ANOTHER year breaks upon us, and in its dawning may be seen further beams of mercy—deeper, fuller traces of God’s long-suffering.
That sin is fast heaving up, and boldly asserting itself, spite of all that there may be to lessen its virulence, is only too patent to those who look beyond the surface.
The state of things foretold of the “last days” by the apostle Paul is realized to the letter. We have certainly reached them, for all around we see verified the divine prediction, “Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:2-52For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:2‑5)). All this was foretold of certain days, and if we find it true of the present time, then we may be certain that we have arrived at those days. Carefully notice that they are called the last days. We have reached the end! If ever sin could be labeled and marked out, it is today. We have, in the above indictment, some twenty distinct and different counts, and each of them is preferred against our own generation―against the very people amongst whom we live and move.
Now that is serious. But, it may be suggested, this catalog of crime cannot attach to Christendom, nor to those areas that are enlightened by learning, elevated by civilization, or blessed by the sound of the gospel. It must assuredly apply, to heathendom, and to regions of moral and idolatrous ignorance, as we may read, for instance, in the end of Romans 1. Well, that may be true, but the sad and distressing fact is, that the description given us above does most emphatically apply to Christendom, and to the very place where the gospel is preached―to the Church sphere.
Then, if so, one of two things must be the case―either that Christianity is a complete failure, for, after a trial of some nineteen hundred years, it leaves things just as it found them, or else that the description is false and inaccurate.
But how can the description be false if it be God’s description, as it certainly is? Nay, it is true to the letter. Then Christianity must be a failure! Not so. But does it not stand to reason that a system which assumes to ameliorate and improve must be a failure, if, after so long a trial, it has confessedly accomplished nothing? Accomplished nothing! Ah, that is an unwarrantable leap to a wrong conclusion. Mark, it is from the pages of its own Bible that we have quoted the deplorable state of things in what we called the Church sphere, or the sphere of Christianity, and it is incredible that a system should condemn itself.
Nay, Christianity has accomplished, and will accomplish, its own mission, and perform its own wondrous work, spite of all human failure. The truth is that people have harbored the incorrect idea that Christianity was designed to reform man as man, to make us better citizens, better masters, servants, &c. &c.―that it was intended, in a word, to convert and renovate the world. A grand mistake! If that were its design, it is a huge failure indeed, and the infidel may boast as he pleases, and with abundant reason. What Christianity professes to do―has done and is doing―is to save souls from sin and hell, to form such into the Church of God, and the Bride of the Lamb, that they should be to the praise of His grace forever. Having saved them, it no doubt makes them morally different in all their ways, by fashioning them according to Christ Himself.
But the Church and the world are, in their natures, distinct one from another—as fire and water. The Church is ever supposed to be the object of the world’s hatred and persecution, at the very time that the Church is seeking, like her blessed Head, the world’s salvation and blessing. In connection with the Church, not one word of God will fail, and the purpose in Christianity will be perfected. Then what of our passage in 2nd Timothy? To whom does it apply?
Between the Church, as the true vessel, and the world, there has arisen an immense system of profession―a hollow, unreal imitation of the true thing; and this it is that has failed so palpably. This thing that has a “form of godliness, but without the power”―this powerless, spiritless, godless sham― this that catches the lynx eye of the infidel, and that justly merits all his scorn—this bastard creation of the last days―this fearful snare and pit for unwary souls―it is here that sin finds its convenient lodgment, as the fowls in the branches of the mustard-tree. The evils of the day culminate, alas! in this hideous sphere, where Christianity has been distorted and put to shame.
Again I say that sin is fast heaving up, spite of all the external barriers that would retard its growth. And, believe me, it is the judgment of God, and not a peaceful millennium, that is to terminate this state of things.
Yet God is long-suffering, and the advent of another year of grace and mercy is another proof of His desire that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Reader, the last year is gone, irrevocably gone, and so, too, have all its predecessors, and with them many a golden opportunity has been lost forever. Not one of them can you recall. How your sins of commission, as well as of omission, have been accumulating, and how that convenient season of turning to God, promised to yourself so long ago, has always been deferred. What increasing guilt is yours! What a treasuring of wrath against the day of wrath! What a gradual purchasing of a place in the lake of fire do all these years witness! Think, soil, think, I beseech you!
Still God―your offended God―lingers over you, not willing that you should perish. Yes, not even you! The sun of salvation’s long and lovely day is setting in a murky sky. Shortly all will be over. Then an everlasting night, unrelieved by star or dawn—one eternal hour of judgment must settle down on each impenitent soul. How awful!
Ah, friend, let that last lingering ray of light and love and salvation shine upon your heart today. Let this be the beginning of days to you. Begin the year with God. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” and remember the other side, “He that believeth not shall be damned.”
J. W. S.