Our Day
by William Ambrose Spicer · English · Gutenberg #18503 · 565,628 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Our Day
Author: William Ambrose Spicer
Release date: June 5, 2006 [eBook #18503]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18503
Credits: Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine Paolucci
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR DAY ***
Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine Paolucci
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
OUR DAY
In the Light of Prophecy
[Illustration: JESUS WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM
"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things
which belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42.]
OUR DAY
In the Light of Prophecy
By W.A. SPICER
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures might have hope." Rom. 15:4.
SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
FORT WORTH, TEXAS ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Copyrighted, 1917, by
REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
Copyrighted in London, England
All Rights Reserved
CONTENTS
THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO OUR DAY 13
THE WITNESS OF THE CENTURIES 25
PROPHETIC OUTLINE OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY 39
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST 51
SIGNS OF THE APPROACHING END 65
THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE OF 1755 79
THE DARK DAY OF 1780 85
THE FALLING STARS OF 1833 93
THE MEANING OF PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS 105
THE HISTORIC PROPHECY OF DANIEL 7 117
THE 1260 YEARS OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY 131
DAWN OF A NEW ERA 139
THE WORK OF THE "LITTLE HORN" POWER 145
THE BIBLE SABBATH 159
GLIMPSES OF SABBATH KEEPING AFTER NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 173
THE LAW OF GOD 183
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 191
BAPTISM 199
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 8 205
THE CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE 213
A GREAT PROPHETIC PERIOD 219
THE PROPHECY FULFILLED 229
A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT 239
THE JUDGMENT-HOUR MESSAGE 247
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL 257
SPIRITUALISM: ANCIENT AND MODERN 265
LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST 275
THE END OF THE WICKED 287
ANGELS: THEIR MINISTRY 295
THE TIME OF THE END 303
THE EASTERN QUESTION 321
ARMAGEDDON 337
THE MILLENNIUM 351
THE HOME OF THE SAVED 361
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
JESUS WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM _Frontispiece_
THE GOOD SHEPHERD 12
HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT 16
CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE--THE WORD OF GOD 19
ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS 24
THE GREAT IMAGE 38
BABYLON IN HER GLORY 40
THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL 42
THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST 50
CHRIST COMING IN GLORY 58
CHRIST ANSWERING HIS DISCIPLES' QUESTIONS 64
THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS UNDER TITUS, A.D. 70 68
THE CATACOMBS NEAR ROME 72
LISBON FROM ACROSS THE BAY 78
MIDDAY AT SEA, MAY 19, 1780 84
THE GREAT METEORIC SHOWER, NOV. 13, 1833 92
THE SIGN OF FIRE 98
SATAN OFFERS GOLD, AND THE WORLD STAMPEDES TO ITS
DESTRUCTION 104
A FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT 108
THE SUNSET HOUR 114
PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH 116
ROME ON THE TIBER 124
THE INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY THE HUNS 128
RAISING THE SIEGE OF ROME, A.D. 538 130
STORMING OF THE BASTILLE PRISON IN PARIS 138
THE TRIPLE CROWN 144
THE LOVE OF POWER--THE POWER OF LOVE 146
CHRISTIANS IN PRISON BENEATH THE COLOSSEUM AWAITING
MARTYRDOM 148
THE SHAME OF RELIGIOUS WARS 152
CHRIST AND THE SCRIBES 158
THE SABBATH FROM EDEN TO EDEN 168
CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE CORN-FIELDS 172
WALDENSES HUNTED BY THE ARMIES OF ROME 176
THE GIFT OF GOD 190
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST 198
SYMBOLS OF MEDO-PERSIA AND GRECIA 204
THE CAMP OF ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS 210
OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST 212
ARTAXERXES SENDING THE JEWS TO REBUILD
JERUSALEM, B.C. 457 218
REBUILDING JERUSALEM 224
THE ANOINTING OF JESUS AT HIS BAPTISM 228
THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST 232
THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE 238
A CHRISTIAN MOTHER EXHORTING HER DAUGHTER TO
MARTYRDOM 246
LUCIFER PLOTTING AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD 256
THE REDEMPTION PRICE 260
SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR 264
THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT 270
"HE IS RISEN" 274
LOT FLEEING FROM SODOM 286
PETER DELIVERED FROM PRISON 294
JACOB'S DREAM IN BETHEL 298
MODERN INVENTIONS FULFILLING PROPHECY 302
THE HOE DOUBLE OCTUPLE PRESS 316
FORTIFICATIONS ON THE BOSPORUS 320
MODERN JERUSALEM 329
THE GREAT BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON 336
UNITED STATES BATTLESHIP "NEVADA" 340
MOSES VIEWING THE PROMISED LAND 360
THE SAINTS' ETERNAL HOME 366
THE MASTER AT THE DOOR 369
[Illustration: "FOUNDED UPON A ROCK"
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps.
119:105.]
FOREWORD
These are eventful times. With history-making changes passing rapidly
before men's eyes, the questions press upon thoughtful minds in all
lands, What do these things mean? What next in the program of
world-shaping events?
Like a great searchlight shining across the centuries, the sure Word of
Prophecy focuses its bright beams upon Our Day. In this light we see
clearly the trend of events, and may understand what comes next in the
program of history fulfilling prophecy.
In the Volume of the Book the living God speaks to Our Day of events of
the past that have a lesson for the present, and of things to come.
Divine prophecy fulfilled before men's eyes is God's challenge to
unbelief. The Word of Holy Writ has been the guiding light through all
the ages. It is the lamp to our feet today.
"Steadfast, serene, unmovable, the same,
Year after year,...
Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame;
Shines on that inextinguishable light."
[Illustration: THE GOOD SHEPHERD
"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1:14.]
[Illustration: "PEACE BE TO THIS HOUSE"
"If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. 3:20.]
THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO OUR DAY
Man may write a true book, but only God, the source of life, can write a
living book. "The word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter
1:23. The Bible is the living word of God. We look at the volume; we
hold it in our hands. It is like other books in form and printer's art.
But the voice of God speaks from these pages, and the word spoken is
alive. It is able to do in the heart that receives it what can be done
only by divine power.
The Book That Talks
Far in the heart of Africa a missionary read to the people in their own
language from the translated Word of God. "See!" they cried; "see! the
book talks! The white man has a book that talks!" With that simplicity
of speech so common to children of nature, they had exactly described
it. This is a book that talks. What the wise man says of its counsels
through parents to children, is true of all the book: "When thou goest,
it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when
thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Prov. 6:22.
Here is companionship, faithful and true, a blessed guide and guardian
and friend.
"Holy Bible! book divine!
Precious treasure, thou art mine!"
God Its Author
The sixty-six books of Holy Scripture were written by many penmen, over
a space of fifteen centuries; yet it is one book, and one voice speaks
through all its pages. Spurgeon once said of his experience with this
book:
"When I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it,
saying, 'I am the book of God; man, read me. I am God's
writing; open my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for He
is my author.'"
This book declares of itself: "All scripture is given by inspiration of
God." 2 Tim. 3:16. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2
Peter 1:21. As the rugged verse of the old hymn puts it:
"Let all the heathen writers join
To form one perfect book:
Great God, if once compared with Thine,
How mean their writings look!
"Not the most perfect rules they gave
Could show one sin forgiven,
Nor lead a step beyond the grave;
But Thine conducts to heaven."
It is the voice of the Almighty. Very different it is from the sacred
books of the non-Christian religions. In those writings it is man
speaking about God; in the Holy Scriptures it is God speaking to man.
The difference is as great as heaven is higher than earth. Here it is
not man groping in the darkness after God. In this book of God's
revelation we see the divine arm reaching down to save the lost, and
hear the voice of the loving Father calling to His children, every one
and everywhere. "Incline your ear," He calls; "hear, and your soul shall
live." Isa. 55:3.
The Word That Creates
We must have something more than instruction; we must have a word of
power that is able to tell of sins forgiven, and to conduct us beyond
the grave to heaven. One of the greatest of China's sages, Mencius,
said, "Instruction can impart information, but not the power to
execute." That touches the crucial point. We must have instruction that
can come with power divine to execute. We have it only in God's words.
Christ said: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life." John 6:63.
The words of God are living words. When God spoke in the beginning, "Let
there be light," lo, the light sprang out of the darkness. There was
power in the word spoken to bring forth. "Let the earth bring forth
grass," was the word of the Lord: and the earth was carpeted with its
first rich greensward. So through all the work of creation, the creative
power was in the word spoken.
"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them
by the breath of His mouth." "He spake, and it was done; He commanded,
and it stood fast." Ps. 33:6, 9.
Even so, when this word speaks instruction to man, there is creative
power in the word, if received, to work mightily in the soul that is
dead in trespasses and sins. Man must be born again, be re-created. That
we know; for Christ says, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again ["from above," margin], he cannot see the kingdom of God."
John 3:3.
And the word of God--the Bible from heaven--received by faith, is the
agency by which this new birth "from above" is wrought. This is the
declaration of our text: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
1 Peter 1:23.
[Illustration: HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT
"Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Matt. 8:8.]
The Word That Works Within
Not only does the word of God give the new birth, making the believer a
new man,--the past forgiven and a new heart within,--but the word that
re-creates abides in the believing heart that studies it and clings to
it, to work in the life with actual power that is not of the man
himself. To the Thessalonians, who had "turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God," the apostle wrote:
"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye
received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe." 1 Thess. 2:13.
The word itself works within, and works effectually. There is nothing
mechanical about it. The mere letter profits nothing. The Bible on the
center table, unstudied and unloved, has no magic power. But God
promises to abide by His Spirit of power in the heart that listens to
His voice and trembles at His word. Jesus Himself tells us the secret of
this power of the word to work in the believing heart:
"If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23.
No wonder, then, that believing and receiving the word brings divine
power into the life, making it possible for transformations of character
to be wrought, for victories to be won and obedience rendered to every
command of God.
Simply believing God's word touches the current of everlasting power,
even as the trolley arm of the electric car reaches up and touches the
current of power flowing through the wire overhead. The faith that
takes the living word brings the power divine into the heart to move all
the spiritual mechanism of life's service.
The Word Our Safety and Defense
When Christ came to live as our example in the flesh, and to give His
life a sacrifice for sin, He, the divine Son of God, made Himself like
unto His brethren. "I can of Mine own self do nothing," He said. John
5:30. Tempted and tried, He found His defense in the Holy Scriptures.
When Satan came to tempt Him to sin, the Saviour said, "It is written."
He clung to the sure defense. Again the tempter came. He was met with
the word, "It is written again." The third time it was the same weapon
of defense, "It is written." Matt. 4:1-11.
Christ found safety only in the Scriptures of truth. So the Bible is the
Christian's shield against the enemy's attacks. As Jesus studied the
Scriptures and kept the words ever in His heart for a defense against
temptation, so must every Christian study and meditate upon God's Holy
Word if its counsels and precepts are to be his defense in the moment of
sudden temptation to sin. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart," said the
psalmist, "that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11. It was the
only way for Christ, our Pattern; it is the only way for us.
The Bread of Life
The word of God is the daily food for the soul. "It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God." Matt. 4:4.
Who has not, in hurried times, missed a meal, working on through the
day, never thinking of the prolonged fast? But after a time there came a
sense of weakening force, a lack of physical power. What was the
trouble? At once the reason was evident--one had not taken food, and
the system was calling for a renewal of its forces. Just so the
spiritual life must needs be fed by the word of God.
[Illustration: CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE--THE WORD OF GOD
"Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Matt. 4:10.]
Do we at times feel a sense of weakening of the spiritual power, a
letting down of the vital forces of the soul? Ah, in the hurry of life
we have neglected to feed upon the living bread. We can no more sustain
spiritual vigor and health without feeding daily upon God's Holy Word
than we can maintain physical power without eating our daily bread. Eat
of the life-giving word. The taste for it grows with the partaking.
There is life in "every word." The psalmist found the Lord's testimonies
"sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," or, as the marginal reading
has it, than "the dropping of honeycombs." Ps. 19:10. We get the picture
of the honeycomb inverted, the cell caps broken open, the sweetness
dripping down. Just so every word of the Lord is a cell full of
sweetness and life for the soul that feasts upon the Holy Scriptures.
The Source of All Doctrine
The Bible is the complete and perfect rule of faith and doctrine. Here
every doctrine of salvation is found. Inspiration has declared it in the
words of the apostle Paul to Timothy:
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works." 2 Tim. 3:15-17.
The divine command is, "Study." For every generation there has been a
message borne by this living word, making call to reformation of life,
or giving warning and comfort. "The Bible is not a collection of truths
formulated in propositions," said Dr. Samuel Harris, of Yale, "but
God's majestic march through history, redeeming men from sin."
In every age God has been ruling and overruling, witnessing by His
Spirit through the living word. The experiences recorded of past ages
have their special lesson for the present time:
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."
Rom. 15:4.
"Let vs therfore all with feruent desyre," as the Old English of 1549
spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, "thyrste after these spirituall
sprynges.... Let vs kisse these swete wordes of Christ with a pure
affeccion. Let vs be newe transformed into them, for soche are oure
maners as oure studies be."
The Book for All Mankind
It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power to transform has
been shown through all the centuries in every clime and among every
race. One of the Gospels was put into the Chiluba tongue of Central
Africa. After a time a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the
missionary, changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to
that of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief said: "I
was startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I heard him speak
to me out of the printed page, and what he said was, 'Follow me!'"
Of the Bible's universal speech to all mankind, Dr. Henry van Dyke has
said:
"Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery,
the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet,
and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It has
learned to speak in hundreds of languages to the heart of man.
It comes into the palace to tell the monarch that he is the
servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the
peasant that he is the son of God. Children listen to its
stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as
parables of life. It has a word of peace for the time of
peril, a word of comfort for the day of calamity, a word of
light for the hour of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the
assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear
of the lonely. The wise and the proud tremble at its warnings,
but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother's voice....
"Its great words grow richer, as pearls do when they are worn
near the heart. No man is poor or desolate who has this
treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the
trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named the Shadow, he is
not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in
his hand; he says to friend and comrade, 'Good-by, we shall
meet again,' and comforted by that support, he goes toward the
lonely pass as one who climbs through darkness into
light."--_The Century Magazine._
[Illustration: RAISING JARIUS'S DAUGHTER
"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4.]
In the days of His life on earth, Jesus was a welcome guest in humble
homes in Judea and Galilee. "The common people heard Him gladly." His
presence brought peace and comfort to the home. He is no longer with us
in bodily presence; but He is the same Saviour still--"Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, and today, and forever." Heb. 13:8. By His Spirit,
through the living word of Holy Scripture, He enters the home where
faith receives Him, and speaks again the gracious salutation, "Peace be
to this house."
Christ the Central Theme
All the Bible bears witness of Christ as the Saviour of the world. He
Himself said of the Scriptures, "They are they which testify of Me."
John 5:39. "To Him give all the prophets witness." Acts 10:43. We see
Him as the coming Messiah in promise and prophecy, in type and shadow.
His is the divine, living personality standing out in every book that
makes up the Sacred Volume. As we read with loving heart, the Author
seems near in every page.
"Reading, methinks I bend
Before the cross
Where died my King, my Friend.
The whole world's loss
For love of Him is gain."
And having beheld Him giving His life as the divine sacrifice, and
rising in triumph over death to be our great High Priest in the heavenly
temple, as we read these Sacred Scriptures yet again, in every book,
from Genesis to Revelation, we see Him as the coming King of kings,
coming to take His children to the eternal home of the saved. The whole
book is a bright window through which we gaze on coming glory.
"And yet again I stand
Where the seer stood,
Gazing across the strand,
Beyond the flood:
The gates of pearl afar,
The streets of gold,
The bright and morning Star
Mine eyes behold."
"The Word of God ... liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. "Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt.
24:35.
[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS
"Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27.]
[Illustration: THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
"I am God,... declaring ... from ancient times the things that are not
yet done." Isa. 46:9, 10.]
THE WITNESS OF THE CENTURIES
The Sure Word of Prophecy
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed." 2 Peter 1:19.
The prophetic scriptures afford infallible evidence that the voice of
the living God speaks in Holy Writ. One of the distinguishing marks of
divinity is the power that foretells and records the course of history
long ages before the events come to pass.
God's Challenge
God's challenge to false religious systems in olden time was this:
"Declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come
hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." Isa. 41:22, 23.
And all the gods of the nations were silent; for they are no gods. The
Lord alone, the one who speaks by the Holy Scriptures, is able to tell
the end from the beginning.
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand." Isa. 46:9, 10.
By this means God has borne witness of Himself through the ages, that it
might be known that the Most High rules above all the kingdoms of men,
and that men might recognize His purpose to put an end to sin and bring
eternal salvation to His people. "I have spoken it," He declares, "I
will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it."
The fulfilment of the word of prophecy in history is a fascinating
story. To the Lord, the future is an open book, even as the present. The
word is spoken, telling of the event to come; it is written on the
parchment scroll by the prophet's pen. Time passes; centuries come and
go. Then, when the hour of the prophecy arrives, lo, there appears the
fulfilment. And it is seen in matters pertaining to individuals, as well
as in the affairs of cities and empires.
The Word Fulfilled after Long Waiting
In the dream divinely given to the lad Joseph, it was plainly foretold
that his brothers would one day come as suppliants before him. His
father rebuked him for telling the dream, saying, "Shall I and thy
mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the
earth?" Gen. 37:10. The brothers sold the lad into slavery, to be well
rid of him. Yet twenty years later, all unconscious of his identity,
these same brethren presented themselves before the prime minister of
Egypt, and "fell before him on the ground." Gen. 44:14.
Again: the wicked stronghold of Jericho had been utterly destroyed.
Joshua declared:
"Cursed be the man ... that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he
shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest
son shall he set up the gates of it." Joshua 6:26.
The hands of angels had thrown down its walls, and its ruin was to stand
as a memorial. More than five hundred years later, when the apostate
Ahab was ruling, and Israel and Judah had departed from the Lord, Hiel
the Bethelite set out to rebuild Jericho. "He laid the foundation
thereof in Abiram his first-born."
But accident and death may come at any time. The work on the walls went
on, no one thinking of the neglected Scriptures with their warning of
long ago. So the full account runs:
"He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the
gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the
Lord, which He spake by Joshua the son of Nun." 1 Kings 16:34.
The fate of some of the mightiest cities the world ever saw has borne
testimony through the centuries to the fulfilment of the prophetic word.
The Witness of Nineveh
Nineveh was founded by Nimrod. He built not only his capital here by the
Tigris, but other towns round about, conceiving first of all the idea of
grouping the capital and its suburbs into one great city, the "Greater
Nineveh," as we would say in these days of Greater London and Greater
New York. At the dawn of history Nineveh was "a great city." Gen. 10:11,
12. In Jonah's day it was an "exceeding great city."[A] Sennacherib, of
the Bible story, was its beautifier. Rawlinson says:
"The great palace which he raised at Nineveh surpassed in size
and splendor all earlier edifices."--_"Second Monarchy," chap.
9._
A description is preserved on the clay cylinder in the king's own words:
"For the wonderment of multitudes of men
I raised its head--'the palace which has no rival'
I called its name."--_Taylor Cylinder, "Records of the Past."
Vol. XII, part 1_.
At the preaching of Jonah the city had repented; but in later years
pride of conquest and luxury and wealth were filling it with blood. The
prophet Nahum warned it of certain doom, appealing to those who had any
fear of God to turn to Him. The message was:
[Illustration: THE SITE OF NINEVEH
"How is she become a desolation!" Zeph. 2:15.]
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth
them that trust in Him." Nahum 1:7.
Some, no doubt, heeded the warning and turned to God for refuge. But the
city's life of sin ran on. Then the prophet Zephaniah spoke the word,
just as the stroke was to fall:
"Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She
obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in
the Lord; she drew not near to her God." Zeph. 3:1, 2.
Prophecies uttered against the mighty city had declared:
"He will make an utter end of the place thereof." "The palace shall be
dissolved ["molten," margin]." "She is empty, and void, and waste."
Nahum 1:8; 2:6, 10. "How is she become a desolation, a place for beasts
to lie down in!" Zeph. 2:15.
The Medes and the Babylonians overthrew Nineveh. The king immolated
himself in his burning ("molten") palace. Nineveh became a desolation.
Describing a battle that took place there in the seventh century of our
era, between the Romans and the Persians, the historian Gibbon bears
testimony to the fact that it has indeed become "empty, and void, and
waste:"
"Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the
great Nineveh had formerly been erected: the city, and even the
ruins of the city, had long since disappeared; the vacant place
afforded a spacious field for the operations of the two
armies."--_"The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," chap. 46, par. 24._
And to this day, the site of Nineveh is pointed out across the river
from Mosul, only mounds of ruins, these almost obliterated by the
drifting sands of centuries. The word spoken is fulfilled, though at the
time it was spoken it little seemed to proud and prosperous Nineveh that
such a fate could ever be hers.
"Before me rise the walls
Of the Titanic city,--brazen gates,
Towers, temples, palaces enormous piled,--
Imperial Nineveh, the earthly queen!
In all her golden pomp I see her now,
Her swarming streets, her splendid festivals.
* * * * *
"Again I look,--and lo!...
Her walls are gone, her palaces are dust,--
The desert is around her, and within
Like shadows have the mighty passed away."
From Nineveh's mounds we seem to hear a voice that says: "All flesh is
as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord
endureth forever." 1 Peter 1:24, 25.
The Burden of Tyre
[Illustration: TYRE BY THE SEA
"They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers." Eze.
26:4.]
Tyre was the greatest maritime city of antiquity. Its inhabitants, the
Phoenicians, traded in the ports of all the known world. Ezekiel
describes the heart of the seas as its borders. "Thy builders have
perfected thy beauty," he says. He tells how all countries traded in its
marts and contributed to its wealth. And then, obeying the word of the
Lord, the prophet bears a message of rebuke and warning,--"the burden of
Tyre,"--and pronounces the coming judgment:
"Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will
cause many nations to come up against thee.... And they shall destroy
the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her
dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place
for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it,
saith the Lord God." Eze. 26:3-5.
The accounts of travelers bear witness that the prophecy has been
fulfilled. As to the site of the island city of Ezekiel's day, Bruce,
nearly a century ago, said that he found it a "rock whereon fishers dry
their nets." (See "Keith on the Prophecies," p. 329.)
In more recent times, Dr. W.M. Thomson found the whole region of Tyre
suggestive only of departed glory:
"There is nothing here, certainly, of that which led Joshua to
call it 'the strong city' more than three thousand years ago
(Joshua 19:29),--nothing of that mighty metropolis which
baffled the proud Nebuchadnezzar and all his power for thirteen
years, until 'every head' in his army 'was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled,' in the hard service against Tyrus (Eze.
29:18),--nothing in this wretched roadstead and empty harbor to
remind one of the times when merry mariners did sing in her
markets--no visible trace of those towering ramparts which so
long resisted the utmost efforts of the great Alexander. All
have vanished utterly like a troubled dream, and Tyre has sunk
under the burden of prophecy.... As she is now, and has long
been, Tyre is God's witness; but great, powerful, and populous,
she would be the infidel's boast. This, however, she cannot be.
Tyre will never rise from her dust to falsify the voice of
prophecy.
"Dim is her glory, gone her fame,
Her boasted wealth has fled;
On her proud rock, alas! her shame,
The fisher's net is spread.
The Tyrian harp has slumbered long,
And Tyria's mirth is low;
The timbrel, dulcimer, and song
Are hushed, or wake to woe."
--_"The Land and the Book," Vol. II, pp. 626, 627._
The Desolation of Babylon
Yet another city of ancient times there was, the mightiest of them all,
whose fate was a subject of prophecy, and whose history bears special
testimony for us today; for, more than any other, the Lord used that
city as a symbol of the pride of life and the exaltation of the selfish
heart against God.
Let us study briefly the desolations pronounced upon Babylon of old.
[Illustration: BABYLON IN THE DUST
"Babylon shall become heaps,... without an inhabitant." Jer. 51:37.]
While Babylon was still the mightiest city of the world, with the period
of greatest glory yet before it, the Lord revealed its ignoble end. By
the prophet Isaiah He declared:
"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency,
shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be
inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation:
neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds
make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there;
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall
dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their
pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not
be prolonged." Isa. 13:19-22.
Never could a more doleful future have been pictured for a city full of
splendor, the metropolis of the world. About one hundred and
seventy-five years after this word was written on the parchment scroll,
the Medes and Persians were at the gates of Babylon. Her time had come,
and Chaldea's rule was ended.
"Fallen is the golden city! in the dust,
Spoiled of her crown, dismantled of her state.
She that hath made the Strength of Towers her trust,
Weeps by her dead, supremely desolate!
"She that beheld the nations at her gate
Thronging in homage, shall be called no more
'Lady of Kingdoms!'--Who shall mourn her fate?
Her guilt is full, her march of triumph o'er."
But still, under Medo-Persia, and later under the Greeks, the city
itself was populous and prosperous and beautiful. The skeptic of the
time may have pointed to it as evidence that here, at least, the Hebrew
prophet had missed the mark.
Apollonius, the sage of Tyana, who lived in the days of Nero and the
apostles, has left an account of Babylon as he saw it, as late as the
first century of our era. Still the Euphrates swept beneath its walls,
dividing the city into halves, with great palaces on either side. He
says:
"The palaces are roofed with bronze, and a glitter goes off
from them; but the chambers of the women and of the men and the
porticoes are adorned partly with silver, and partly with
golden tapestries or curtains, and partly with solid gold in
the form of pictures."
And of the king's judgment hall he reported:
"The roof had been carried up in the form of a dome, to
resemble in a manner the heavens, and that it was roofed with
sapphire, a stone that is very blue and like heaven to the eye;
and there were images of the gods, which they worship, fixed
aloft, and looking like golden figures shining out of the
ether."--_Philostratus, "Life of Apollonius," book 1, chap.
25._
Evidently Babylon was still "the land of graven images," and the
desolation foretold by the prophet had not yet befallen its palaces. But
that prophetic word, written eight hundred years before, was still upon
the scroll of the Book, the sure Word of God, who sees the end from the
beginning.
[Illustration: EGYPT'S GLORY DEPARTED
"The idols of Egypt shall be moved." Isa. 19:1.]
The view given us by Apollonius is perhaps the last glimpse we have of
Babylon's passing glory. Even then for centuries the walls had been a
quarry from which stones were drawn for Babylon's rival, Seleucia, on
the Tigris. And Strabo, the Greek geographer, who also wrote in the
first century, had described Babylon as "in great part deserted,"
adding,
"No one would hesitate to apply to it what one of the comic
writers said of Megalopolitæ, in Arcadia, 'The great city is a
great desert.'"--_"Geography," book 16, chap. 1._
Already pagan writers had begun to describe its condition in the terms
of the prophecy uttered so long before. And now what is its state? The
doom foretold has fallen heavy upon the city, upon its palaces, and
"upon the graven images of Babylon." For a century and more, travelers'
accounts have frequently borne witness to the exact fulfilment of the
prophecy in the remarkable desolations of that city, once mistress of
the world.
"Babylon shall become heaps," said the prophecy, "and owls shall dwell
there." This is what Mr. Layard, the English archeologist, found on his
visit in 1845:
"Shapeless heaps of rubbish cover for many an acre the face of
the land.... On all sides, fragments of glass, marble, pottery,
and inscribed brick are mingled with that peculiar nitrous and
blanched soil, which, bred from the remains of ancient
habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the
site of Babylon a naked and a hideous waste. Owls [which are of
a large gray kind, and often found in flocks of nearly a
hundred] start from the scanty thickets, and the foul jackal
skulks through the furrows."--_"Discoveries Among the Ruins of
Nineveh and Babylon," chap. 21, p. 413._
The prophecy said, "Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there." The
words might be construed to mean that the famous site would never become
the place of a Bedouin village. But it is literally true, say travelers,
that the Arabs avoid the place even for the temporary pitching of their
tents. They consider the spot under a curse. They call the ruins
_Mudjelibe_, "the Overturned." (See "Encyclopedia of Islam," art.
"Babil.")
As late as 1913, Missionary W.C. Ising visited the site where Professor
Koldeway was excavating the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace. He wrote:
"Involuntarily one is reminded of the prophecy in the
thirteenth of Isaiah and many other places, which, in course of
time, have been fulfilled to the letter. No one is living on
the site of ancient Babylon, and whatever Arabs are employed by
the excavators have built their mud huts in the bed of the
ancient river, which at the present time is shifted half a mile
farther west."--_European Division Quarterly, Fourth Quarter,
1913._
Egypt and Edom
The massive ruins by the Nile bear witness to prophecy fulfilled. When
Egypt rivaled Babylon, the word was spoken: "It shall be the basest of
the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations."
Eze. 29:15. It was not utterly to pass, as Babylon, but to continue in
inferior state. Thus it came to pass. Once populous Edom, famed for
wisdom and counsel, now lies desolate, according to the word: "Edom
shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished."
Jer. 49:17.
The Testimony of History
[Illustration: RUINS OF EDOM
"Edom shall be a desolate wilderness." Joel 3:19.]
Thus the centuries bear testimony to the fulfilment of the prophetic
word. The panorama of all human history moves before us in these
writings of the prophets. Flinging their "colossal shadows" across the
pages of Holy Writ, as Farrar says, we see--
"The giant forms of empires on their way
To ruin."
It is no human book that thus from primitive times forecasts the march
of history through the ages.
The Lord not only spoke the word in warning and entreaty for those to
whom it first came, but it is written in the Scriptures of truth as a
testimony to all time, that the Bible is the word of God, and that all
His purposes revealed therein and all the promises of the blessed Book
are certain and sure. The prophets who bore messages from God to
Nineveh, and Babylon, and Tyre, spoke messages also for our day.
Fulfilled prophecy is the testimony of the centuries to the living God.
The evidence of prophecy and its fulfilment is God's challenge and
appeal to men to acknowledge Him as the true God and the Holy Scriptures
as His word from heaven.
"I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went
forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they
came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an
iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared
it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee.... Thou hast heard,
see all this; and will not ye declare it?" Isa. 48:3-6.
Surely no one can look at the evidence in history of the fulfilment of
prophecy without seeing that of a truth the One who spoke these words
knew the end from the beginning; and finding the living God in the sure
word of prophecy, one must be prepared to listen to His voice in all the
Scriptures, when it speaks of sin and the way of salvation through Jesus
Christ.
Further, the prophetic word also has much to say of events yet future,
of the course of history in modern times. It behooves us to give heed to
what that word speaks concerning our own times and the events that are
to take place upon the earth before the end. The apostle Peter exhorts
us to the study in these words:
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19.
[Illustration: THE GREAT IMAGE
"He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to
pass." Dan. 2:29.]
[Illustration: DANIEL INTERPRETING NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM
"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great Image." Dan. 2:31.]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] "In the book of Jonah," says _Records of the Past_, "Nineveh is
stated to have been an exceeding great city of three days' journey; and
that being the case, the explanation that Calah on the south and
Khorsabad on the north were included seems very probable. The distance
between these two extreme points is about thirty miles, which, at ten
miles a day, would take the time required."--_Vol. XII, part 1, January
and February, 1913_.
PROPHETIC OUTLINE OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY
THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL 2
"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to
the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days."
In a dream by night the Lord gave to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a
clear historical outline of the course of world empire to the end of
time and the coming of the eternal kingdom.
The king was a thoughtful monarch; and having reached the height of his
power, he was one night meditating upon "what should come to pass
hereafter." Not for his sake alone, but for the enlightenment and
instruction of men in all time, the Lord answered the wondering question
of the king's meditation by giving him the dream. "He that revealeth
secrets," said Daniel the prophet, "maketh known to thee what shall come
to pass."
[Illustration: BABYLON IN HER GLORY
"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency." Isa. 13:19.]
And that we may know at the beginning that there is nothing fanciful and
uncertain about this great historic outline reaching to the end of the
world, we note first the assurance with which the prophet closed his
interpretation: "The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof
sure."
The details of the dream had been taken from the king's mind, while
conviction as to the wondrous import of it remained. This was in God's
providence, to show the folly of the worldly-wise men of Babylon, and to
bring before the king the prophet of the Lord with a divine message. The
prophet Daniel, under the inspiration of God, brought his dream again to
the king's mind:
"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose
brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was
terrible.
"This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver,
his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of
iron and part of clay.
"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote
the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to
pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer
threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was
found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great
mountain, and filled the whole earth."
The prophet next declared the interpretation. And now follows the
history of the world in miniature.
Babylon
"Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given
thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the
children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the
heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them
all. Thou art this head of gold."
[Illustration: THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL
"Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Dan.
5:28.]
The parts of the image, then, of various metals, from head to feet,
represented successive empires, beginning with Babylon; and the kingdom
of Babylon, represented by Nebuchadnezzar, was the head of gold.
History shows how fitly the golden head symbolizes the Babylonian
kingdom. Long before, the prophet Isaiah had described it as "the glory
of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency." Isa. 13:19. And
now, in Nebuchadnezzar's day, it was the golden age of the Babylonian
kingdom. No such gorgeous city as its capital ever before stood on
earth. And Nebuchadnezzar was the great leader of its conquests, and the
beautifier and builder of its walls and palaces. "For the astonishment
of men I have built this house," one tablet reads; and hundreds repeat
the story.
"Those portals
for the astonishment of multitudes of people
with beauty I adorned.
In order that the battle storm
to Imgur-Bel
the wall of Babylon might
not reach;
what no king before me
had done."--_East India House Inscription._
Thus Nebuchadnezzar's records of stone today repeat the proud boast
faithfully reported in the Scripture, "Is not this great Babylon, that I
have built?" Dan. 4:30. To the king it seemed that such a city could
never fall. One inscription reads:
"Thus I completely made strong the defenses of Babylon. May it
last forever."--_Rawlinson, "Fourth Monarchy," Appendix A._
Medo-Persia
But the prophet Daniel, proceeding with the divine interpretation,
interrupted all such proud thoughts with the declaration, "After thee
shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee."
Now the look was forward into the future. And the word came to pass.
Babylon's decline was swift after Nebuchadnezzar's death. Daniel the
prophet himself lived to interpret the handwriting on the wall at
Belshazzar's feast:
"God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.... Thou art weighed in
the balances and art found wanting.... Thy kingdom is divided, and given
to the Medes and Persians." Dan. 5:26-28.
The breast and arms of silver, in the great image, represented the
Medo-Persian kingdom, which followed the Babylonian, "inferior" to it in
brilliancy and grandeur, as silver is inferior to gold. Medo-Persia,
however, enlarged the borders of the world empire; and the names of
Cyrus and Darius are written among the mightiest conquerors of history.
But the prophet does not stop to dwell upon the grandeur of fleeting
earthly kingdoms. The interpretation hastens on to reach the setting up
of a kingdom that shall not pass away. Following Medo-Persia, a third
power was to rise,
Grecia
"And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the
earth."
The "third kingdom" after Babylon was Grecia, which overthrew the empire
of the Medes and Persians. And Grecia's dominion fulfilled the
specifications of the prophecy, which indicated a yet wider expansion of
empire. Its sway was to be over "all the earth," said Daniel the
prophet, foretelling its history. Arrian, the Greek historian, writing
afterward, said that Alexander of Greece seemed truly "lord of all the
earth;" and he adds:
"I am persuaded there was no nation, city, nor people then in
being whither his name did not reach; for which reason,
whatever origin he might boast of, or claim to himself, there
seems to me to have been some divine hand presiding both over
his birth and actions."--_"History of the Expedition of
Alexander the Great," book 7, chap. 30._
The sides of brass in the great image represented Grecia, the brazen
metal itself being a fitting symbol of those "brazen-mailed" Greeks,
celebrated in ancient poetry and song,
"Among the foremost, armed in glittering brass."
A Power Rising in the West
While Grecia's supremacy under Alexander was disputed by none, there was
a power rising in the West that was soon to enter the lists for the
prize of world dominion.
Some of the ancient writers say that at the time of his death Alexander
had in mind to push westward to strike down the growing power of the
city of Rome, of which he had heard. Plutarch says that this man
Alexander,
"who shot like a star, with incredible swiftness, from the
rising to the setting sun, was meditating to bring the luster
of his arms into Italy.... He had heard of the Roman power in
Italy."--_"Morals," chap. on "Fortune of the Romans," par. 13._
Lucan, the ancient Roman poet, repeats the thought:
"Driven headlong on by Fate's resistless force,
Through Asia's realms he took his dreadful course:
His ruthless sword laid human nature waste,
And desolation followed where he passed....
"Ev'n to the utmost west he would have gone,
Where Tethys' lap receives the setting sun."
--"_Pharsalia._"
But in the prime of his years, Alexander was cut down, and Rome had yet
more time in which to develop its strength preparatory to the deciding
contest for the mastery of all the world. Sure it is that after Grecia,
there followed the Roman Empire, the strongest and mightiest and most
crushing of them all. This fourth universal empire the prophet proceeded
to describe, as represented by the legs of iron in Nebuchadnezzar's
dream of the great image.
Rome
"The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh
in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these,
shall it break in pieces and bruise."
How appropriately the iron of the image fits the character of the fourth
great empire! Gibbon, the historian, calls it "the iron monarchy of
Rome." It broke in pieces the kingdoms, subduing all, just as prophecy
had declared so long before. As iron is strongest of the common metals,
so according to the prophecy--"as iron that breaketh all these"--this
fourth kingdom was to be more powerful than any before it. Strabo, the
geographer, who lived in the days of Tiberius Cæsar, said,
"The Romans have surpassed (in power) all former rulers of whom
we have any record."--_"Geography," book 17, chap. 3._
Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, who lived in Rome in the third
century,--under the "iron monarchy,"--wrote thus of this prophecy:
"Already the iron rules; already it subdues and breaks all in
pieces; already it brings all the unwilling into subjection;
already we see these things ourselves."--_"Treatise on Christ
and Antichrist," sec. 33._
Hippolytus also saw clearly from the prophecy that the empire of his day
would be divided, and he wrote of the kingdoms that were "yet to rise"
out of it. For Daniel's interpretation explained clearly the meaning of
the mingling of clay with the iron in the feet and toes of the great
image.
The Kingdoms of Modern Europe
"Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the
strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry
clay.
"And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the
kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
"And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."
"The kingdom shall be divided." So declared the prophet of God. In the
height of its power, Rome scouted the thought that so mighty a fabric
could ever be broken up. Horace sang in his "Odes,"
"How, added to a conquered world,
Euphrates 'bates his tide,
And Huns, beyond our frontiers hurled,
O'er straitened deserts ride.
* * * * *
"The Goths beyond the sea may plot,
The warlike Basques may plan;
Friend, never heed them! vex thee not;
For this our mortal span
Of little wants."
--_Book 2, Marris's Translation._
But the words were written on the ancient parchment in the days of
Babylon, "The kingdom shall be divided;" and true to the word of the
prophet, the Roman Empire fell apart with the mixture of nations and
peoples that swept into it. The elements did not hold together, even as
the mixture of iron and clay in the image did not cleave together.
Broken up by the invasions of fresh nations from the north, the Western
Empire was divided into lesser kingdoms, out of which have grown the
modern nations of western Europe.
Not one word in the outline of the prophecy thus far has failed of
fulfilment. These modern kingdoms growing out of divided Rome have never
been reunited. "They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men," said
the prophecy. Nearly all the reigning houses of Europe today are related
by intermarriage; the prophecy said it would be so; but "they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." So we see
it. No statesman, no master of legions, has been able to join these
nations together again in one great empire. Charles V had the thought in
mind, some think. Napoleon dreamed of doing it. But it was not to be.
Nevermore was there to be one universal monarchy.
We may know that as surely as the course of world empire has followed
the exact outline of the prophecy put on the inspired record in the days
of Babylon of old, just so surely the specifications of the closing
portion of the outline will be fulfilled.
The fourth great kingdom was to be divided. Rome was the fourth empire:
it was divided. The kingdoms of the divided empire are acting their part
before our eyes today.
The Next Great Event
And what next? That is the question for us. Now the prophetic outline
that began with ancient Babylon touches the things of our own day. The
word spoken before Nebuchadnezzar so long ago is now spoken especially
to us:
"In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to
other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
"Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain
without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the
clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the
king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and
the interpretation thereof sure."
"In the days of these kings,"--these kingdoms of our own time,--the next
great world-changing event is to be the coming of Christ to begin the
setting up of his everlasting kingdom. That is the grand climax toward
which all the course of history has been tending. At last the end is to
come.
"Down in the feet of iron and of clay,
Weak and divided, soon to pass away;
What will the next great, glorious drama be?--
Christ and His coming, and eternity."
As the stone, cut out of the mountain "without hands," smote the image,
so that all its parts, representative of earthly dominion, were ground
to dust and blown away, so Christ's coming kingdom, set up "without
hands," by no human power, but by the power of the eternal God, will end
all earthly dominion and bring the utter destruction of sin and sinners
out of the earth.
"The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."
Then may all eyes well be turned toward the next great step foretold in
the prophetic outline--the coming of Christ's glorious everlasting
kingdom, which shall not pass away.
"Look for the waymarks as you journey on,
Look for the waymarks, passing one by one,
Down through the ages, past the kingdoms four,--
Where are we standing? Look the waymarks o'er."
[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH BY MISSIONARY W.C. ISING
Ruins of the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, in which was the hall of
Belshazzar's Feast.]
[Illustration: THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST
"This same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner." Acts 1:11.
COPYRIGHT STANDARD PUB. CO.]
[Illustration: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM
"Behold, thy King cometh,... lowly, and riding upon an ass." Zech.
9:9.]
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
"Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin
unto salvation." Heb. 9:28.
Too often the second coming of Christ is looked upon simply as a
doctrine. It is, however, more than a doctrine merely to be believed; it
is an impending event, something that is to take place on earth, and the
most stupendous, all-transcendent event for the world since Christ came
the first time to die on Calvary for the sins of men.
This second coming of Christ, like His first coming, has been the theme
of divine prophecy from the beginning. This was emphasized by the
apostle Peter in his second recorded sermon. He pressed upon the people
of Jerusalem the fact that the things "which God before had showed by
the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer" (Acts 3:18),
had been fulfilled to the letter before their eyes. Not a word had
failed. Just so, he said, all that the prophets had spoken of His second
coming would be fulfilled:
"He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom
the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things,
which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the
world began." Acts 3:20, 21.
The Promise of His Coming
As iniquity began to abound, God sent a message to the antediluvian
world, declaring that Christ's coming in glory would end the reign of
sin:
"Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold,
the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment
upon all." Jude 14, 15.
The promise of Christ's coming was the "blessed hope" in the patriarchal
age. In Job's dark hour of trial his heart clung to the promise, and he
was kept from despair:
"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth: ... whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another." Job 19:25-27.
The psalmist sang of it:
"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour
before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him." Ps. 50:3.
And the prophets of later times were unceasingly moved upon to talk of
the glory of that coming, of events preceding it, and of the preparation
for it.
"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold
their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not
silence." "Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world,
Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold,
His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." Isa. 62:6, 11.
The message of His coming is to be heralded to the ends of the earth;
for it is "good tidings of great joy" to every one who will receive it.
On that last night with His disciples before the crucifixion, when His
heart was sorrowful even unto death, as the burden of all our
iniquities was about to be laid upon Him, Christ's love for His own made
precious to Him the thought of His second coming to gather them home at
last, safe from all sin and trouble; and He said:
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:1-3.
In that assurance the heart finds rest. O the preciousness of the
promise, "I will come again"! "I am coming for you," is the cheering
message. "Yes, Lord," we reply, "we will wait, and watch, and be ready,
by Thy grace."
The Manner of His Coming
Christ's second coming is to be visible to all the world. There is to be
nothing secret or mystical about it. The revelator says:
"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him." Rev. 1:7.
Christ Himself described the scene to His disciples as it will appear to
the eyes of all:
"As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the
west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:27. "Then
shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and
glory." Mark 13:26.
The day of the Lord--the close of probation, the initial outpouring of
the judgments of God--will come "as a thief in the night," but Christ's
personal appearing will be visible to all. The heavens will open, the
earth quake, the trump of God resound, and such glory as mortal eye has
never seen will burst upon the world when He comes as King of kings and
Lord of lords.
"He comes not an infant in Bethlehem born,
He comes not to lie in a manger;
He comes not again to be treated with scorn,
He comes not a shelterless stranger;
He comes not to Gethsemane,
To weep and sweat blood in the garden;
He comes not to die on the tree,
To purchase for rebels a pardon.
Oh, no; glory, bright glory,
Environs Him now."
[Illustration: THE TRANSFIGURATION A TYPE OF HIS COMING
"Behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him."
Matt. 17:3.]
"This Same Jesus"
The Lord would have His children understand that this One who comes in
power and glory is the same Saviour of men who once walked by blue
Galilee. As the disciples were watching their Saviour, and ours,
ascending bodily into heaven from Olivet, until "a cloud received Him
out of their sight," suddenly two angels stood by them, who said:
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as
ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1:9, 11.
[Illustration: CHRIST SET AT NAUGHT BY THE ROMANS
"Behold your King!" John 19:14.]
"This same Jesus"! It was the loving Friend and Elder Brother, Son of
man as well as Son of God, who was passing from their sight. He will
come back the "same Jesus," though in glory indescribable, having "all
the holy angels with Him."
The prophet Habakkuk thus described Christ's glorious appearing, as it
was represented to him in vision:
"His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
And His brightness was as the light;
He had rays coming forth from His hand;
And there was the hiding of His power."
Hab. 3:3, 4, A.R.V.
Surely it is the "same Jesus," and the mark of the cruel nails is the
shining badge of His power to save.
"I shall know Him
By the print of the nails in His hands."
As the redeemed see Him who was crucified for them coming in glory, they
will cry, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save
us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and
rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25:9.
But that day will be a day of darkness as well as of light. The unready,
the unrepentant, will realize too late that in rejecting Christ's pardon
and love and sacrifice, they have rejected the only means by which they
might have been prepared to meet the coming King, before whose face no
sin can endure. "Every eye shall see Him," the apostle says, and he
describes the terror of that day to the unprepared:
"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Rev. 6:15-17.
The scenes of that great day are so beyond human comprehension that it
is difficult to realize that such a time is actually before us.
"Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that great day."
The Purpose of His Coming
The Scriptures make very clear the purpose of Christ's second coming and
the events of that great day. It has been the hope of the children of
God through all the ages. The apostle Paul calls it the "blessed hope."
"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus 2:11-13.
The saints of God have fallen asleep in death with their faith reaching
forward to Christ's glorious appearing. So the veteran apostle fell,
with eyes upon "that day."
"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not
to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim.
4:6-8.
Christ's second coming is the grand climax of the plan of salvation. Not
till then are the children of God ushered into the eternal kingdom. Then
the crowns of life are bestowed, and the saved all go together through
the gates into the city--patriarch and prophet, apostle and reformer,
and the child of God of this last generation. Of the ancient worthies it
is written:
"These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not
the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:39, 40.
What a glorious day it will be when the ransomed of all the ages, march
in together through the gates into the city!
It is to take His children to their eternal home that Christ comes the
second time. This was His promise to the disciples:
"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also." John 14:2, 3.
Not in detail, but in their general order, let us follow the events of
that great day.
[Illustration: CHRIST COMING IN GLORY
"The Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him." Matt. 25:31.]
The Prelude to His Coming
as the revelator saw it and heard it in a vision of the last day:
"There came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne,
saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings;
and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon
the earth,... and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon
came in remembrance before God." Rev. 16:17-19.
"The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every
mountain and island were moved out of their places." Rev. 6:14.
His Glorious Appearing
Then bursts upon the world the glory of our Saviour's coming:
"Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall
send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet." Matt. 24:30, 31.
"I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like
unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand
a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a
loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap:
for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is
ripe." Rev. 14:14, 15.
The Resurrection of the Just, and the Translation of the Living
Righteous
The time to reap has come, and the wheat is gathered at last into the
garner of the Lord:
"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.
"He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31.
"This we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are
asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead
in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another
with these words." 1 Thess. 4:15-18.
[Illustration: THE EMPTY TOMB
"Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His
coming." 1 Cor. 15:23.]
The righteous dead are raised to life as the trump of God sounds and the
voice of the Archangel calls to His sleeping saints, and the living
righteous are transformed from mortality to immortality. Then all
together, with the escort of the angels, they follow the Saviour to the
heavenly mansions that He has prepared in the city of God.
The Destruction of the Wicked
Before the glorious majesty of the coming King no sin can endure; for
true it is that "our God is a consuming fire"--now, in the day of His
mercy, consuming sin out of the heart that by faith approaches the
throne of grace, but in that day consuming the unrepentant sinner with
his sin.
"Where will the sinner hide in that day, in that day?
Where will the sinner hide in that day?
It will be in vain to call,
'Ye mountains on us fall!'
For His hand will find out all in that day."
It is the great day long foretold by seer and prophet.
Again let us read the description of what it will mean to the unsaved to
see Christ coming in glory; for the terror of that day must warn us now
to keep within the refuge of the Saviour's loving grace:
"The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the
chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free
man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face
of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for
the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Rev. 6:15-17.
The same glory that transforms the righteous is a consuming fire to
those who have rejected Christ's salvation:
"Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His
coming." 2 Thess. 2:8.
"When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of His power." 2 Thess. 1:7-9.
The Climax of Human History
Thus the second coming of Christ brings the resurrection and translation
of the righteous, the death of the wicked, and the end of the world. The
resurrection of the wicked does not then take place, but only that of
the just; save for some of the wicked dead who had a special part in
warring against Christ,--"they also which pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7). These
are raised to see His coming, necessarily to fall again before the
consuming glory of His presence.
The righteous are taken to reign with Christ in the heavenly city for a
thousand years, and during the same period the earth lies in desolation
and chaos, uninhabited by man, a dark abyss, the dreary prison house of
Satan. Of the two resurrections, first of the just and then of the
unjust, we are told:
"They [the righteous] lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no
power." Rev. 20:4-6.
It is at the end of the thousand years that the resurrection of the
wicked takes place. Then the city of God descends, "the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven," and the wicked come
forth to condemnation and the second death, from which there is no
waking.
"Now is the Accepted Time"
Now is the day of salvation, when by Christ's grace we may prepare for
that great day. To be found among His redeemed ones in that day will be
of infinitely greater worth than anything this world can give, of
pleasure, or possessions, or honor. Nothing will count then but the
blessed hope.
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, found the personal Saviour in the days
of the Methodist revival in England. All her wealth and all her social
influence were devoted to Christ, even though titled friends took
umbrage at her close association with the poor and the humble who gave
heed to the message of the hour, and pressed into the kingdom. She wrote
of her joy in being numbered with the children of God:
"I love to meet among them now,
Before Thy gracious throne to bow,
Though weakest of them all;
Nor can I bear the piercing thought,
To have my worthless name left out,
When Thou for them shalt call.
"Prevent, prevent it by Thy grace.
Be Thou, dear Lord, my hiding place
In that expected day.
Thy pardoning voice, O let me hear,
To still each unbelieving fear,
Nor let me fall, I pray."
One night, at a royal ball, the Prince of Wales asked a titled lady
where the Countess of Huntingdon was. "Oh, I suppose she is praying with
some of her beggars somewhere!" was the flippant answer. "Ah," said the
crown prince, "in the last day I think I should be glad to hold the hem
of Lady Huntingdon's mantle." True it is that the greatest gift of grace
now, as it will be then, is to be numbered among the obedient children
of God.
"Let me among Thy saints be found,
Whene'er the Archangel's trump shall sound,
To see Thy smiling face;
Then joyfully Thy praise I'll sing,
While heaven's resounding mansions ring
With shouts of endless grace."
[Illustration: CHRIST ANSWERING HIS DISCIPLES' QUESTIONS
"When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming,
and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3.]
[Illustration: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE FORETOLD
"There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down." Matt. 24:2.]
SIGNS OF THE APPROACHING END
OUR SAVIOUR'S GREAT PROPHECY
Part I
Christ had spoken of the coming desolation of the sacred temple at
Jerusalem. The disciples were astonished. "Master, see," said one, "what
manner of stones and what buildings are here!" The Saviour replied:
"Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone
upon another, that shall not be thrown down" Mark 13:2.
"What Shall be the Sign?"
As soon as they were alone on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city,
the disciples came to Jesus, saying:
"Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy
coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3.
Replying to this question, the Saviour spoke first of the fall of
Jerusalem; He foretold in a sentence the experiences of His church
through dark ages to follow; then He described the events of the latter
days, the signs showing His second advent near at hand; and, finally, He
pictured the scenes of His own glorious appearing in the clouds of
heaven. The fullest record of the discourse is found in the
twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew.
A Striking Parallel
The first portion of the prophetic discourse (verses 4-14) deals with
general conditions that were to prevail both in the last days of the
Jewish state, and on a yet larger scale in the course of history leading
to the last days of the world. There was so close a parallel between
these times that Christ, in one description, answered both questions
asked, When shall these things come upon Jerusalem? and, What shall be
the signs of the end of the world?
The prophetic word foretold the rise of false Christs, the coming of
wars, famines, and earthquakes in "divers places." The believers saw
these things fulfilled in that generation before Jerusalem fell; but as
we read the prophecy, we see the wider application and yet larger
fulfilment through the course of history since that day, these
calamities increasing in the earth as the end draws near. Before the end
of the Jewish state, the believers carried the gospel to all the known
world of their day. (See Col. 1:23.) In these latter days we are seeing
the yet wider proclamation of the gospel, as foretold in the fourteenth
verse, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
The Last Days of Jerusalem
We may note briefly some of the events of Jerusalem's last days. Christ
had forewarned the believers:
"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name,
saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
Having rejected the true Christ, the nation was open to deception by the
false. We catch just a glimpse of the fulfilment in the book of Acts; in
secular history the full story is told. Ridpath says:
"Never was a people so turbulent, so excited with expectation
of a deliverer who should restore the ancient kingdom, so fired
with bigotry and fanaticism, as were the wretched Jews of this
period. One Christ came after another. Revolt was succeeded by
revolt, instigated by some pseudo-prophet or pretended
king."--_"History of the World," Vol. I, p. 849 (Part III,
chap. 19)._
During the Saviour's life and ministry a divine hand had to a great
extent held the elements of violence in check, but as the light was
rejected more and more, the spirit of evil came to hold sway
unrestrained. Dr. Mears well describes the changed conditions in these
words:
"The narrative of the evangelists presents a tranquil scene, a
succession of attractive pictures, in striking contrast to the
bloody and tumultuous events which crowd each other in the
pages of Josephus."--_"From Exile to Overthrow," pp. 256, 257._
Thus the events led rapidly on toward the day of Jerusalem's fall, so
long foretold by the prophets.
The Sign to the Believers
The disciples had asked for a sign, and Christ gave them a token by
which they might know when the time to flee from Jerusalem had come.
Here Luke's Gospel gives the fullest record:
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let
not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the
days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled."
Luke 21:20-22.
[Illustration: THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS UNDER TITUS,
A.D. 70
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh." Luke 21:20.]
The unbelieving in Jerusalem and Judea could not conceive that their
city, so long protected and favored of God, could be destroyed. Not even
the appearance of the Roman armies could shake their blind
self-confidence. But at the first sight of the encircling armies, the
Christians knew that the time for flight was at hand. But how to flee
was the question, with the compassing lines drawn close about the city.
Moreover, the Zealots, the furious war party in power, would be little
likely to allow any number to pass out to the Roman forces.
Just here God's providence made a way of escape. Cestius, the Roman
commander, after having partially undermined one of the temple walls,
suddenly decided to defer pushing the attack. "He retired from the
city," says Josephus, "without any reason in the world." (See "Wars,"
book 2, chap. 19.) And the Zealots flew out after the retiring Romans,
furiously attacking the rear guards.
Then those watching Christians knew that the time for quick flight had
come, according to Christ's prophecy uttered many years before. They
fled out of the city and out of the country round about.
Through all the years, Christ's prophecy had exhorted them, "Pray ye
that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day."
Matt. 24:20. The prayer was answered, for it was in the autumn and on a
week day that the flight was made.[B] Watching for the sign, and
instantly obeying, they were delivered.
Thus it was that when the Romans returned later to the siege, never to
give up till the city fell, none of the Christians were overwhelmed in
its destruction. Even so are we to watch the signs of our own times,
that we may escape those things that are coming upon the earth, and be
ready to "stand before the Son of man."
The Prophetic Word Fulfilled
Christ had declared that the temple, the pride of the nation, would be
utterly destroyed. In the last siege, the Roman commander tried to spare
the magnificent pile. When the Jews made it their chief fortress,
because of its massive strength, Titus remonstrated with them, saying:
"If you will but change the place whereon you fight, no Roman
shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to
it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve you your holy house,
whether you will or not."--_Josephus, "Wars of the Jews," book
6, chap. 2._
But the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. The people seemed
possessed with fury. The hardened Roman pagans were astonished at their
suicidal rashness. Titus's efforts to save the temple failed, and it
went down in ruin, as Christ had foretold.
[Illustration: A PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS
Showing the golden candlestick and other sacred vessels of the temple
being carried in triumph through the streets of Rome.]
The disciples of Christ had called His attention to the immense blocks
of stone that composed the temple walls. "See, what manner of stones,"
one said. When Titus examined these same stones, after the fall of the
city, he is said to have declared:
"We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and
it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these
fortifications."[C]--_Id., book 6, chap. 9._
Rather, we would say, in the light of Scripture teaching, the
destruction that came upon the city was but the fruit of its own way.
God's guardian care had long protected the city of David. When His
protection was finally thrust aside and the people put themselves in the
power of the great destroyer, divine justice could no longer save the
city from the judgments that were bound to fall upon persistent
transgression against light.
The lesson is one of those written "for our admonition upon whom the
ends of the world are come." Jerusalem, in that generation of great
light and high privilege, fell because it knew not the time of its
visitation. Still Christ's sad lament bears its warning to the ears of
men: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace!" Luke 19:42.
Part II
Having foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and given to the believers
signs by which they might find deliverance in the day of its overthrow,
Christ yet more fully answered the second part of the disciples'
question, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the
world?" Matt. 24:3.
[Illustration: THE CATACOMBS NEAR ROME
In these underground passages persecuted Christians found a hiding
place, held their services, and buried their dead.]
The Period of Tribulation
Quickly He passed to the events of the latter days. But first He
sketched, in a few words, the tribulations through which His church was
to pass during the intervening centuries. Daniel the prophet had written
of this experience, foretelling the long period during which the papal
power was to "wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:25. Of these
times, Christ said in His prophetic discourse:
"Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days
should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened." Matt. 24:21, 22.
It is evident that Christ referred to the time of tribulation foretold
by Daniel, not to the trials attending the flight of the Christians from
Jerusalem, for their flight was a deliverance of the elect from trial.
However much the weak may have suffered temporarily in fleeing from
their homes, the great suffering of that time came upon the unbelieving,
who had no shelter.
This prophecy given by our Saviour presents the picture of a
long-continued persecution of His own elect, and foretells the
shortening of the allotted time. God was to intervene in some special
way to save His people. And it was even so. The elect did suffer all
through the centuries of intolerance, until the rise of the Reformation
and the spreading abroad of God's Word broke the power of
ecclesiasticism, thus shortening the days of bitter tribulation.
The End Drawing Near
According to Daniel's further prophecy, the period of trial and
persecution was to reach "even to the time of the end." Dan. 11:35.
Naturally, then, we should look for the signs of the latter days to
begin to appear following these days of tribulation. And so we find the
next words of Christ's discourse introducing the topic of His second
coming. From now on the prophetic outline deals with events leading
down to the end of the age.
First the Saviour utters a warning against false ideas concerning His
second coming. That no theories of a secret coming or of a mystic coming
might deceive the unwary, He says in plain words:
"If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it
not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall
show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they
shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore
if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth:
behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:23-27.
Today we see the need of this warning. Some of the most subtle
deceptions are found in the teaching that Christ has already come,
secretly, or that He comes in the chamber of death, or in the
spiritualistic séance. Against all these errors we are forewarned, as
well as against any agencies that may come showing marvelous signs and
wonders. The close of human probation, the coming of the day of God,
will be as a thief in the night; and Christ's coming itself will
overtake the unwatchful all unprepared. Nevertheless, when He comes,
"every eye shall see Him," and all the glory of heaven will burst upon a
quaking world.
Signs in the Heavens and the Earth
Now the Saviour's outline of prophecy presents the signs which were to
show when the coming of the Lord was near. Referring again to the days
of tribulation foretold by the prophet Daniel, Christ says:
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." Matt. 24:29,
30.
In Luke's record of the same prophetic discourse, additional signs are
given, describing conditions in the earth as Christ's coming draws near.
His account reads:
"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and
upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the
waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to
pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth
nigh." Luke 21:25-28.
Yet again, the prophet John, in the Revelation, foretells these signs in
the sun and moon and stars, as they were presented to him in a vision of
the last days. But his record shows that this series of signs was to be
preceded by a great earthquake. He describes the order of events as
follows:
"I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon
became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a
fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind." Rev. 6:12, 13.
In these scriptures four great signs of Christ's approaching advent are
listed for our study, as follows:
1. The great earthquake.
2. The darkening of the sun and moon.
3. The falling of the stars.
4. Distress of nations, and other signs.
The Time When the Signs Begin
Christ's prophecy points out approximately the time when the first of
the signs that He gave, the darkening of the sun, should
appear,--"immediately after the tribulation of those days." And the
"great earthquake" of John's vision was to precede this sign in the
heavens.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century began to cut short the days of
tribulation; but some countries shut out the liberalizing influences of
the Word of God, and there the persecution continued.
Even as late as near the end of the seventeenth century, in 1685, France
revoked the Edict of Nantes, that had granted toleration, and
persecution raged as of old. The church was driven again to the desert.
Speaking of the early decades of the eighteenth century, Kurtz says:
"In France the persecution of the Huguenots continued.... The
'pastors of the desert' performed their duties at the risk of
their lives."--_"Church History," Vol. III, p. 88._
There was severe persecution of the Moravians in Austria, in these
times, many of the persecuted finding refuge in Saxony. It was in 1722
that Christian David led the first band of Moravian refugees to settle
on the estates of Count Zinzendorf, who organized through them the great
pioneer movement of modern missions.
But by the middle of the century, the era of enlightenment and the force
of world opinion, in the good providence of God, had so permeated the
Catholic states of Europe that general violent persecution had ceased.
One incident will suffice as evidence of this.
The scene was in France, where alone, of all the Catholic states, there
were any great numbers of Protestants. In 1762 a Huguenot of Toulouse,
unjustly charged with crime, was put to torture and to death, under the
pressure of the old persecuting spirit. Many Huguenots thought the
persecutions of former times were reviving, and prepared to flee to
Switzerland. But Voltaire took up the matter, and so wrought upon public
opinion that the Paris parliament reviewed the case, and the king paid
the man's family a large indemnity.
This shows that by the middle of that century the days of any general
persecution had ceased. In the nature of the case, we may not point to
the exact year and say, Here the days of tribulation ended.
From these times, then, we are to scan the record of history to learn if
the appointed signs began to appear. As we look, we find the events
recorded, following on in the order predicted:
1. The Lisbon earthquake, cf 1755.
2. The dark day, cf 1780.
3. The falling stars, cf 1833.
4. General conditions and movements betokening the end.
"There shall be signs," the Saviour said. We are to study the record of
events, watching to catch the signs of the approaching end as earnestly
as the mariner watches the beacon lights when he nears the longed-for
haven on a dark and stormy night.
[Illustration: AN ANCIENT FLOUR MILL
"Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and
the other left." Matt. 24:41.]
FOOTNOTES:
[B] It was in the autumn that the army of Cestius closed in upon
Jerusalem. According to the careful record of Graetz, the Jewish
historian, it was evidently on a Wednesday that the Roman army retired,
pursued by all the forces of the city. This was the instant for the
flight of the Christians. Next day "the Zealots, shouting exultant war
songs, returned to Jerusalem (8th October)."--_"History of the Jews,"
Vol. II, p. 268._ The day before was the time for unhindered flight.
[C] Apollonius, the friend and counselor of Titus, left a similar
testimony to the latter's conviction that there was something
supernatural about the forces of destruction let loose upon Jerusalem:
"After Titus had taken Jerusalem, and when the country all round was
filled with corpses, the neighboring races offered him a crown: but he
disclaimed any such honor to himself, saying that it was not he himself
that had accomplished this exploit, but that he had merely lent his arms
to God, who had so manifested His wrath."--_Philostratus, "Life of
Apollonius," book 6, chap. 29._
[Illustration: LISBON FROM ACROSS THE BAY
The scene of the great earthquake and tidal wave, Nov. 1, 1755, when in
six minutes sixty thousand people perished.]
THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE OF 1755
"Lo, There Was a Great Earthquake"
The first of a series of signs of the approaching end is thus described
by the revelator:
"I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great
earthquake." Rev. 6:12.
[Illustration: THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE
"There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers
places." Matt. 24:7.]
The verses immediately preceding this scripture plainly describe the
days of persecution of the saints of God, and the era of protest and
reform that cut short that time of tribulation. Then this first sign
appears. This is in harmony with Christ's statement that the signs of
His second coming should begin to appear following the tribulation of
those days.
Just about the close of the days of tribulation occurred the Lisbon
earthquake, as it is called, though its effects reached far beyond
Portugal. Prof. W.H. Hobbs, geologist, says of it:
"Among the earth movements which in historic times have
affected the kingdom of Portugal, that of Nov. 1, 1755, takes
first rank, as it does, also, in some respects, among all
recorded earthquakes.... In six minutes sixty thousand people
perished."--_"Earthquakes," pp. 142, 143._
"Lo, there was a great earthquake," the revelator said. It was indeed "a
great earthquake," and great was its influence. In all the world, men's
hearts were mightily stirred. James Parton, an English author, says of
it:
"The Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, appears to have put
both the theologians and philosophers on the defensive.... At
twenty minutes to ten that morning, Lisbon was firm and
magnificent, on one of the most picturesque and commanding
sites in the world,--a city of superb approach, placed
precisely where every circumstance had concurred to say to the
founders, Build here! In six minutes the city was in ruins....
Half the world felt the convulsion.... For many weeks, as we
see in the letters and memoirs of that time, people in distant
parts of Europe went to bed in alarm, relieved in the morning
to find that they had escaped the fate of Lisbon one night
more."--_"Life of Voltaire," Vol. II, pp. 208, 209._
The World Set to Thinking
This earthquake set men to thinking of the great day of God. Voltaire,
the French philosopher, was "profoundly moved" by it, we are told. "It
was the last judgment for that region," he wrote; "nothing was wanting
to it except the trumpet." More than a month afterward, while still the
perturbations of the earth were continuing, this skeptic wrote a poem
upon the problem presented, voicing the sentiment:
"My heart oppress'd demands
Aid of the God who formed me with his hands.
Sons of the God supreme to suffer all
Fated alike, we on our Father call....
Sad is the present if no future state,
No blissful retribution mortals wait,
If fate's decrees the thinking being doom
To lose existence in the silent tomb.
_All may be well_; that hope can man sustain.
_All now is well_; 'tis an illusion vain.
The sages held me forth delusive light,
Divine instructions only can be right.
Humbly I sigh, submissive suffer pain,
Nor more the ways of Providence arraign."
--"_Poem on the Destruction of Lisbon,_"
_Smollet's translation; Works, Vol. XXXIII, ed. 1761._
Just at the time, plans were under way for the opening of a theater at
Lausanne for the special performance of some of Voltaire's rationalistic
dramas. But the enterprise was deferred. One writer says:
"The earthquake had made all men thoughtful. They mistrusted
their love of the drama, and filled the churches
instead."--_Tallentyre, "Life of Voltaire," p. 319._
So, in an age of rationalism and unbelief, men's thoughts were turned
toward God, and human helplessness and earth's instability were
recognized.
Extent of the Lisbon Earthquake
As to the extent of the earthquake, a writer of the period shows that it
was felt in Sweden and in Africa and in the West Indies, adding:
"The effects were distributed over very nearly four millions of
square English miles of the earth's surface, and greatly
surpassed anything of the kind ever recorded in
history."--_"History and Philosophy of Earthquakes" (London,
1757), p. 333._
The commander of an English ship, lying off Lisbon at the time, thus
described the scene in a letter to the ship's owners:
"Almost all the palaces and large churches were rent down, or
part fallen, and scarce one house of this vast city is left
habitable. Everybody that was not crushed to death ran out into
the large places, and those near the river ran down to save
themselves by boats, or any other floating convenience,
running, crying, and calling to the ships for assistance; but
whilst the multitude were gathered near the riverside, the
water rose to such a height that it overflowed the lower part
of the city, which so terrified the miserable and already
dismayed inhabitants, who ran to and fro with dreadful cries,
which we heard plainly on board, that it made them believe the
dissolution of the world was at hand; every one falling on his
knees and entreating the Almighty for His assistance.... By two
o'clock the ships' boats began to ply, and took multitudes on
board.... The fear, the sorrow, the cries and lamentations of
the poor inhabitants are unexpressible; every one begging
pardon, and embracing each other, crying, Forgive me, friend,
brother, sister! Oh! what will become of us! neither water nor
land will protect us, and the third element, fire, seems now
to threaten our total destruction! as in effect it happened.
The conflagration lasted a whole week."--_Thomas Hunter,
"Historical Account of Earthquakes" (Liverpool, 1756), pp.
72-74._
Recognized as a Sign
Looking down through the ages, the prophet of the Revelation saw the
coming of the latter days, when signs of the approaching end were to
begin to appear. Just there he beheld "a great earthquake." The terrible
event was noted by inspiration as a sign of the coming of the final
judgment. Earthquakes there had been before, and increasing earthquakes
were to follow after,--"earthquakes in divers places,"--as Christ
foretold, speaking of the signs of His second coming. But as befitted
this first of the series of signs of the approaching end, a conviction
from God seemed to come into the hearts of men in that generation, that
this was indeed a token to remind the world of a coming day of doom.
In the year of the disaster, an English poet, John Biddolf, published a
book of verse, pointing some of the lessons of the hour, from which we
quote a few descriptive stanzas:
"Calm was the sky; the sun serenely bright
Shot o'er the sea long dazzling streams of light.
Through orange groves soft breathing breezes play'd
And gathered sweets like bees where'er they stray'd.
In fair relievo stood the lofty town,
Set off by radiant lights and shadows brown.
"Ill-fated city! there were revels kept;
Devoid of fear, they ate, they drank, they slept.
No friendly voice like that of ancient Rome
Was sent to give them warning of their doom:
No airy warriors to each other clung,
Such as 'tis said o'er destin'd Sion hung,
But like a nightly thief their dreadful fate
Unlooked for came and undermined their state....
"Lo, what a sudden change! On ruin's brink
The proud turn humble, and the thoughtless think.
Dark, gloomy sadness overclouds the gay,
And hypocrites for once sincerely pray....
But let it not be thought their horrid deeds
Had pulled this dreadful judgment on their heads,
Or that for crimes too horrible to tell,
Like guilty Sodom, thunderstruck they fell....
"Who can with curious eyes this globe survey,
And not behold it tottering with decay?
All things created, God's designs fulfil,
And natural causes work His destined will.
And that eternal Word, which cannot lie,
To mortals hath revealed in prophecy
That in these latter days such signs should come,
Preludes and prologues to the general doom.
But not the Son of man can tell that day;
Then, lest it find you sleeping, watch and pray."
Thus this first of the predicted latter-day signs bore its message to
men. Its immediate scene was set in the Old World, but its warning was
world-wide. The next sign foretold was to appear in the New World, but
like the Lisbon earthquake, its message of warning was for all men.
[Illustration: THE FLOOD
"So shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:39.]
[Illustration: MIDDAY AT SEA MAY 19, 1780
"Between one and two he was obliged to light a large candle to steer
by." See p. 89.]
[Illustration: SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS
"Can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Matt. 16:3.]
THE DARK DAY OF 1780
"The Sun Shall be Darkened"
We recall that in the vision of latter-day signs given to the prophet
John, he saw the "great earthquake" followed by a sign in the heavens:
"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as
blood." Rev. 6:12.
Of this event our Saviour spoke, in giving the signs of His second
coming which were to begin to appear following the cutting short of the
days of persecution. We repeat His words:
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." Matt. 24:29.
The Prophecy Fulfilled
True to the order of the prophecy, following the great earthquake of
1755 in Europe, there came, in America, the second sign of the
approaching end, the wonderful darkening of the sun, known in history as
"The Dark Day."
This sign appeared at the time indicated in the prophecy, "immediately
after the tribulation of those days;" or as Mark has it, "in those days,
after that tribulation." On May 19, 1780, the sun was darkened, and the
following night the moon did not give her light. Whatever explanation
men may have to offer as to the cause of the phenomenon, the fact
remains that when the time of the prophecy came, the sign appeared.
The first volume of the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences," published in Boston in 1785, contains a paper entitled, "An
Account of a Very Uncommon Darkness in the States of New England, May
19, 1780. By Samuel Williams, A.M., Hollis Professor of Mathematics and
Philosophy in the University at Cambridge [Massachusetts]."
Of the extent, duration, and degree of darkness on that occasion, this
scientific observer said:
"The extent of this darkness was very remarkable.... From the
accounts that have been received, it seems to have extended all
over the New England States. It was observed as far east as
Falmouth [Portland, Maine]. To the westward, we hear of its
reaching to the furthest parts of Connecticut, and Albany. To
the southward, it was observed all along the seacoasts. And to
the north as far as our settlements extend....
"With regard to its duration, it continued in this place at
least fourteen hours: but it is probable this was not exactly
the same in different parts of the country. The appearance and
effects were such as tended to make the prospect extremely dull
and gloomy. Candles were lighted up in the houses; the birds
having sung their evening songs, disappeared, and became
silent; the fowls retired to roost; the cocks were crowing all
around as at break of day; objects could not be distinguished
but at a very little distance; and everything bore the
appearance and gloom of night." (See pages 234-246.)
Whittier has commemorated it in the poem, "Abraham Davenport:"
"'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....
"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."
The words of the poet are substantiated by the plain prose of the
dictionary maker. In the department explanatory of "Noted Names,"
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (edition 1883) says:
"_The Dark Day_, May 19, 1780--so called on account of a
remarkable darkness on that day extending over all New
England.... The obscuration began about ten o'clock in the
morning, and continued till the middle of the next night, but
with difference of degree and duration in different places....
The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."
Cause Unknown
At the time, some explained the darkness as being due to smoke from
forest fires, others to the exceptional rise of vapors and atmospheric
dust in the warm spring following the melting of unusually heavy winter
snows. But forest fires were not of extraordinary occurrence in these
regions, and many a springtime since has seen the melting of heavy
winter snows and the rise of vapors; yet May 19, 1780, still stands
unique in the annals of modern times as "the dark day." However
observers and writers disagreed as to the nature of the mantle of
darkness that was drawn over New England that day, they were _one_ in
recognizing the extraordinary character of the event.
The facts are fully covered by the statement in the dictionary, "The
true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."
What we do know is that the Saviour's prophecy declared, "Immediately
after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light." And when the time for it came, the sign
appeared.
Contemporary Records
Though the comparatively small-sized newspapers of the day were crowded
with news of the progress of the Revolutionary War, then raging, no
little space was given to reports and discussions of this remarkable
darkening of the sun.
A correspondent of the Boston _Gazette and Country Journal_ (of May 29,
1780) reported observations made at Ipswich Hamlet, Mass., "by several
gentlemen of liberal education:"
"About eleven o'clock the darkness was such as to demand our
attention, and put us upon making observations. At half past
eleven, in a room with three windows, twenty-four panes each,
all open toward the southeast and south, large print could not
be read by persons of good eyes.
"About twelve o'clock, the windows being still open, a candle
cast a shade so well defined on the wall, as that profiles were
taken with as much ease as they could have been in the night.
"About one o'clock a glint of light which had continued to this
time in the east, shut in, and the darkness was greater than it
had been for any time before.... We dined about two, the
windows all open, and two candles burning on the table.
"In the time of the greatest darkness some of the ... fowls
went to their roost. Cocks crowed in answer to one another as
they commonly do in the night. Woodcocks, which are night
birds, whistled as they do _only_ in the dark. Frogs peeped. In
short, there was the appearance of midnight at noonday.
"About three o'clock the light in the west increased, the
motion of the clouds [became] more quick, their color higher
and more brassy than at any time before. There appeared to be
quick flashes or coruscations, not unlike the aurora
borealis.... About half past four our company, which had passed
an unexpected night very cheerfully together, broke up."
Of the night following, this gentleman (then at Salem) wrote:
"Perhaps it never was darker since the children of Israel left
the house of bondage. This gross darkness held till about one
o'clock, although the moon had fulled but the day before."
The Boston _Independent Chronicle_ of June 8 quoted from Thomas's
_Massachusetts Spy_:
"During the whole time a sickly, melancholy gloom overcast the
face of nature. Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon
and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was
almost a full moon, no object was discernible, but by the help
of some artificial light, which when seen from the neighboring
houses and other places at a distance, appeared through a kind
of Egyptian darkness, which seemed almost impervious to the
rays.
"This unusual phenomenon excited the fears and apprehensions of
many people. Some considered it as a portentous omen of the
wrath of Heaven in vengeance denounced against the land, others
as the immediate harbinger of the last day, when 'the sun shall
be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.'"
Not only over the land, but out at sea also, the unnatural darkness of
the day and night of May 19, 1780, was observed. In the _Independent
Chronicle_ of June 15, 1780, a correspondent, telling of interviews with
various observers, said:
"I have also seen a very sensible captain of a vessel, who was
that morning about forty leagues southeast of Boston. He says
the cloud which appeared at the west was the blackest he ever
saw. About eleven o'clock there was a little rain, and it grew
dark. Between one and two he was obliged to light a large
candle to steer by.... Between nine and ten at night, he
ordered his men to take in some of the sails, but it was so
dark that they could not find the way from one mast to the
other."
Thoughts Turned to the Judgment
This writer commented as follows concerning the feelings awakened by the
event:
"Various have been the sentiments of people concerning the
designs of Providence in spreading the unusual darkness over
us. Some suppose it portentous of the last scene. I wish it may
have some good effect on the minds of the wicked, and that they
may be excited to prepare for that solemn day."
The _Independent Chronicle_ of June 22, 1780, printed a letter from Dr.
Samuel Stearns, who had been appealed to because of his knowledge "in
philosophy and astronomy." First, he disposed of one suggestion that had
been made:
"That the darkness was not caused by an eclipse is manifest by
the various positions of the planets of our system at that
time; for the moon was more than one hundred and fifty degrees
from the sun all that day."
Then, in the rather heavy language of the science of that period, this
writer told how the action of the sun's heat was continually projecting
into the atmosphere particles of earthy matter; and in his opinion it
was some "vast collection of such particles that caused the late
uncommon darkness." But as to the real accounting for the phenomenon he
wrote:
"The primary cause must be imputed to Him that walketh through
the circuit of heaven, who stretcheth out the heaven like a
curtain, who maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon
the wings of the wind. It was He, at whose voice the stormy
winds are obedient, that commanded these exhalations to be
collected and condensed together, that with them He might
darken both the day and the night; which darkness was, perhaps,
not only a token of His indignation against the crying
iniquities and abominations of the people, but an omen of some
future destruction."
Thus men's minds were exercised by this sign "in the sun, and in the
moon."
The early records of New York City tell of the interest excited there,
though evidently the darkness was not so marked as it was farther north.
In the Connecticut Legislature
President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, a contemporary, left the
following account of one of the historic incidents of the day:
"The legislature of Connecticut was then in session at
Hartford. A very general opinion prevailed that the day of
judgment was at hand. The house of representatives, being
unable to transact their business, adjourned. A proposal to
adjourn the council [a second legislative body called the
Governor's Council] was under consideration. When the opinion
of Colonel Davenport was asked, he answered, 'I am against an
adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching or it is
not. If it is not, there is no cause for an adjournment; if it
is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that
candles may be brought.'"--_Barber, "Connecticut Historical
Collections," p. 403._
It was this striking incident that Whittier described with the poet's
pen:
"Meanwhile in the old Statehouse, dim as ghosts,
Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut,
Trembling beneath their legislative robes.
'It is the Lord's great day! Let us adjourn,'
Some said; and then, as with one accord,
All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport.
He rose, slow cleaving with his steady voice
The intolerable hush. 'This well may be
The day of judgment which the world awaits;
But be it so or not, I only know
My present duty, and my Lord's command
To occupy till He come. So at the post
Where He hath set me in His providence
I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face,--
No faithless servant, frightened from my task,
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls;
And therefore, with all reverence, I would say,
Let God do His work, we will see to ours.
Bring in the candles.'"
Thus, in a manner that arrested the attention of men and put awe and
solemnity into their hearts, with thoughts of the coming of the great
day of God, the first of the predicted signs in the heavens was
revealed.
At a later time, when students of the Bible seemed moved upon
simultaneously, in both Europe and America, to give attention to the
doctrine of Christ's second coming, it was more generally understood
that these signs had come in fulfilment of prophecy.
As we look to the past, we see how truly the tokens of the coming King
began to appear as the church of Christ emerged fully from the long,
dark period of tribulation. A new era was dawning, in which the Lord was
to fill the earth with light before His second appearing, according to
His word to Daniel the prophet:
"Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time
of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased." Dan. 12:4.
At last the time of the end was at hand, and the signs of the latter
days had begun to appear in the earth and in the heavens. The Lord was
preparing to send to all the world the closing gospel message of
Christ's soon coming in glory.
[Illustration: THE GREAT METEORIC SHOWER NOVEMBER 13, 1833
"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13.]
[Illustration: A STAR HERALDS HIS FIRST ADVENT
"We have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him." Matt.
2:2.]
THE FALLING STARS OF 1833
"The Stars Shall Fall from Heaven"
A great impetus was given to the study of divine prophecy by the events
of the closing years of the eighteenth century. Observers had seen the
papal power receive a "deadly wound" in the events and effects of the
French Revolution; and it was understood that the world was entering a
new era of enlightenment and liberty.
Bible students began to see more clearly the lesson of the great
outlines of historic prophecy, and hearts were stirred with the
evidences that the coming of the Lord was drawing near. In Europe and
America, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, there was the
beginning of a revival of the study and preaching of the advent idea.
Another Sign in the Heavens
Just here appeared another great sign in the heavens, foretold by the
word of prophecy. Of the sign that was to follow the darkening of the
sun and moon, Christ's prophecy says:
"The stars shall fall from heaven." Matt. 24:29.
The prophet John beheld the spectacle in a vision of the last days, and
described it in these words:
"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13.
On Nov. 13, 1833, came the wondrous celestial exhibition of falling
stars, which is listed as one of the most remarkable phenomena of the
astronomical story.
Meteoric displays, swarms of shooting stars, have been observed at
various times all through the ages; but this phenomenon, coming in the
order given by the prophecy, that is, following the darkening of the
sun, constituted the sublime display answering to the pen-picture of the
Apocalypse,--as if all the stars of heaven were falling to the earth.
The essential thing about a sign is that it shall be seen, that the
circumstances of its appearance shall fasten attention. Not in America
alone, but equally in all the civilized world, as a topic of study, this
sign in the heavens commanded the attention of men.
An English scientist, Rev. Thomas Milner, F.R.G.S., wrote:
"The attention of astronomers in Europe, and all over the
world, was, as may be imagined, strongly roused by intelligence
of this celestial display on the Western continent."--_"The
Gallery of Nature" (London, 1852), p. 141._
This writer called it "by far the most splendid display on
record."--_Id., p. 139._
Another English astronomical writer of more recent date says:
"Once for all, then, as the result of the star fall of 1833,
the study of luminous meteors became an integral part of
astronomy."--_Clerke, "History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth
Century," p. 329._
This same work describes the extent of the display as follows:
"On the night of Nov. 12-13, 1833, a tempest of falling stars
broke over the earth. North America bore the brunt of its
pelting. From the Gulf of Mexico to Halifax, until daylight
with some difficulty put an end to the display, the sky was
scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated
with majestic fireballs."--_Page 328._
The Spectacle Described
The closest scientific observations were made by Prof. Denison Olmsted,
professor of astronomy at Yale, who wrote in the _American Journal of
Science_:
"The morning of Nov. 13, 1833, was rendered memorable by an
exhibition of the phenomenon called shooting stars, which was
probably more extensive and magnificent than any similar one
hitherto recorded.... Probably no celestial phenomenon has ever
occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was
viewed with so much admiration and delight by one class of
spectators, or with so much astonishment and fear by another
class. For some time after the occurrence, the 'meteoric
phenomenon' was the principal topic of conversation in every
circle."--_Volume XXV (1834), pp. 363, 364._
Prof. Simon Newcomb, the astronomer, declares this phenomenal exhibition
of falling stars "the most remarkable one ever observed." (See
"Astronomy for Everybody," p. 280.)
This was not merely a display of an unusual number of falling stars,
such as Humboldt observed in South America in 1799, or such as we find
recorded of other times before and since. It was a "shower" of falling
stars, just such a spectacle as one must picture from the words of the
prophecy, "And the stars of heaven fell."
The French astronomer Flammarion says of the density of the shower:
"The Boston observer, Olmsted, compared them, at the moment of
maximum, to half the number of flakes which we perceive in the
air during an ordinary shower of snow."--_"Popular Astronomy,"
p. 536._
This affords us a better idea of the scene than the estimate of 34,640
stars an hour, which was made by Professor Olmsted after the rain of the
stars had greatly abated, so that he was able to make an attempt at
counting.
Dr. Humphreys, president of St. John's College, Annapolis, said of the
appearance at the Maryland capital:
"In the words of most, they fell _like flakes of
snow_."--_American Journal of Science, Vol. XXV (1834), p.
372._
Nothing less than this could have presented the counterpart of the
prophetic picture.
Thoughtful hearts were solemnized by the unwonted spectacle. Prof.
Alexander Twining, civil engineer, "late tutor in Yale College," giving
his views as to the nature of the flaming visitants from space, wrote:
"Had they held on their course unabated for three seconds
longer, half a continent must, to all appearance, have been
involved in unheard-of calamity. But that almighty Being who
made the world, and knew its dangers, gave it also its
armature--endowing the atmospheric medium around it with
protecting, no less than with life-sustaining, properties....
"Considered as one of the rare and wonderful displays of the
Creator's preserving care, as well as the terrible magnitude
and power of His agencies, it is not meet that such occurrences
as those of November 13 should leave no more solid and
permanent effect upon the human mind than the impression of a
splendid scene."--_American Journal of Science, Vol. XXVI
(1834), p. 351._
Multitudes felt that the great Creator had spoken to men in this notable
wonder of His heavens. Again and again in the records and reminiscences
of that time, testimony is borne to the fact that observers were
impressed with the likeness of the scene to that described in the divine
prophecy as one of the signs of the end of the world.
The Prophetic Picture Reproduced
The New York _Journal of Commerce_ emphasized the exactness of detail
with which the prophecy described the scene as it appeared in 1833. This
is the apocalyptic picture, as the ancient prophet saw it in vision:
"The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. 6:13.
A correspondent of the _Journal of Commerce_ draws the picture as it was
seen nearly eighteen centuries later, the likeness to the prophetic
description being emphasized in every line:
"No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event like
that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago
foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of
understanding stars falling to mean falling stars."--_New York
Journal of Commerce, Nov. 14, 1833._
In this connection was noted by the same writer the special
appropriateness of the prophet's figure of the fig tree casting the
green figs in a mighty wind:
"Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did
not come as if from _several_ trees shaken, but from _one_.
Those which appeared in the east fell toward the east: those
which appeared in the north fell toward the north; those which
appeared in the west fell toward the west; and those which
appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the
park) fell toward the south; and they fell not as ripe fruit
falls; far from it; but they _flew_, they were _cast_, like the
unripe fig, which at first refuses to leave the branch; and
when it does break its hold, flies swiftly, straight off,
descending; and in the multitude falling, some cross the track
of others, as they are thrown with more or less force."
Professor Olmsted's long and carefully elaborated account in the
_American Journal of Science_, gave a report from a correspondent in
Bowling Green, Mo., as follows:
"Though there was no moon, when we first observed them; their
brilliancy was so great that we could, at times, read
common-sized print without much difficulty, and the light which
they afforded was much whiter than that of the moon, in the
clearest and coldest night, when the ground is covered with
snow. The air itself, the face of the earth as far as we could
behold it, all the surrounding objects, and the very
countenances of men, wore the aspect and hue of death,
occasioned by the continued, pallid glare of these countless
meteors, which in all their grandeur flamed 'lawless through
the sky.'
"There was a grand and indescribable gloom on all around, an
awe-inspiring sublimity on all above; while--
"'The sanguine flood
Rolled a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven,
And nature's self did seem to totter on the brink of time!'
"... There was scarcely a space in the firmament which was not
filled at every instant with these falling stars, nor on it
could you in general perceive any particular difference in
appearance; still at times they seemed to shower down in
groups--calling to mind the fig tree, casting her untimely figs
when shaken by a mighty wind."--_Volume XXV (1834), p. 382._
[Illustration: THE SIGN OF FIRE
"As this sign of fire in the watchtower was a signal to God's people
anciently to flee from the coming danger (see Jer. 6:1), so the signs
appearing now in the heavens and in the earth are God's signals of
warning to the people of our day."]
A Sign to All the World
It was not in North America alone, but in all the civilized world, that
the attention of men was called to the prophetic word by the discussions
of this event. Thus the English scientific writer, Thomas Milner,
writing for the British public, spoke as follows of the profound
impression made:
"In many districts, the mass of the population were
terror-struck, and the more enlightened were awed at
contemplating so vivid a picture of the apocalyptic image--that
of the stars of heaven falling to the earth, even as a fig tree
casting her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind."--_"The Gallery of Nature" (London, 1852), p. 140._
So the sign in the heavens made its solemn appeal to all the world. It
brought to the multitudes who saw it, thoughts of God and the last great
day. An observer living at the time in Georgia, wrote, "Everybody felt
that it was the judgment, and that the end of the world had come."
Another, in Kentucky, wrote, "In every direction I could hear men,
women, and children screaming, 'The judgment day is come!'"
Rather, it was a signal that the hour of God's judgment was drawing
near. The signs so long foretold were appearing, one by one, to register
their enduring mark on the record of fulfilling prophecy.
Immediately following these times, there began an awakening concerning
the vital Bible doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which has grown
into the definite advent movement that is carrying the gospel message of
preparation for the coming of the Lord to every nation and tongue and
people.
The Sign of 1833 Emphasized by Other Displays
We have mentioned the fact that Humboldt had observed an extraordinary
fall of meteorites in South America, thirty-three years, before, in
1799. And he reported at the time that the oldest inhabitants there had
a recollection of a similar display in 1766.
From these reports, scientists deduced the theory that these showers
were to be expected every thirty-three years. Hence in 1866 they were
watching for a repetition of the 1833 display.
That there was a measure of truth in the deduction was made evident by
an unusual fall of meteorites Nov. 14, 1866. This time Europe was the
scene of the display. But the event was not to be compared with that of
1833. This appears plain from the account of observations made by Sir
Robert Ball and Lord Rosse, the British astronomers.
Sir Robert Ball says that when the meteorites began to fall, he and Lord
Rosse went out upon the wall of the observatory housing Lord Rosse's
great reflecting telescope:
"There, for the next two or three hours, we witnessed a
spectacle which can never fade from my memory. The shooting
stars gradually increased in number until sometimes several
were seen at once."--_"Story of the Heavens," p. 380._
Grand as the spectacle was, it was but a reminder, apparently, of the
star shower of 1833, when not "several" meteorites fell at a time, nor
many, merely, but, as it appeared, "the stars of heaven fell unto the
earth."
However, the spectacle of 1866, which was observed over a great part of
the Old World,[D] served to direct renewed attention to the incomparable
event of 1833, as well as to the prophetic descriptions of the "wonders
in the heavens" (Joel 2:30) which were to appear as the end drew near.
[Illustration: CHRIST'S PROMISE TO RETURN
"I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14:3.]
Textbooks and astronomical works thereupon began to count it as fully
established that every thirty-three years the displays would be
repeated. It was confidently predicted that 1899 would witness a
repetition, possibly on the scale of 1833.
Professor Langley's "New Astronomy" (published in 1888) said:
"The great November shower, which is coming once more in this
century, and which every reader may hope to see toward 1899, is
of particular interest to us as the first whose movements were
subject to analysis."
Chambers's Astronomy, published in 1889, said:
"The meteors of November 13 may be expected to reappear with
great brilliancy in 1899."---_Volume I, p. 635._
But the November date passed in 1899, and the years have passed; and the
wondrous scene of 1833 has not been repeated. Clerke's "History of
Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century" says:
"We can no longer count upon the Leonids [as the meteorites of
1833 were called, because they seemed to fall from a point in
the constellation of Leo]. Their glory, for scenic purposes, is
departed."--_Page 338._
The Lord's Signal to Watch
Thus the wisest astronomical predictions made shortly before 1899, based
upon the apparently recurrent regularity of the phenomenon, failed; but
the predictions of the sure word of prophecy, set down on the sacred
record eighteen centuries before, were fulfilled to the letter.
At the close of the days of the predicted tribulation of the church, the
signs began to appear--the sun was darkened, the moon withheld its
light, and the stars of heaven fell.
The series began at the time specified, the signs came in the order
given in Christ's prophecy. The record of history bears witness that the
prophecy was fulfilled.
It may be that on a yet more awful and universal scale these phenomena
will be seen again in that last shaking of the powers of heaven which is
to attend the rolling back of the heavens as a scroll, the immediate
prelude to Christ's glorious appearing. But Christ's prophecy, at this
point, was not giving a description of events at the very end of the
world, but signs by which it might be known when the end was drawing
near.
As the signs should be recognized, the Saviour intended that those who
loved His appearing should be quickened with hope, and inspired to
hasten to the world with the gospel message preparing the way of the
Lord. The Lord's word for His children was,
"When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28.
Long ago these signs began to come to pass. Now may the Lord's believing
children well look up and rejoice, knowing that the day of eternal
redemption is indeed nigh at hand.
He Will Come for His Own
In the glad time of the harvest,
In the grand millennial year,
When the King shall take His scepter,
And to judge the world appear,
Earth and sea shall yield their treasure,
All shall stand before the throne;
Just awards will then be given,
When the King shall claim His own.
O the rapture of His people!
Long they've dwelt on earth's low sod,
With their hearts e'er turning homeward,
Rich in faith and love to God.
They will share the life immortal,
They will know as they are known,
They will pass the pearly portal,
When the King shall claim His own.
Long they've toiled within the harvest,
Sown the precious seed with tears;
Soon they'll drop their heavy burdens
In the glad millennial years;
They will share the bliss of heaven,
Nevermore to sigh or moan;
Starry crowns will then be given,
When the King shall claim His own.
We shall greet the loved and loving,
Who have left us lonely here;
Every heartache will be banished
When the Saviour shall appear;
Never grieved with sin or sorrow,
Never weary or alone;
O, we long for that glad morrow
When the King shall claim His own!
--_L.D. Santee._
[Illustration: SATAN OFFERS GOLD, AND THE WORLD STAMPEDES TO ITS
DESTRUCTION
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you." James 5:1.]
FOOTNOTES:
[D] The display was most brilliant, apparently, in Western Asia. The
veteran missionary, Dr. H.H. Jessup, of the Presbyterian Missionary
College, of Beirut, describes the scene in his "Fifty-Three Years in
Syria:" "On the morning of the fourteenth [November], at three o'clock,
I was roused from a deep sleep by the voice of one of the young men
calling, 'The stars are all coming down.' ... The meteors poured down
like a rain of fire. Many of them were large and varicolored, and left
behind them a long train of fire. One immense green meteor came down
over Lebanon, seeming as large as the moon, and exploded with a large
noise, leaving a green pillar of light in its train. It was vain to
attempt to count them, and the display continued until dawn, when their
light was obscured by the king of day.... The Mohammedans gave the call
to prayer from the minarets, and the common people were in
terror."--_Volume I, pp. 316, 317._
[Illustration: THE MISER
"Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." James 5:3.]
THE MEANING OF PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS
"THERE SHALL BE SIGNS ... UPON THE EARTH"
From the specific signs in the heavens, which were to herald the coming
of the latter days and awaken the church to look for its coming Lord,
our Saviour's prophecy passed on to designate certain general conditions
in the world which were to continue until the great day of God comes:
"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and
upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the
waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven
shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory." Luke 21:25-27.
Among the developments here foretold, and which contribute to the
"distress of nations, with perplexity," we may list the following:
[Illustration: THE ARMING OF THE NATIONS
"Prepare war,... beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning
hooks into spears." Joel 3: 9, 10.]
1. Political Unrest--the Arming of the Nations
Following on closely with the signs in the heavens, there appears also
the awakening to national aspirations and rivalries in Europe, out of
which has grown the arming of the nations. The beginning of the modern
race of armaments may be dated from those stirring and eventful years of
1830 to 1848. We have seen the resources of the soil and the inventive
genius of man devoted to preparations for war on a scale never before
thought of. The prophet Joel foretold these conditions in the last days:
"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles ["the nations," R.V.]: Prepare war,
wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come
up: beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into
spears: let the weak say, I am strong.... Let the heathen be
wakened.... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision [or
"cutting off"]: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of
decision." Joel 3: 9-14.
[Illustration: READY FOR THE CONFLICT
"For the day of the Lord is near." Joel 3: 14.
PHOTO FROM UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N.Y.]
Another prophecy forewarns of the "peace and safety" cry that is to be
heard as the end draws near. We are told that many people in the last
days will be saying that swords are to be beaten into plowshares, and
that the nations will cease from war (Isa. 2:3, 4); but the actual
conditions are repeatedly described in prophecy as warlike and perilous.
Thus the revelator saw the closing days:
"The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the
dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldst give reward
unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear
Thy name, small and great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the
earth." Rev. 11: 18.
[Illustration: A FAITHFUL AND WISE SERVANT
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." Matt.
24: 42.]
What we see then among the nations proclaims the approaching end.
2. Signs in the Social World
A New Testament prophecy of the latter days says:
"In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of
their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God." 2 Tim. 3: 1-4.
The "perilous times" have come, when, as never before, the world is
pleasure mad.
"Unrestrained passion for pleasure," said M. Comte, editor of the French
_Relèvement Social_, writing just before the European war, is bringing a
terrible train of evils into modern society. Along with it he put "the
hunt for money without regard for means," adding:
"This is the theme which manufacturers, business men, men in
the public administration, continually harp on with ever the
same conviction and ever the same wealth of proof.
"The note is ever the same, and the conclusion identical: _Nous
sommes perdus!_ [We are lost!]"--_Quoted in Record of Christian
Work, July, 1914._
Many agencies for social and temperance reform are rendering the
greatest human service; but for lost humanity the only hope is Christ,
the divine Saviour. With an urgency born of the last call, His gospel is
sounding to a world on the verge of eternity. Yet with divine love
longing to save, the world sweeps on, less and less mindful of eternal
interests. Christ's prophecy foretold it as it is:
"As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them
all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:
37-39.
Who can look out upon mankind today without the conviction that this
scripture is being fulfilled? The drift is strong toward the world and
away from God; but we are bidden to watch and pray, lest the coming day
find us unprepared.
3. Signs in the Industrial World
Industrial conditions today add their contribution to the "distress of
nations, with perplexity." Through the word of prophecy the Lord long
ago foretold these conditions, with a warning to the careless rich, and
a warning to the laborer and the poor, not to be drawn into contention
over the things of this world, for the Judge is at the door. The
prophecy, it will be seen, refers specifically to latter-day conditions.
[Illustration: "AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?"
A night scene on the Thames embankment, London.]
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a
witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have
heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the
laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by
fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into
the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth,
and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of
slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist
you.
[Illustration: THE RICH YOUNG MAN
"Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven." Matt. 19: 21.]
"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold,
the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath
long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye
also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned:
behold, the Judge standeth before the door." James 5: 1-9.
There is no need to argue that the issues with which the prophecy deals
are pressing upon the world with ever-increasing perplexity. We quote
but two statements, by men not engaged in agitation, but calmly and
thoughtfully setting down the signs of the times.
The late Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock) wrote a few years ago in the
_Review of Internationalism_:
"The religion of Europe is not Christianity, but the worship of
the god of war.... Unless something is done, the condition of
the poor in Europe will grow worse and worse. It is no use
shutting our eyes. Revolution may not come soon, not probably
in our time, but come it will, and as sure as fate there will
be an explosion such as the world has never seen."
Of the rapid growth of discontent and its propaganda, Mr. Frederick
Townsend Martin, of New York, wrote:
"Fifty years ago there was scarcely a voice of protest; indeed,
there was hardly anything to protest against. Twenty-five years
ago the protest was clear and distinct, and we understood it.
Ten years ago the protest found expression in a dozen weekly
publications, but today the protest is circulated not by
hundreds or thousands of printed copies of books, pamphlets,
magazines, and newspapers, but actually by the million.
"This propaganda of protest has its daily papers that are
distinctive and published for that purpose, and that purpose
only. It has its magazines and tens of thousands of weekly
papers. Only a fool sneers at such a volume of publicity as
that....
"The warnings that hundreds of us are uttering may be ignored.
The squandering may go on, the vulgar bacchanalia may be
prolonged, the poor may have to writhe under the iron heel of
the iron lord--the dance of death may go on until society's E
string snaps, and then the Vesuvius of the underworld will
belch forth its lava of death and destruction."--_Hearst's
Magazine, September, 1913._
Thus hearts grow faint "for looking after those things which are coming
on the earth." But while the increasing "distress of nations, with
perplexity," abounds, the Lord sends the steadying, assuring message
that soon Christ will come to end the reign of sin and strife. He would
have His children keep the gospel light glowing, and wait patiently for
Him.
4. The Great Missionary Movement
The Saviour's prophecy of the signs of His second coming places the work
of world evangelization as the culminating sign. This in itself is a
joyful token of the approaching end, a bright signal of hope in a
suffering world. He said:
"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24: 14.
Before the end, the light of the gospel was to shine into every dark
corner of the earth. True to the sure word of prophecy, when the latter
days began,--"the time of the end,"--there sprang up the great movement
of modern missions which has been one of the leading characteristics of
the last century. Here are a few facts showing the missionary
developments of a single century:
"In 1800 the foreign missionary societies numbered seven. In
1900 they numbered over 500.
"In 1800 the income of seven societies amounted to about
$50,000. In 1900 the income was over $15,000,000.
"In 1800 the number of native communicants enrolled in
Protestant mission churches was 7,000. In 1900 there were
1,500,000 native communicants.
"In 1800 the adherents of Protestant churches in heathen lands
were estimated at 15,000. In 1900 they numbered 3,500,000.
"In 1800 only one fifth of the human family had the Bible in
languages they could read. In 1900 nine tenths of the people of
the world had the Word of God in languages and dialects known
to them."
Since 1900 the missionary movement has remarkably increased in extent
and activity. It is estimated that now there are about 22,000 foreign
missionaries in the fields, with many thousands of trained native
evangelists and helpers.
The prophecy is fulfilling before our eyes. It is not the conversion of
the world that Christ's words foretold, but the evangelization of the
world; and when all the world has heard the gospel of the kingdom, "then
shall the end come."
Another prophecy--that of Rev. 14: 6-14--shows that the closing phase of
this world-wide missionary movement is to be the proclamation of the
special gospel message of preparation for the coming of the Lord,
calling all men to worship God and keep His commandments, and warning
them against following the traditions of men that make void the Word of
God.
[Illustration: THE SUNSET HOUR
"The work that centuries might have done Must crowd the hour of setting
sun."]
With the coming of this generation there has come just such a message,
in the rise and progress of the advent movement, the burden of the
message being expressed in the very language of the prophecy--"Fear God,
and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." Rev. 14:
7. And the movement is spreading rapidly "to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people." Thus in vision the prophet on Patmes heard the
message given; and when its warning cry had reached all nations, he saw
Christ coming in the clouds of heaven to reap the harvest of the earth.
"Even at the Doors"
Of the beginning of the special signs of the last days, Christ said:
"When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21: 28.
But of the time when these signs should all be seen fulfilled or in
process of fulfilment, the Saviour said:
"Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and
putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when
ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these
things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words
shall not pass away." Matt. 24: 32-35.
In this generation we see these things. All about us the signs have
appeared. We know, then, by the word that shall not pass away, that the
generation has at last appeared that is to see the Saviour coming in
power and great glory. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man," but we may
know "that it is near, even at the doors"--the day for which the saints
of God have hoped through all the ages.
[Illustration: PHILIP AND THE EUNUCH
"Understandest thou what thou readest?" Acts 8:30.]
[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE OF BABYLON
"The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and
glory." Dan. 2:37]
THE HISTORIC PROPHECY OF DANIEL 7
FOUR GREAT UNIVERSAL EMPIRES
Part I
So important is it that we understand the events leading on to the end,
that repeatedly the "sure word of prophecy" outlines the course of this
world's history, and sets up waymarks along the highway to the
everlasting kingdom.
In the light of prophecy we see the hand of God guiding and overruling
through all history, shaping events for the carrying out of His purpose
to end the reign of sin and to bring in the reign of eternal
righteousness. His prophetic word foretells events of history, that we
may know that He is the living God over all, and that we may understand
that the divine purpose will surely be fulfilled. Above a wicked world
there is a God in heaven, waiting only the appointed time for the
accomplishment of His purposes.
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.... I have
spoken it, I also will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also
do it.... My salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in
Zion." Isa. 46:9-13.
In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, recorded in the second chapter of
Daniel, the Lord revealed in brief but graphic outline the course of
history from the days of Babylon to the end of the world. The four great
universal monarchies,--Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome--were
represented by the various parts of the metallic image. That prophecy
described particularly the division of the Roman Empire into the
kingdoms of western Europe. "In the days of these kings," declared the
word of the Lord, the God of heaven was to set up His kingdom, bringing
an end to all earthly powers.
In the seventh chapter we are taken over the same course of history, in
Daniel's vision of the four beasts. Here also chief attention is devoted
to the fourth great kingdom; and especially to its divided state; for
the events taking place at this time are of the deepest eternal interest
to all men.
In this vision Daniel saw four universal empires represented by great
beasts. One after another the symbolic beasts arose, did their work, and
gave place to the next scenes in the history. The angel clearly
explained to Daniel the meaning of the vision:
"These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, 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."
Of necessity, then, it is a repetition of the story of the four
universal monarchies dealt with in the second chapter, and ending with
the setting up of the everlasting kingdom.
Let us place the view given the prophet in vision alongside the record
of history.
First, however, a word as to the manner in which the great beasts
appeared to the prophet:
"I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven
strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea,
diverse one from another."
Again and again, in the figurative language of Scripture, winds are used
as the symbol for wars; and the sea, or waters, for nations or peoples.
(See Jer. 25:31-33; Rev. 17:15.) The prophet saw the clashing of the
nations in war, and out of these conflicts arose the kingdoms described
in the prophecy.
[Illustration: THE FIRST BEAST
"The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings." Dan. 7:4.]
Babylon
Note the prophetic picture of the prophecy and the corresponding
representation in history.
_Prophecy._--"The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld
till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the
earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was
given to it."
_History._--As the lion is king of beasts, it was a fitting symbol of
Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms." Isa. 13:19. The eagle's wings suggest
rapidity of movement and far-reaching conquest. The prophet Habakkuk
said of it, "Their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the
eagle." This was the characteristic of Babylon under the earlier kings,
but especially under Nebuchadnezzar. Berosus, the ancient Chaldean
historian, wrote of him:
"This Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Phenicia,
and Arabia; and exceeded in his exploits all that had reigned
before him in Babylon." (See Flavius Josephus "Against Apion,"
book 1, par. 19.)
[Illustration: THE SECOND BEAST
"And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear." Dan. 7:5.]
But now, at the time of Daniel's vision, degeneracy had come; the empire
was tottering. The lion heart was gone, the eagle's wings were plucked,
and within three years from the time the vision was given, Babylon was
overthrown.
Medo-Persia
As the dominion passed from Babylon to the next great power, the prophet
says:
_Prophecy._--"Behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it
raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it
between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much
flesh."
_History._--The Medes and Persians overthrew Babylon. Medo-Persia was a
dual kingdom, lifting itself up on one side, first the Median branch the
stronger, then the Persian, under Cyrus and his successors, rising
higher. This two-sided characteristic, noted as a distinguishing mark in
the prophecy, was emphasized by the ancient writers also. Æschylus, the
Greek poet, who lived in the time of Persia, wrote:
"Asia's brave host,
A Mede first led. The virtues of his son
Fixed firm the empire....
... Cyrus third, by fortune graced,
Adorned the throne."
--"_Persoe._"
The word spoken in the vision, "Arise, devour much flesh," describes the
history from the time when the Persian side rose uppermost. Rawlinson
says, "Cyrus proceeded with scarcely a pause on a long career of
conquest."
An alliance against Persia was formed by Lydia, Egypt, and Babylon
(Herodotus 1:77); and as these three great provinces were subdued, they
may well be represented by the three ribs in the mouth of the
Medo-Persian bear.
Grecia
Yet another kingdom was to follow, and strikingly the symbol pictures
the characteristics of the Greek conquest.
_Prophecy._--"After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which
had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; and the beast had also
four heads; and dominion was given to it."
_History._--The third kingdom was Grecia. Under Alexander the Great, the
Greeks swept into Asia with the quickness of the leopard's spring. And
the four wings on the leopard must represent astonishing fleetness.
Plutarch speaks of the "incredible swiftness" of Alexander's conquests.
Appian wrote:
"The empire of Alexander was splendid in its magnitude, in its
armies, in the success and rapidity of its conquests, and it
wanted little of being boundless and unexampled, yet in its
shortness of duration it was like a brilliant flash of
lightning. Although broken into several satrapies, even the
parts were splendid."--_"History of Rome," preface, par. 10._
[Illustration: THE THIRD BEAST
"After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard." Dan. 7:6.]
Thus the ancient Roman writer pictured the career of Grecia just as
represented by the prophetic symbol--the fleetness, the great dominion
given it, the division of the empire into satrapies, as suggested by the
four heads of the leopard. Out of the conflicts following Alexander's
death, there came the fourfold headship of the empire. Rawlinson says,
"A quadripartite division of Alexander's domain was recognized." (See
"Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3.) The real situation is best represented, as
Dr. Albert Barnes says, by "one animal with four heads," just as the
prophetic symbol described it centuries before.
Thus the course of empire followed the outline of the "sure word of
prophecy" from age to age.
"Armies were ranged in battle's dread array:
They fought--their glory withered in its bud;
They perished--with them ceased their tyrants' sway;
New wars, new heroes came--their story passed away."
There was to be no abiding kingdom till the time came for God's glorious
kingdom to be set up.
[Illustration: THE FOURTH BEAST
"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly." Dan. 7:7.]
Rome
As the prophet watched the moving panorama of history, foretold in
symbols, he said:
_Prophecy._--"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth
beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great
iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were
before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold,
there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this
horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things."
[Illustration: ROME ON THE TIBER
The palace of the Cæsars appears high on the hill at the left.]
_History._--As the iron of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream fitly
represented the "iron monarchy of Rome," so here the dreadful beast,
with its iron teeth, can be none other than Rome, which followed Grecia
in world dominion. It was the most powerful, the most dominating, of all
the beasts in the prophetic series. A Roman Catholic writer, Cardinal
Manning, compresses into a paragraph the correspondence of history to
the likeness of the prophecy:
[Illustration: BATTLE OF ZAMA, B.C. 202
By which Rome broke the power of Carthage, its rival, and "began the
conquest of the world."]
"The legions of Rome occupied the circumference of the world.
The military roads which sprang from Rome traversed all the
earth; the whole world was, as it were, held in peace and in
tranquillity by the universal presence of this mighty heathen
empire. It was 'exceedingly terrible,' according to the
prophecies of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, beating down
and subduing the nations."--_"The Temporal Power of the Pope"
(London, 1862), p. 122._
Thus far every symbol of the prophet's vision finds its exact and clear
counterpart in history. A writer living in the third century, in the
days of imperial Rome, rejoiced to see how exactly the prophecy was
being fulfilled. Hippolytus (counted a saint by the Catholic Church)
wrote:
"Rejoice, blessed Daniel! thou hast not been in error! All
these things have come to pass. After this again thou hast told
us of the beast, dreadful and terrible. It has iron teeth and
claws of brass; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped
the residue with the feet of it. Already the iron rules;
already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings
all the unwilling into subjection; already we see these things
ourselves. Now we glorify God, being instructed by
thee."--_"Treatise on Christ and Antichrist," sec. 33._
Now the prophetic outline comes to the time of the division of the Roman
Empire, introducing events of deepest personal interest to us today.
Part II
The Fourth Kingdom and the "Little Horn"
It was the fourth great monarchy, Imperial Rome, and the events to
follow it, that engaged the anxious inquiry of the prophet. He says:
"Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from
all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his
nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue
with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the
other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that
had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more
stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn 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."
The prophet wanted to know the truth about it; and the angel told him
the truth. First, the angel said:
"The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be
diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall
tread it down, and break it in pieces."
The fourth kingdom, as we have seen, was Rome. As Cardinal Manning said
of the empire, "It was 'exceeding terrible,' according to the prophecies
of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, breaking down and subduing the
nations."
Of the ten horns that arose out of this fourth great empire, the angel
said:
"The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and
another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first,
and he shall subdue three kings."
We look to the history of the Roman Empire, and what do we see?--Just
the picture of the prophecy. We see the original Roman Empire of the
West divided into lesser kingdoms. We see the barbarian peoples of the
North sweeping down upon the empire, breaking it up, and establishing
within its boundaries the various kingdoms that are to this day
represented by the kingdoms of western Europe.
And as we watch the history at this point, we surely see "another little
horn," another land of power, rising among the horns representing the
kingdoms of divided Rome--a kingdom, yet a kingdom "diverse" from the
others. The work of this power riveted the attention of the prophet; and
it is of the greatest importance that we also should watch closely to
catch the lesson of the divine prophecy.
Prophetic and Historic Pictures of the "Little Horn"
This is plainly the picture presented by the prophet, as we look again,
observing details more closely.
The prophet beheld the division of the Roman Empire into lesser
kingdoms. Then, springing up among these kingdoms, he saw the
little-horn power subduing three of the ten kingdoms, speaking great
words, and making war with the saints of God. It was to be a religious
power, then, ruling among the kings of the earth, and asserting
religious dominion over the faith and consciences of men. "The same horn
made war with the saints, and prevailed against them."
[Illustration: THE INVASION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY THE HUNS
"We see the barbarian peoples of the North sweeping down upon the
empire, breaking it up, and establishing within its boundaries the
various kingdoms that are to this day represented by the kingdoms of
Western Europe."--_Page 127._]
We look to history, and this is what plainly appears:
We see, as described in the prophecy, a time when ten contemporaneous
kingdoms filled the territory of the original Western Empire. Just there
we see an ecclesiastical kingly power rise to religious supremacy--the
Roman Papacy. We see, through its influence, three of the ten kingdoms
overthrown, "plucked up by the roots"--three Arian or heretical
kingdoms. And as we watch the history, we find this power making "war
with the saints" and prevailing against them through long ages.
A Roman Catholic writer describes it in a paragraph:
"Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western
emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the
Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked
him to rule them; and thus, in this simple manner, the best
title of all to kingly right, commenced the temporal
sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of
Cæsar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the
emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through
so many ages."--_Rev. James P. Conroy, in American Catholic
Quarterly Review, April, 1911._
Yet again we look at the picture presented in prophecy. Then we turn to
history; and precisely where and when the prophet saw the "little horn"
coming up, we see the Roman Papacy rising to supremacy. We see this
ecclesiastical power wielding a kingly scepter among the kingdoms of
divided Rome, exalting itself above them, with a look "more stout than
his fellows." We hear it speaking great words, and we see it carrying on
warfare against the saints.
Clearly, there was no other power in history, rising at that time and in
that place, which suggests the slightest correspondence to the prophecy.
In every detail the Roman Papacy does correspond to it.
The prophetic outline has brought us to the rise of the great apostasy,
so fully dealt with in the New Testament prophecy; but there are further
specifications in this prophecy of the seventh of Daniel which demand
brief study.
[Illustration: RAISING THE SIEGE OF ROME, A.D. 538
The crushing defeat of the Goths by the armies of Justinian, who placed
Vigilius in the papal chair under the military protection of his famous
general, Belisarius.]
[Illustration: ST. PETER'S AND THE VATICAN
The magnificent headquarters of the papal system.]
THE 1260 YEARS OF DANIEL'S PROPHECY
Compressed into forty-four words, the age-long story of the workings of
the Roman Papacy is thus told by the angel who interpreted Daniel's
vision of the little horn:
"He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and
they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
The spirit of this apostasy was abroad in apostolic days. "The mystery
of iniquity doth already work," said the apostle Paul. 2 Thess. 2:7. And
this power is to continue to work until the end, when it will be
destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Verse 8.
A Prophetic Period
But according to the word of the angel to Daniel, there was to be a
period during which, in a special sense, the Papacy was to hold
supremacy over the saints and the times and the laws of the Most High.
"They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." In the Scriptures the word "time," used in this
manner, means a year: "at the end of times, even years." Dan. 11:13,
margin. Therefore a time (one year) and times (two years) and the
dividing of time (half a year) means three years and a half. The same
period is mentioned twice in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, once
(verse 14) as "a time, and times, and half a time," and again (verse 6)
as "a thousand two hundred and threescore days."
[Illustration]
But in the symbolic representations of time in prophecy, a day stands
for a year (see Eze. 4:5, 6, and other scriptures). Thus the prophecy
foretold a long period of 1260 years during which papal supremacy would
continue.
Now we may ask, When was this supremacy to begin? what would mark the
rise of the Papacy to acknowledged supremacy? and what events mark the
ending of the 1260 years?
A Pivotal Point in History
The answer of history to the voice of prophecy is clear.
The sixth century was a pivotal period in the history of the world. The
bishops of Rome had been asserting the claims of that seat (or "see")
above all others. Justinian was emperor of the East. Of Justinian and
his time Bury says:
"He may be likened to a colossal Janus bestriding the way of
passage between the ancient and medieval worlds.... His
military achievements decided the course of the history of
Italy, and affected the development of Western Europe;... and
his ecclesiastical authority influenced the distant future of
Christendom."--_"History of the Later Roman Empire," Vol. I,
pp. 351-353._
Of this turning point in the world's history, Finlay says:
"The changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the
eyes of one generation."--_"Greece under the Romans," p. 231._
Just here we find the Papacy lifted definitely into acknowledged
supremacy. Imperial Rome had already left its ancient seat to the
Papacy, the imperial throne being no longer maintained at Rome. The
Bishop of Rome was left the chief figure in the ancient seat of the
Cæsars. The prophecy of Rev. 13:2 had said of the relation of the old
imperial power to the Papacy, "The dragon gave him his power, and his
seat, and great authority." The seat was given, and now imperial Rome
was to give to papal Rome the definite recognition of its supreme power
and "great authority."
Papal Supremacy Officially Recognized
In A.D. 533 the emperor Justinian promulgated a letter, having
the force of an imperial decree, recognizing the absolute headship of
the Bishop of Rome over the churches. It declared:
"We have been sedulous to subject and unite all the priests of
the Orient throughout its whole extent to the see of Your
Holiness.... For we do not suffer that anything which is
mooted, however clear and unquestionable, pertaining to the
state of the churches, should fail to be made known to Your
Holiness, as being the head of all the churches. For, as we
have said before, we are zealous for the increase of the honor
and authority of your see in all respects."--_Cod. Justin.,
lib. 1, title 1, Baronii "Annales Ecclesiastici," Tom. VII, an.
533, sec. 12 (Translation as given in "The Petrine Claims," by
R.F. Littledale, p. 293)._
From this decree (for such it really was) the Roman authorities date the
official recognition of the supremacy of the Papacy. Some have taken a
later decree by Emperor Phocas (A.D. 606) as a starting point.
But Dr. Croly says:
"The highest authorities among the civilians and annalists of
Rome spurn the idea that Phocas was the founder of the
supremacy of Rome; they ascend to Justinian as the only
legitimate source, and rightly date the title from the
memorable year 533."--_"The Apocalypse of St. John," pp. 172,
173._
The Sword of Empire Cleaves the Way
The "great authority" had been recognized. But at this time heretical
Arian powers compassed the papal seat about. The Arian Vandals were
persecuting Catholics in Africa, Corsica, and Sardinia, and an Arian
Gothic king ruled Italy from Ravenna, his capital. The imperial arms,
however, were at the service of orthodoxy. In 533-534 Justinian's
famous general, Belisarius, uprooted the Vandals. The war for the faith
and the empire was carried into Italy also, against the Arian Goths. In
536 Belisarius, unopposed, entered Rome at the invitation of the Pope.
But the next year the Goths rallied all their forces to retake the city.
It was a crisis in the struggle for Italy. "If a single post had given
way," says Gibbon, "the Romans, and Rome itself, were irrecoverably
lost." The Goths withdrew, defeated, in 538; and this defeat, says
Hodgkin, dug "the grave of the Gothic monarchy in Italy."
[Illustration: THE POPE ENTERING ST. PETER'S FROM THE VATICAN
The famous statue of St. Peter may be seen on the right.]
Though the conflict went on for years before the Goths were rooted up,
this defeat of 538 was a crucial hour in their history. Finlay says:
"With the conquest of Rome by Belisarius, the history of the
ancient city may be considered as terminating; and with his
defense against Witiges [538] commences the history of the
Middle Ages."--_"Greece under the Romans," p 295._
Roughly speaking, the Middle Ages and the age of papal supremacy and
power were the same.
A New Order of Popes
[Illustration: THE VATICAN
A bird's-eye view from the dome of St. Peter's. COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD &
UNDERWOOD, N.Y.]
Not only was there this telling stroke by the imperial sword in 538,
helping to clear the way before the Papacy, but at this same time the
first of a new order of popes was placed upon the papal throne by the
imperial arms. Pope Silverius, accused of sympathy with the Goths, was
deposed by Belisarius in 537. The emperor intervened, and the question
of the validity of his deposition was held up by the emperor until 538.
In that year, as Schaff says:
"Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal
chair under the military protection of Belisarius
(538-554)."--_"History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, p.
327._
[Illustration: THE FAMOUS SACRED STAIRWAY IN ROME
Here Luther, climbing the stairway on his knees, heard the message, "The
just shall live by faith."]
With him begins a new order. Though personally he was humiliated by the
emperor's demands, and the Papacy itself was brought into a state of
subjection that it had not known even under heretical Gothic kings, yet
this very arbitrary use of the papal prerogative by Justinian,
strengthened the idea that the Pope of Rome was the supreme authority
in religion, to speak for the universal church. In Bemont and Monod's
textbook on "Medieval Europe," page 120, we read:
"Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints in the
martyrologies. Vigilius (537[E]-555) is the first of a series
of popes who no longer bear this title, which is henceforth
sparingly conferred. From this time on the popes, more and more
involved in worldly events, no longer belong solely to the
church; they are men of the state, and then rulers of the
state."
A Persecuting Power
Following Vigilius came Pelagius I (556-560), who ascended the throne by
"the military aid of Narses," then the imperial general in Italy. And
Pelagius, who had been set in the papal see by imperial power, began to
demand that the sword of the empire should be used against bishops or
members in the church who did not give way to the authority of the Pope.
His letters on this subject "are an unqualified defense of the
principles of persecution." (See "Dictionary of Christian Biography," by
Smith and Wace, art. "Pope Pelagius.")
The prophecy declared that the Papacy would be given special supremacy
during a period of 1260 years.
In A.D. 533 came the memorable imperial declaration recognizing
that supremacy, and in A.D. 538 came the stroke with the sword
of Rome, cleaving the way; and there began the new order of popes--"men
of the state, and then rulers of the state."
Thus decisive events clearly mark the beginning of the prophetic period
of the 1260 years. And just 1260 years from the decree of 533, in
recognition of the papal supremacy, came a decree, in 1793, aimed
against that supremacy; and just 1260 years from that stroke with the
sword at Rome in behalf of the Papacy, came a stroke with the sword at
Rome against the Papacy.
[Illustration: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE PRISON IN PARIS
An event in the French Revolution which marked the ending of the old
autocratic order.]
FOOTNOTES:
[E] The exact date should be 538, as given in the quotation from
Schaff's history. "From the death of Silverius [June, 538] the Roman
Catholic writers date the episcopacy of Vigilius."--_Bower, "History of
the Popes," under year 538._
[Illustration: TAKING THE POPE PRISONER
This was accomplished by Berthier, the French general, in 1798.]
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
THE END OF THE 1260 YEARS
As the generation in which the papal power rose to supremacy was a
turning-point in the history of the world, so, too, was the generation
in which the 1260 years of its supremacy came to an end.
This measuring line of prophecy does more than run from date to date. It
connects two great crises in human history, the events of the first
tending to establish the papal rule over men, the events of the second
signalizing a breaking of those bands.
A Crisis in History
Papal supremacy came at that time of which Finlay says, "The changes of
centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation."
The measuring line of 1260 years runs on through the centuries till, lo,
its end touches another time of crisis,--Europe in the convulsions of
the French Revolution, when again changes, ordinarily requiring
centuries, were wrought out before the eyes of men within the space of a
few years. Lamartine wrote of that time:
"These five years are five centuries for France."--_"History of
the Girondists," book 61, sec. 16 (Vol. III), p. 544._
And the events of these times proclaimed the prophetic period of papal
supremacy ended at last.
Thus, in A.D. 533 came the notable decree of the Papacy's
powerful supporter, recognizing its supremacy; and then the decisive
stroke by the sword at Rome in A.D. 538, cleaving the way for
the new order of popes--the rulers of state.
Exactly 1260 years later, in 1793, came the notable decree of the
Papacy's once powerful supporter, France,--"the eldest son of the
church,"--aiming to abolish church and religion, followed by a decisive
stroke with the sword at Rome against the Papacy, in 1798.
Significant Events of the French Revolution
Of the decree of 1793, W.H. Hutton says:--
"On Nov. 26, 1793, the Convention, of which seventeen bishops
and some clergy were members, decreed the abolition of all
religion."--_"Age of Revolution," p. 156._
The frenzy of the days of the Terror presented the spectacle of outraged
humanity, goaded to desperation by centuries of oppression in the name
of religion and divine right, rising up and madly breaking every
restraint. Because in the minds of the people the Papacy stood for
religion, they blindly struck at religion itself, and at God, in whose
name the papal church had done its cruel work through the centuries.
In the prophecy of Rev. 11:3-13 these events of the wild days of the
French Revolution are specifically referred to as coming at the close of
the prophetic period of the 1260 years. The prophetic picture was so
clear that over a hundred years before the time, Jurieu, an eminent
French student of prophecy, wrote that he could "not doubt that 'tis
France," the chief supporter of the Papacy, that would give the shock
as of an earthquake to the great spiritual Babylonian city. He wrote of
France, one of the ten parts of divided Rome:
"This tenth part of the city shall fall, with respect to the
Papacy; it shall break with Rome, and the Roman
religion."--_"The Accomplishment of the Prophecies" (London,
1687), part 2, p. 265._
And so it came to pass. Far beyond France the movement reached. Canon
Trevor says of the wave of revolt against absolutism that passed over
Europe:
"It is worthy of observation that only those nations which
eschewed popery were able to resist the tide. Every throne and
every church, without exception, that owned the supremacy of
Rome, was prostrated in the dust."--_"Rome and Its Papal
Rulers," p. 436._
The decree of the French Convention in 1793 was followed by the stroke
with the sword at Rome in 1798. The full history is told in fewest words
by a Roman Catholic writer, Rev. Joseph Rickaby, of the Jesuit Society:
"When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave
orders that in the event of his death no successor should be
elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be
discontinued.
"But the Pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; Berthier
entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and proclaimed a
republic. The aged pontiff refused to violate his oath by
recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to prison in
France. Broken with fatigue and sorrows, he died on the
nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress of Valence,
aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half Europe thought
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the
Papacy was dead."--_"The Modern Papacy," p. 1 (Catholic Truth
Society, London)._
These events of the French Revolution marked the ending of the prophetic
period of papal supremacy. A "deadly wound" had been given the Papacy.
And the blow with the sword at Rome was struck in 1798, just 1260 years
from the year 538, when the sword of empire struck that decisive blow
against the Goths at Rome, and prepared the way for the new order of
popes, the kingly rulers of church and state.
Of the condition of the Papacy at this time Canon Trevor says:
"The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence
remained; and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger
was stirred in its defense. The Eternal City had no longer
prince or pontiff; its bishop was a dying captive in foreign
lands; and the decree was already announced that no successor
would be allowed in his place."--_"Rome and Its Papal Rulers,"
p. 440._
"No wonder that half Europe," the Jesuit writer says, "thought
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was
dead." But he adds that "since then the Papacy has been lifted to a
pinnacle of spiritual power" unreached before.
The stroke dealt the Papacy by the French Revolution was not to be the
ending of it, by any means, according to the prophecy. These events
proclaimed the ending of the prophetic period of special supremacy.
Another prophecy distinctly indicates that following the deadly blow
there would come a revival of the Papacy's influence, just as the
Catholic writer describes it. The prophet John, speaking of this same
power, says:
"I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly
wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.... And
they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is
able to make war with him?" Rev. 13:3, 4.
We see the healing process still going on, with evidences multiplying
that the world is more and more wondering after the papal power.
A New Era of Liberty and Enlightenment
With the ending of the 1260 years of papal supremacy, a new order was
ushered in. The Papacy had stood for absolutism in state as well as
church. Now the power of absolutism was broken. "Absolute monarchy,"
Edmund Burke said at the time, "breathed its last without a struggle."
There came the dawn of an era of greater religious liberty and
enlightenment, that has spread blessings over all lands.
The prophecy had said of the Papacy, that the saints and the times and
laws of the Most High were to be "given into his hand" for 1260 years.
As foretold in Christ's prophecy (Matt. 24:22), these days of the
tribulation of God's saints were "shortened." The power of the
Reformation weakened the oppressing hand, even before the prophetic
period ran out. And when the full 1260 years closed, the world saw the
grip of that papal hand yet further loosened, and God's providence at
work preparing the way for a world-wide proclamation of His gospel,
bearing witness against the perversions of the papal apostasy, and
restoring to men the Word and laws of the Most High.
The record of history witnesses that this time prophecy of the 1260
years of papal supremacy was exactly fulfilled. The Lord speaks in
prophecy that men may know that He is the living God. In these time
prophecies of His Word, He gives assurance not only that this troubled
world has not escaped from the hand of its Maker, but that its times are
in His hand also; and that when the time of His divine purpose fully
comes, He will surely cut His work short in righteousness, and end the
reign of sin on earth.
As the prophetic period of Dan. 7:25 meets its fulfilment in the history
of the Papacy, even so, we shall see, the work of the Roman Church
answers to the further specifications regarding the doings of this
"little horn" of Daniel's prophecy.
[Illustration: THE TRIPLE CROWN
The Pope's Tiara, from a photograph taken in the Vatican at Rome.]
[Illustration: HUGUENOTS IN PRISON FOR THEIR FAITH
"Others had trial ... of bonds and imprisonment." Heb. 11:36.]
THE WORK OF THE "LITTLE HORN" POWER
The prophetic picture of the rise and work of the "little horn" finds
its exact counterpart in the history of the Roman Papacy:
_The Place._--The little horn was seen by the prophet rising in the
field of the Roman Empire. That was the very place where the great
kingdom of the Papacy appeared, taking the name of Roman.
_The Time._--The rise of the ecclesiastical kingdom of the little-horn
power in the prophecy followed the breaking up of the Roman Empire into
the ten kingdoms. Just so the ecclesiastical kingdom of the Roman Papacy
rises to view in history immediately following the division of the
empire.
_The Period of Supremacy._--The prophecy allotted 1260 years to the full
supremacy of this power. History responds that from the beginning of the
papal supremacy, in the days of Justinian, a period of 1260 years brings
us into the stirring events of the last decade of the eighteenth
century, that gave to the Papacy a deadly wound.
[Illustration: THE LOVE OF POWER
"He shall speak great words against the Most High." Dan. 7:25.
THE POWER OF LOVE]
One further set of specifications remains for study:
_The Work._--Of the nature and work of the power represented by the
little horn, the prophecy declares:
"He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and
they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the
dividing of time." Dan. 7:25.
Do we find in the record that the Church of Rome has fulfilled these
specifications also? The Scripture prophecy is absolutely a
word-photograph of the workings of the papal church. Look at the main
features:
1. Speaking great words against the Most High.
2. Wearing out the saints of the Most High.
3. Thinking to change the times and the laws of the Most High.
Every count in the indictment may be clearly proved, and that by
testimony from Roman Catholic sources
"He Shall Speak Great Words Against the Most High"
As Daniel observed the little-horn power, he heard it speaking "very
great things." The angel declared that these great swelling words were
really against the Most High. And what could be more against the honor
of the Most High than that to mortal man should be ascribed the titles
and attributes of divinity? Here are some of the "great words:"
"All the names which are attributed to Christ in Scripture,
implying His supremacy over the church, are also attributed to
the Pope."--_Bellarmine, "On the Authority of Councils," book
2, chap. 17._
This ruling has been actually applied through the ages. Says Elliott:
"Look at the Sicilian ambassadors prostrated before him [Pope
Martin IV] with the cry, 'Lamb of God! that takest away the
sins of the world!'"--_"Horæ Apocalypticæ," part 4, chap. 5,
sec. 2._
[Illustration: CHRISTIANS IN PRISON BENEATH THE COLOSSEUM AWAITING
MARTYRDOM
"And shall wear out the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7:25.]
"The Pope is of so great dignity and excellence, that he is not
merely man, but as if God, and the vicar of God (_non sit
simplex homo, sed quasi Deus, et Dei vicarius_). The Pope alone
is called most holy,... divine monarch, and supreme emperor,
and king of kings.... The Pope is of so great dignity and power
that he constitutes one and the same tribunal with Christ
(_faciat unum et idem tribunal cum Christo_), so that
whatsoever the Pope does seems to proceed from the mouth of God
(_abore Dei_)."--_"Prompta Bibliotheca" (Ferraris), art.
"Papa;" Ferraris's Ecclesiastical Dictionary (Roman Catholic),
art. "The Pope." Quoted in Guinness's "Romanism and the
Reformation," p. 16._
These are no merely extravagant adulations of the Dark Ages, to be
repudiated by the moderns; these terms express the unchanging doctrinal
claims of the Roman Church, that put man in the place of God. The modern
Pope Leo XIII, in an encyclical letter dated June 20, 1894, repeated the
claim:
"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty."--_"The
Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII" (New York, Benziger
Brothers), p. 304._
Thus does the Papacy "speak great words against the Most High."
"And Shall Wear Out the Saints of the Most High"
All through the Dark Ages we catch glimpses of the ruthless hand of Rome
laid upon simple believers in God's Holy Word; but plans for wholesale
wearing out of the saints of God were devised as the Waldenses and
others rose to a widespread work of witnessing, heralds of the dawn of
the coming Reformation,--
"These who gave earliest notice,
As the lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;
Who, rather, rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark--
The harbingers of good whom bitter hate
In vain endeavored to exterminate."
--_Wordsworth._
Pope Innocent III gave orders concerning them as follows:
"Therefore by this present apostolical writing, we give you a
strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all
these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted
with them. You shall exercise the rigor of ecclesiastical power
against them and all those who have made themselves suspected
by associating with them. They may not appeal from your
judgments, and, if necessary, you may cause the princes and
people to suppress them with the sword."--_Quoted from Migne,
214, col. 71, in Thatcher and McNeal's "Source Book for
Medieval History," p. 210._
As the truth spread, so also the papal church redoubled its efforts by
sword and flame. The historian Lecky says:
"That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any
other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be
questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of
history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are
now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete
conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite
certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize
their sufferings."--_"History of the Rise and Influence of the
Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p. 32._
Motley, in his "Rise of the Dutch Republic" (part 3, chap. 2), tells how
Philip II of Spain--who declared that he would "never consent to be the
sovereign of heretics"--sent the Duke of Alva to take over the
Netherlands:
"Early in the year the most sublime sentence of death was
promulgated which has ever been pronounced since the creation
of the world. The Roman tyrant [Nero] wished that his enemies'
heads were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them
off at a blow; the Inquisition assisted Philip to place the
heads of all his Netherlands subjects upon a single neck for
the same fell purpose. Upon February 16, 1568, a sentence of
the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the
Netherlands to death as heretics. From this universal doom only
a few persons, especially named, were excepted. A proclamation
of the king, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the
Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant
execution, without regard to age, sex, or condition. This is
probably the most concise death warrant that was ever framed.
Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were
sentenced to the scaffold in three lines."
Roman Catholic writers admit that the papal church has sought to
exterminate what it calls heresy, by the power of the sword.
The _Western Watchman_ (St. Louis), Dec. 24, 1908, says:
"The church has persecuted.... Protestants were persecuted in
France and Spain with the full approval of the church
authorities. We have always defended the persecution of the
Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition. Wherever and whenever
there is honest Catholicity, there will be a clear distinction
drawn between truth and error, and Catholicity and all forms of
error. When she thinks it good to use physical force, she will
use it."
Prof. Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris,
says:
"The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience and of
liberty.... She has, and she loudly proclaims that she has, a
'horror of blood.' Nevertheless, when confronted by heresy, she
does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an
intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and
she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture.
She creates tribunals like those of the Inquisition, she calls
the laws of the state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a
crusade, or a religious war, and all her 'horror of blood'
practically culminates into urging the secular power to shed
it, which proceeding is almost more odious--for it is less
frank--than shedding it herself. Especially did she act thus in
the sixteenth century with regard to Protestants. Not content
to reform morally, to preach by example, to convert people by
eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low
Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the
Inquisition. In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England
under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics, whilst both in
France and Germany during the second half of the sixteenth and
the first half of the seventeenth century if she did not
actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided,
the religious wars."--_"The Catholic Church, the Renaissance
and Protestantism" (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,
Ltd., 1908), pp. 182, 183._
She has done it--the Church of Rome has worn out the saints of the Most
High. The prophet in vision saw an ecclesiastical kingly power rise
among the kingdoms of the divided Roman Empire. Its look was more stout
than its fellows, and the prophet heard it speaking "very great things,"
and saw it wearing out the saints of the Most High through the long
centuries.
[Illustration: THE SHAME OF RELIGIOUS WARS
Christ viewing the battle fields of history, where millions of His
followers have been slain in His name.]
"Guilty!" is the clear verdict of history, against the Church of Rome on
these two counts of the prophetic indictment.
"And Think to Change Times and Laws"
The power that was to speak great words against the Most High, and to
wear out the saints of the Most High, was further--in its self-exalting
opposition to God--to assume to lay hands upon times and laws, evidently
the times and the laws of the Most High; for to say that such a power
would lay hands on the laws of men, changing or setting aside human
legislation, would signify less than the preceding counts. This third
specification states a climax in the indictment--the self-exalting,
persecuting power was to lay hands upon the very law of the Most High.
It is clearly the same power that the apostle Paul said would rise to
dominion after his time: "Then shall be revealed the la
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