The close of the year has come, and what a year it has been! The air has been thick with “wars and rumors of wars”. Nation has arisen against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Thousands have died of famine and pestilence; earthquakes have carried off thousands more, and tornadoes, tidal waves and awful catastrophies have greatly added to the toll of human life. What does it all mean? Is God in it, or is it only the working out of natural laws and political crises? Thank God, those of us who are in His secret, know that “the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:88The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:8).) Nor is this the end. God has said, “I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isa. 13:11, 1211And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:11‑12).)
To young people the world sometimes becomes tinged with a rosy hue, and their hearts become taken up with its promises of success and happiness. But remember, the Lord Jesus said three times that Satan was the “prince of this world.” The Apostle Paul called Satan the “god of this world,” and tells us that “Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world.”
A young man spoke to another on the street car recently, saying, “Well, how is the world treating you these days?” The reply was made, “I’m not expecting much from this world, for the Lord Jesus said, ‘Because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’” (John 15:1919If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15:19).) The world hates the Lord, Jesus and God allowed it to go on in its ungodly, worldly, infidel, blasphemous, pleasure-mad course, until His holy hand could be stayed no longer. The year just closing tells its tale of what it means when God turns man over, for a little while, to his own depraved schemes. The world stands aghast at the result, and the great men, in awe, begin to ask, “What will be the end?” “What can stop this ever growing conflagration of war?”
We have now searched our Bibles for a year in connection with the subject of the Lord’s coming, and, we trust, the result has been to kindle in each of our hearts a burning expectation that He is soon to appear and put an end to the reign of blood, and usher in that year of jubilee which shall envelope this gladdened earth for a millennium.