rheumatism, and the wife with a felon; how, though utterly destitute, they had poured out before their God all their troubles, and how they had surely believed that He would send some one to help them.
“When dinner was ready, and the visitor was about to leave, Mrs. W—— accompanied her to the door, and with an expectant look, said, ‘My dear, did you bring the flannel petticoat?’
“In the excitement of her entrance, the young woman had quite forgotten the skirt, which still lay in the bottom of the basket. Astonished at the question, she said, ‘Yes, I brought you a skirt; but why did you think so?’
“‘Because, dear,’ said the old saint, ‘when I told the Lord there was only an apple left, I told Him I needed a warm flannel petticoat; and I was only wondering whether you had it, or would He send it by some one else.’”
Skepticism stumbles at the thought that the great Creator should bend down to notice the detailed concerns of daily life, and make provision for them. But the childlike faith that takes God at His word, delights to know that it is precisely because God is so infinitely great that He is able to concern Himself with the smallest details that affect His children.
“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. . . . But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” Isa. 66: 1, 2.
