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Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 46.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Earlier text: Judgment "Is Come."

GOD’S MESSAGE FOR THIS TIME

By M. C. Wilcox

BY M. C. WILCOX

NO. II. BABYLON—HER ORIGIN.

ABOUT forty-five centuries ago, according to common chronology—the time, more or less, matters not to our lesson—the inhabitants of earth were largely dwellers in western Asia, the dominant part in the wonderfully rich valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Previous to this there had come command to them from the King of Heaven to scatter abroad upon the earth, just washed from its sin by the Deluge, and in all the world carry the righteousness of God, the oneness of God’s plan, His power to save, and the glory of His name.
But one company, disbelieving God, feeling His plan to be inadequate, thinking it needed human improvement, believing concentration and centralization to be the source of strength, the foundation of stability; and wishing, moreover, to exalt their own name and honor, called a council, and followed a leader to this effect:
“Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
Selfishness, self-salvation, and utter perversion of God’s plan was within it all. It was let us, for us, to save us, and to keep us from doing the very thing that God told us to do. And they proceeded to build, and called the name of the city and tower, “Bab-il,” “the Gate of God” or “the Gate of Heaven;” and so they stamped it upon the bricks which they thoroughly burned and builded into the structure, and the children of men read it to-day.
But God, seeing the folly, the selfishness, the utter ruin in it all, gave the city the name which it has ever since borne, “Babel,” or in the Greek, “Babylon,” meaning “confusion.” Mighty efforts men put forth around that great center to make that city what their bricks declared it would be; but it lies now buried in a great ruinous heap, attesting the truth of God’s pronouncement, confusion, which ever leads on to ruin and destruction.
The record and the ruin stand a great lesson of the ages to selfishly blind, false-reasoning humanity, that the perversion of God’s ways leads to defeat and destruction; and the city and the name stand in the Sacred Record as a type and symbol of all human plans and schemes which pervert in any way God’s one plan of salvation.

The Restoration of the Perfect Plan.

When the Son of God came in humanity, there was again restored to the world the perfect plan of God for the salvation of men.
In human flesh the Son of God demonstrated the power of the Gospel by faith. He won the victory, complete, perfect, glorious, over all the power of the enemy and the devices and schemes of men. He came into the Babylon of Jewish sects, and re-established His church on the solid base of God’s righteousness and life by faith—the one body bound to the one Head, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Spiritual Babylon.

But not long did the church remain united and pure. Heathen subtleties, speculative philosophies, hoary traditions, corrupted the pure faith; and in the church arose men speaking perverse things, and drew away disciples after themselves. See Acts 20: 30; 2 Peter 2: 1-3; Gal. 4: 8-10; Rev. 2: 14, et al. The fine gold became basely alloyed, the white robe befouled with worldly grime. Worldliness and wealth brought popularity. The form of truth mingled with divisive error was crystallized into creeds, and state aid was asked to supplement the loss of spiritual power, consequent on crowding out Jesus Christ, and setting aside the Word of God for the perversions of men.
This condition of things the Revelation designates as Babylon, confusion. It resulted in union of church and state under Constantine. It resulted in the Dark Ages. It resulted in the fearful, centuries-long massacre and holocaust of papal and Protestant-papal persecutions.

The Reformation.

Thank God, the Reformation, under men of God, broke Babylon’s power, and vindicated anew the power of the simple Gospel received by faith to regenerate men, and stay the corrupting influence in a decaying world. But it did not go deep enough. The dead hand of creed still held the masses, and formed an inviting avenue for the admission of the state; and the union followed; and Babylon—confusion—still exists in wider power than ever before, till the whole world is compassed by the influence of perverted, imperfect creeds and divisive tendencies.

The Healing Message.

To heal these divisions in modern Babylon, to restore again the purity and power of the primitive church, God sends forth to this generation a special Gospel message, appropriate both positively and negatively for this time. In prohibition and injunction, in warning and precept, it comes to this generation, to this time, yet carrying with it the great power of God in the Gospel of the ages.
Thus is it set forth:
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14: 6, 7. (See also Joel 2: 1; Zeph. 2: 1-3; and many other scriptures.)
God’s work in heaven corresponds with God’s work on earth. When His earthly messengers are sent forth to the men of earth with His message, His heavenly angels co-operate. In fact, each has his work to do; for it is not only earthly agencies which are enlisted against God’s work, but also angels of the devil. The great moral conflict of the ages is a battle also between unseen spiritual forces. The angel, therefore, stands for a great world-wide work.
“The everlasting Gospel” is the glad tidings of the ages of God’s free grace in Jesus Christ, appropriated by faith. It saved Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Moses and Elijah, and all the good of all ages.
But in this message that Gospel proclaims as present truth that the hour, the time, the period, of God’s judgment is come. In all the proclamations of the past there was predicted a “judgment to come,” in the last day. Acts 24: 25; John 12: 48. But this message predicts a judgment impending, a closing up of Christ’s work as priest, an examination for the benefit of His creatures of the names of all who have sought to serve God, that those who are accounted worthy may be raised out from among the dead, and made immortal. Luke 20: 35; 1 Cor. 15: 51-54. This time began at the close of the 2,300 days of Dan. 8: 14. (For a fuller discussion of the time of this message, see elsewhere in this issue.)
In view of that judgment, “fear God, and give glory to Him.” The fear of God leads to obedience. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.” “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Surely, he gives no glory to God who is disobedient. A parallel text is, “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.”
The fear of God brings purity of life and motive, and enduring character. “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.” The fear, the reverence, loving fear to offend God, is the basis of all true character. Without it the self-sufficiency of the human leads to the darkness of Egypt or the bottomless morasses of Babylon.
How the wholesome fear of God would bring men together, whittle down to nothing their fine theories, dissipate their imaginations, and bring them to the feet of God and into the ranks of Jesus Christ!
Giving God glory is not substituting tradition for His Word, nor human statute for His law. He declares, “My glory will I not give to another.” Giving glory to God is not making hollow and empty profession, but keeping His commandments, bearing fruit to His glory. Jesus declared, “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” John 15: 8. By the shining light of good works of righteousness is God glorified. Matt. 5: 16; Phil. 1: 11. The fear of God leads to implicit obedience of all His commandments.
When your case shall come to judgment, God’s law will be the rule of judgment. Eccl. 12: 13, 14; James 2: 12; Rom. 2: 12. The question will not be, Did you fear man? Did you honor man? Did you give glory to man? Even so men do now, till God and His claims are hidden and debased, and fallen man exalted only to fall forever.
“Worship Him.” Worship who?—The Creator. The One who made the “heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters;” the Creator, Redeemer, and Preserver of all, and who gave us the Sabbath as the memorial and sign of His creative and redemptive power. Ps. 111: 4; Ex. 20: 8-11; Eze. 20: 12, 20.
“Worship Him.” “How shall I worship?” Shall it be by great gifts? by ostentation? by display? by great churches? by libraries? by any gifts, whatsoever?—Nay, by none of these. Listen: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God?” Micah 6: 8, margin. Listen again: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to harken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”
Even so worship God; for the truest worship is service. Said the Master, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Matt. 4: 10.
There is no other way save God’s way. Back to that way, back to the Bible, back to His Word in Christ Jesus, the message calls us. And if all in Babylon had yielded all things else,—the hoary tradition of the “fathers,” the creeds of dead hands, the ambitions of natural hearts, at whatever cost, it would have brought the power and strength and blessing and union and glory of Jesus Christ into His church, and all the divisions of God’s children in Babylon would have been healed. If you would prove it true, do it; for alone by faith is life union formed with Him.
[The next article will show what must follow the rejection of the message.]

THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT

By L. A. Phippeny

AND ITS COUNTERFEIT

BY L. A. PHIPPENY
IN the days immediately preceding the second-coming of Christ, a remarkable energizing of the spirits of all flesh is to take place. For "it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh." (Acts 2:17, cited from Joel, and in harmony with the glad promises of all ages.) Placing the time more definitely, it means now.
At the beginning of the Gospel dispensation there was witnessed a special outpouring of the Spirit. For a like manifestation, tho far exceeding the former in glory, the expectation of God's children is transferred to the end of the age, the days in which is consummated the Gospel message of salvation. And, therefore, the present world-wide spiritual activity is one of the striking signs that prove the proximity of the end of the age and the unparalleled events that are grouped around it. Then the solemn but grand truth follows, that already there has been poured upon all flesh a measure of vitalizing power from on high. Not alone upon the earnest seekers after divine grace is the refreshing shower falling, but upon saint and sinner.
Do not stumble at the thought that all flesh is receiving the gracious drops from above. It is God's truth, for all flesh is a thirsty land, and needs it. You must have felt the operation of the unseen power upon your own heart. Then for your soul's sake and for eternity yield to its gentle pleading. Were you looking for signs and miracles to follow the outpouring of the Spirit? Well, they will follow where God wills, but it possibly may not be your lot to witness them. Leave that to God, and to Him also leave the responsibility of distributing the gifts of the Spirit where and when and upon whom He wills.
Again, remember that the office of the Spirit is to convince of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, and not every soul—far from it—to whom the reproof and the conviction come will turn from the pleasures of sin to the joys of life everlasting. But this reproving, convincing, convicting, is pressing upon the conscience of every living soul of mankind, with power. Therefore, as this is the office of the Spirit, and this work is now actually being accomplished, the Spirit is being poured upon all flesh, according to the Word.
You may ask, What is the means by which this work is being done? And the answer is, By the Word of God. By the Word of God only can His Spirit possibly be revealed, or made known, and thus, as it were, poured upon a needy place; just as God Himself is made known by means of His Word. "But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach. . . . For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? . . . So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." And so through a knowledge of the Word, the Spirit works upon the heart.
But there are the heathen, in the midnight of ignorance and degradation. Untold millions of them have neither the printed nor the spoken Word, and know not God. But they have the word in nature, and nature is but God's thought expressed by means of His creative word in the forms we behold about us. And the Word in nature tells of the One who spoke it. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
And so in this momentous time God is speaking a last message of warning, conviction, reproof, invitation, to every soul, by the printed Word scattered as the autumn leaves; by the preached Word; by precept; by example; by the revelation of His power in nature—but always through the Word in some form accessible to the individual to whom He speaks, and comprehensible by him. And thus His Spirit is being poured upon all flesh. Therefore, preach the Word. And the angels of God are impressing all hearts to receive of that Spirit, and turn, and be saved from the impending destruction.
But the descent of this reviving power from above is the signal for the onslaught of all the hosts of hell. With an energy born of inexpressible hatred, and with satanic determination to fight to the bitter end, the legions of evil are plying their diabolical arts, to induce mankind to reject the message of salvation as it comes through the Word of God. As the Spirit of God is refused by the soul it has aroused, the spirit of Satan takes possession, and cunningly deceives the individual, and leads him to believe that error is truth, and that the zeal he feels and the power he witnesses are verily the "great power of God."
And with the doctrines of error there is a power, —a power that works miracles, and signs, and wonders. And the universal claim is that the spirit and power thus manifested are the Spirit and the power of God. And if you have not already heard, you will hear the claim made by those who profess to be led by the Spirit of the Lord, that the Spirit has led them into great light independently of the Bible. And you now know of those who make this high profession of divine guidance, who profess great reverence for the Word, but reject certain portions of it. Be not deceived, as you value your eternal happiness. Tho your natural eyes may be unable to detect the false as it stands by the side of the true, pray God to apply the divine eye-salve, that your spiritual eyesight may be undimmed. Apply the infallible test, tho the claimant to divine power be clothed with the panoply of heaven. This test is the Word. "If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." They will profess to speak according to it. But let this principle be eternally fixed in your mind, that only by the Word is God's Spirit revealed, and only in harmony with that Word will His Spirit ever be manifested. Know where you stand, and denounce the error boldly and fearlessly.
Now is the time pre-eminent of "lo here's" and "lo there's." But they are not all of sudden preparation. Satan is a profound student of prophecy, and has foreseen the end and the final conflict as men have not. And so through the ages he has fostered and developed error and deception, until today we stand in the midst of the elaborations of all sin's history. False religions and systems and isms, of whatever designation, claim their millions,—the vast majority,—and new errors and science, falsely so-called, add daily their theories and speculations and observations. But there is no soul satisfaction in them, for the divine light has flashed across men's visions, and left its impress of truth and purity. Consequently, there is intense but blind groping after the ideal, while a sense of impending calamity, and an eager looking for some world-revolutionizing event, agitate the minds of all men, of every nation and creed. The very atmosphere quivers with in-tensity, for the life-giving energy from above is met by the deadly downpour of the spirit and power of Satan.
And the crying, and heart-rending, and saddest fact of all—unless it be the other, that the deceived do not realize their condition—is that the Spirit and power of God are being grieved away from a large portion of His professed followers. And so surely as the night follows the day, a spirit not of God takes possession of the house once swept and garnished for the indwelling of the holy Presence. Have you felt the divine quickening? Then “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption;” for that day is at hand.

WEALTH and WAGE

By William N. Glenn

LABOR’S EFFORT TO BE FREE

BY WILLIAM N. GLENN
As shown in former articles, labor gradually became enslaved to capital because so many men failed to appreciate the landed capital which the Creator designed for all. They forsook their God-given estate, preferring to expend their labor in connection with other men’s capital, receiving immediate return in wages.
The slavery has been a long and bitter one, because men have continued to choose that manner of earning a living until it seems to the masses that there is no other way. There have been many efforts to obtain freedom, but they have failed because men did not understand the root cause of the situation. They have thought only of some coercive measure—some means of compelling capital to divide the profits derived from superior business instinct, or even from ill-gotten gain.
We have on record but one really successful effort to set free a people whose labor had been segregated from their natural capital—their own land. That effort was successful because it was conducted on the only legitimate principle—a reunion of individual labor, or family labor, with individual or family ownership of landed capital. That effort was devised by the Creator Himself, and was carried out under His direction, after the people had expressed a willingness to be led by Him. Whenever an oppressed people or an oppressed class unitedly place their cause in the hands of the almighty Deliverer, and follow in the line of His plan, freedom will surely be their reward.

A Successful Experiment.

In order to bring the family of Jacob into a better understanding of their dependence upon Him, and to bring the name and power and mercy of the true God before the world, an extended famine drove Jacob and his family away from their own land into Egypt, whence Joseph had preceded them through the cruelty of his brethren. Here they were obliged to work the land owned by others, and this state of dependency gradually descended into a condition of the most tyrannical slavery.
At last the Lord undertook to better the condition of these oppressed laborers, and it is well to note the principle of the movement. The Leader did not demand higher wages for the laborers, nor a share of the profits, nor shorter hours; but He did declare their right to quit the job, and go somewhere else. There was considerable violence used, but it was all in defense of their right to quit. The Lord sustained that right to the end; and delivered His people. There was no assertion of a right to hold the work on their own terms, or to hinder others from taking their places. The only right asserted and maintained at such terrible cost to the employer, was the right to quit. The purpose was to go back to the land that God had bequeathed to them hundreds of years before, and there unite their own labor with their own capital, and be free.
True, there were obstacles in the way—in this sinful world there always are difficulties to overcome in the path of right. There was the Red Sea to cross, without bridge or boat, there were the government troops behind them, determined to break the strike and compel the strikers to go back to work; and beyond was the desert, which betokened only starvation, and would surely discourage many and incline them to a desire to return to work on the old terms. But the great Leader saw beyond all this the "promised land," with a proper union of labor with capital.

Futile Efforts to Settle the Question.

Now no question is ever settled until it is settled on correct principles. And so long as men seek only to earn their livelihood by wage-earning from the capital of others, they are subject to the disposition of the capitalist employer. The exceptions to this rule are mere matters of circumstance, and are therefore but temporary at best. So long as the tendency to forsake the cultivation of the soil prevails, and the rising generation is educated only for wage-earning positions, the masses become more and more dependent upon the capital class. So long as the efforts to free the laboring class contemplate only coercive measures—schemes for placing employees in enforced control of the business and property of their employers, relief can be only partial, only here and there an exception to the rule, and therefore only temporary.
A few men of wealth and a few associations have sought to alleviate the condition of poor wage-earners by placing them on land of their own. These efforts have been partially successful, and might have been much more so but for the impatient lack of perseverance on the part of the people themselves. The scripture says "the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it," but men brought up to working for wages, getting their pittance every week or month, or other short period, are poorly fitted for any business that requires patience in waiting returns. So the general idea of the dependent laboring classes for bettering their condition is a compulsory raise of wages and shortening of working hours. While this theory prevails, conditions will not materially change; and, as the tendency is to a greater neglect of the God-given land-capital, it will all the more fall into the hands of the few land-monopolists, and the wage-earning classes become more and more dependent. So long as labor contemplates only an exalted position under existing unnatural conditions, efforts to be free must necessarily end in eventual failure, bitterness, and strife.

The True and Ultimate Freedom.

The slavery of labor, like all other slavery, can be abolished only through allegiance to the Word and way of God. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." "The meek shall inherit the earth," is His promise. What earth?—"The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Herein will be the "promised land," wherein the laborer, who entrusts his cause to the care of the great Deliverer, will find himself restored to peace and plenty, with everlasting life. This is the only successful effort through which the oppressed may find permanent freedom.

GLEANINGS ON PROPHECY.

PROPHECY is history anticipated and contracted; history is prophecy accomplished and dilated. Lying oracles have been in the world; but all the wit and malice of men and devils can not produce any such prophecies as are recorded in Scripture.—Bishop T. Newton.

God Gives Light for Labor

By John Owen

GOD doth not use to set His people to work in the dark; they are children of light, and there are no deeds of darkness which they have to do. Yea, He always suits their light to their labor, and gives them a clear discerning of what He is about.—Dr. J. Owen.

The True Church Heeds Prophets

By Sir Isaac Newton

The giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of the true church.—Sir Isaac Newton.

THE TWO SIDES IN THE GREAT CONTROVERSY.

By Alonzo T. Jones

BY A. T. JONES.

Self-sacrifice or Self-defense.

SELF-PRESERVATION is the first law of nature.
But self-sacrifice is the first law of grace. In order to self-preservation, self-defense is essential.
In order to self-sacrifice, self-surrender is essential. In self-defense, the only thing that can be employed is force.
In self-surrender, the only thing that can be employed is love.
In self-preservation, by self-defense, through the employment of force, force meets force, and this means only war.
In self-sacrifice, by self-surrender, through love, force is met by love, and this means only peace.
Self-preservation, then, means only war; while self-sacrifice means only peace.
But war means only death. Self-preservation, then, meaning only war, means only death; while self-sacrifice, meaning only peace, means only life.
Self-preservation being the first law of nature, nature then means only death; while self-sacrifice being the first law of grace, grace means only life.
But death only is the wages of sin; nature, then, meaning only death, it is so only because nature means sin; while life, being only the reward of righteousness; grace, meaning only life, it is so only because grace means righteousness.
Sin and righteousness, nature and grace, are directly opposite and antagonistic elements. They occupy realms absolutely distinct. Nature, self-preservation, self-defense, force, war, and death occupy only the realm of sin; grace, self-sacrifice, self-surrender, love, peace, and life occupy only the realm of righteousness.
The realm of sin is the realm of Satan. The realm of grace is the realm of God. All the power of the domain of grace is devoted to saving men from the dominion of sin. This in order that, "as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
On which side do you stand in this great controversy?

THE GREAT HISTORIC DARK DAY.

By John Greenleaf Whittier

'TWAS on a May day of the far old year Seventeen hundred eighty that there fell Over the bloom and sweet life of the spring, Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon, A horror of great darkness, like the night In day of which the Norland sages tell— The twilight of the gods.
Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died; Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter The black sky.
—Whittier, in Abraham Davenport.

The Dark Day of May 19, 1780

The night succeeding that day (May 19, 1780) was of such pitchy darkness that in some instances horses could not be compelled to leave the stables when wanted for service. About midnight the clouds were dispersed, and the moon and stars appeared with unimpaired brilliancy.—Stone’s History of Beverly.
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