A letter telling us of the shocking and brazen display of contempt for God and His Christ on the campus of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, strongly reminded us "that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts." 2 Pet. 3:33Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, (2 Peter 3:3). The students of the very college that a century ago was headed by the God-fearing and faithful preacher Charles G. Finney, and which was then a great center of orthodox Christianity, dared the wrath of God by enacting a mock crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. We shrink from even recording their audacious and blasphemous act of nailing an effigy of our blessed Savior to a tree. Can so called Christian people go further? If the Jews who professed Christianity and then relapsed into the old religion of outward forms and ceremonies were guilty of putting "the Son of God... to an open shame" (Heb. 6:66If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6:6)), is the crime of these students one whit less? Is it not rather greater? Is it not despising the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long-suffering (Rom. 2:44Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Romans 2:4))? Surely they are "ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude 44For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4). They make use of the very long-suffering of God, who has not executed His righteous wrath against the world that murdered His Son, to insult Him. Pharaoh who said, I know not the Lord and will not obey Him, and Antiochus Epiphanes who profaned the Jewish temple by offering swine's flesh on the altar, were less culpable than the guilty students of Oberlin College, for their effrontery was carried out in the full light of Christianity.
But "God is not mocked" was the title of another bit of news that came to our notice about the same time. There had been a train wreck caused by an open switch, and some of the passengers had been killed, and many others were injured. The man who wrote the account was a passenger on the ill-fated train. We shall give briefly his story:
He was called to the side of one fatally injured man, and after a few remarks between them. the dying man asked him to listen to his story. He wished that it might be a warning to others. He was a traveling salesman, and about ten years before had spent an evening drinking with a group in a certain hotel. Their conversation that night turned to some gospel meetings that were being conducted in the town. A number had evidently been saved and turned from their evil ways; this was the occasion for much ridicule. One of the party asked how the meetings were conducted and what was happening in them, so a young man offered to make a demonstration if the others would join 'him. We shall quote the words of the dying man:
"Six of us kneeled on the floor and started the mockery. We prayed for the forgiveness of our sins, and even tried to imitate the tears of repentance. We closed with that song we learned in childhood, Rock of Ages, cleft for sin!... What I am about to tell you, happened in the last ten years. There were six of us. Before the end of the first year, the hotel owner fell, burst a blood vessel, and died.... Two years later the young man who started the demonstration was with a hunting party in the country. During the night he got up to get a drink of water, fell down the steps, broke his neck, and died two days later..... The third, called Tom, a droll fellow, who by that mockery cried the loudest, fell down his own cellar and died.... Now I became anxious to know what would happen to my other two companions. One of them went west, hoping to escape his expected doom, but shortly after that the local newspaper reported that he was caught between the bumpers of two cars, and died a horrible death.... Last year I met my only surviving companion. He had sunk into poverty, and lost both wife and children. Then one evening he fell six feet and broke his neck. Since that time I have waited for my end, and now it has come."
What a sorrowful list of tragedies! Six mockers cut off in violent deaths within ten years. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal. 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7).
It took years to see the truth of this scripture in the case of the six mockers. What shall be the end of the participants in that sacreligious and blasphemous mockery at Oberlin College? Time will tell, but "God is not mocked."
Within the last few days we also received in the mail an article entitled "The Finger of God," which gives an account of the destructive eruption on the Island of Martinique, May 8, 1902. This article tells that the inhabitants of the city of St. Pierre, at the foot of the volcano Mount Pelee, "In order to mock the crucifixion of Christ, crucified publicly on (what is generally called) Good Friday;
a swine." They also had plans laid to repeat the infamy in a few days, but suddenly the volcano that had been quiet for a long time erupted a cloud of burning poisonous gas and glowing lava which transformed the city into a sea of fire. History records the estimated deaths at 40,000.
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. 10:3131It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31). But as we approach the end, we see more and more of the rashness of infidelity, until at the end the head of the revived Roman Empire will open his mouth to blaspheme God in open defiance. He, however, shall meet swift destruction when the Lord comes out of heaven to make His enemies His footstool. Well did Job say, "Who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?" Job 9:44He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? (Job 9:4).
A verse from Ecclesiastes is also to the point—"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Chapter 8:11. But a day of just retribution is coming apace, and all the ingenuity of man will not prevent or mitigate it.