I feel very much the character of this present time through which we are passing. The great powers that are destined to fill out the action of Christendom's closing days are exerting themselves, each in its respective sphere, with great earnestness and skill. These powers are the civil and the ecclesiastical.
I do not doubt that for a season the ecclesiastical will prevail. The woman is to ride, for a while, and that is the symbol which signifies the supremacy of that which takes the place of the Church. And this present moment is marked by her efforts to mount the saddle. She is so adroitly directing those efforts that I doubt not success will soon attend them, and then the blood of the saints may flow afresh.
The civil power, however, is not idle. The wondrous advance that is being made every day in the development of the world is the proof of great skill and activity on its part. It is largely boasting and showing what it can do, and pledging what more it means to do.
At this moment each of these powers is abroad in the scene of action, and men's minds are divided between them. They are in some sense rivals and in opposition. There is the commercial energy and the religious energy—the one pursuing its technology and exhibitions and such like, the other its bishoprics, churches, ordinances, etc. The attention of the children of men is divided between them, but the saints who know the cross of Christ as the relief of their conscience, and the ground of their separation from the world, are equally apart from both.
No doubt the civil power will have to yield the supremacy for a time, and the woman will ride again, though her state and greatness will be but short, for the civil power will take offense and remove her. Between these powers there is at times confederacy, and then at times there is enmity.
I have been conscious lately how much the language and spirit of Jeremiah suits our times. He lived in the daily observation of evil and iniquity abominating and advancing in the scene around him, though it was called by God's name, and was indeed His place on the earth. The house of prayer had become a den of thieves. He knew, likewise, that the judgment of God was awaiting it all, but he looked for sure and happy days in the distance which lay beyond the present corruption and the coming judgment.
He mourned over it; but he also testified against it. And like his Master (John 7:77The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. (John 7:7)), he was hated for his testimony. He was, however, full of faith and hope as touching the future, and therefore he laid out his money in the purchase of Hanameel's field (Jer. 32). All this was beautiful—the present sorrow, the certainty of approaching judgment, and the hope of closing, crowning glory. This is a pattern for us. I notice another thing of character or of power in the prophet. He was not to be seduced from the perseverance of faith by occasional circumstances, or good appearances. This is seen in chapter 37. The Chaldean army had broken up their camp at the walls of Jerusalem, because of the arrival of the Egyptian allies. But Jeremiah left the city, for he held to the decision of faith that Jerusalem was doomed by God, in spite of the good appearance of a moment like that.
This is a fine exhibition of a soul walking by the light of God, not only through darkness, but through darkness that seemed to be light. And with all this he was a suffering witness.
All seems quiet around us at present, and even more than that, things are advancing and prospering as far as the social life goes. But the moral condition of the scene in the eye of faith is more serious than ever. The apostate powers of man are ripening into their most profuse exhibition. There is somewhat of rivalry between them just for the present. The secular and the religious are apart as yet. Each has its respective devotees and worshippers. But confederacy is to succeed rivalry before long. The world must, even for its own ends, adopt religion for a season, and then for that season the woman will ride the beast again. This is so that man's system may grow solid as well as extended, and propose itself as the thing that has earned for itself a title to conform all and everything to itself.
Separation is the Christian's place and calling—church separation, separation because of heavenly citizenship, and oneness with an already risen and ascended Christ. Abraham's was a very complete separation. It was twofold. He was separated from the natural associations of Mesopotamia, his country, his kindred, his father's house, and then, too, from the moral associations of Canaan, or its iniquities and idols.
May the Lord, in the thought of these solemn truths, be more real and near to us! May the prospect of His presence be more familiarly before us. And may the hope of His glory be found lying more surely and certainly in the very midst of the affections and stirring of our hearts! Words of Truth