By The Editor
In quiet hours I think of all the awful efforts of the devil in these last days against our Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an unspeakable comfort to me to know that my Master is the devil’s Master—so it is only as long as He wills.
This article, I thought, might be used by God today.
Days of Crisis
AS we gaze on the great sea of humanity, we notice it heaving and tossing in response to the volcanic storms that are raging underneath it. Elemental forces are at work all over the world, and primitive barbarism is threatening to displace the ordered living which civilization requires. The root of all this unrest is to be found in the denial of the Father and the Son. It is the spirit of Antichrist abroad on the earth, the devil ruling in the place of God, and the councils of darkness swaying the destinies of man. Men are looking for the superman, and not to the God of all the earth.
The awful blasphemy that has led a nation to eliminate the Name of God from all its schools is spreading everywhere: “We be gods,” men cry, and then act as devils. The humanizing of God and the deification of man is the spirit of this age. The riot of self-will, everyone doing that which is right in their own eyes, leads to the awful menace of Bolshevism, which is the direct result of the materialism of the present day. There seems to be a collapse of moral energy in the world; the power to do evil is stronger than the desire to do right. The hidden forces of evil in the natural man, which are, to a certain extent, repressed by the obligations of society, show themselves in a variety of ways: sometimes in the quieter forms of unbelief when human credulity is befooled by so-called diviners, by false mediums, by charlatans who pretend to the gift of healing, by palmists, by fortune-tellers, by crystal-gazers, by wizards who pretend to hold mysteries of life and death in thrall, by the atheists who in their blasphemy speak of “somebody called God,” to the semi-atheists, as we may call them, who, under the guise of religion, sow “doctrines of devils,” the denial of the Father and the Son, in half the pulpits of Christendom. These false witnesses, garbed as Christian men, are the choicest emissaries of Satan, his chosen vessels to poison the minds of men with the specious sophistries of perdition.
Then there is the cult of socialism, a growing force which “teaches and believes the folly that material comfort may come to all under the reign of an omnipotent and atheistic bureaucracy administering the affairs of state.” They build their theories on destruction, and are an unceasing menace to the nations of the world.
All these things spring from the terrible unrest in the world today, a world that is deliberately trying to do without God and His beloved Son. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, casting up mire and dirt,” and the world is full of the mire and dirt of an unrestful and wicked age. The great strikes that paralyze commerce are the outcome of the forces of the restless unbelief of men and women. The increasing love of pleasure and the desecration of the Lord’s Day are the terrible results of the materialism of these times. On Sundays we have the picture palaces and theaters open, bands playing in the parks, and concerts in the large halls. Sunday newspapers have an enormous circulation. All these things lead to a total neglect of the Word of God and a loosening of every moral bond.
The Prime Minister of France said in the French Senate a few years ago: “We have torn the minds of men from religious faith. The wretched workman who, weary with the weight of his day’s work, once bent his knee, we now have raised up. We have told him that behind the clouds are only chimeras. Together, and with a majestic gesture, we have put out in the heavens the lights that will never be lit again!”
This speech was hailed with delightful applause, and was ordered to be distributed throughout all the Communes in France (36,000).
The denial of God leads to a denial of His Word and all its teaching for time and eternity. Lord―, writing to me about the Bible, says “he does not agree with me in regarding this inconsistent semi-oriental hotchpotch as the Word of God.” And so we might go on painting a picture more and more sombre of a world seeking to put God out of its thoughts altogether.
And now men talk of a League of Nations, peace and amity to be brought to a world by man’s efforts, a league to be built on the sandy foundation of human endeavor, and to be welded together by pledges that have been proved before to be mere “scraps of paper.”
I remember reading of a great speech made by M. Jules Simon in favor of peace. Amid deafening applause, he ended his peroration by saying: “Cannon, thy reign is ended!” This was early in July, 1870. We know that sixteen days after this speech was made war was declared between France and Germany, and within two months M. Jules Simon’s house was under the fire of German guns.
The Tower of Babel was a League of Nations. God came down to see what they were building, and He scattered the builders over the face of the earth; and so this godless league was dissolved.
What are Christians to do in these days of crisis? What are our responsibilities and our opportunities?
We must believe in: ―
1. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
2. The divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The divine inspiration of the Scriptures.
4. The immortality of the soul.
5. The atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His resurrection and ascension into heaven.
6. The fall of man, the necessity of the new birth, and justification by faith alone.
7. The eternal punishment of the wicked.
If, by the grace of God, we are enabled to rest our souls upon these divine foundations, God will give us power to live for Him and to be a witness for His beloved Son.
But Christians must be in earnest; how can we contend for a faith if we do not hold it firmly? How can we speak of a Saviour if we do not know Him in communion of soul?
It is the everlasting shame of Christendom that the majority of so-called Christians do not believe in Christ at all, and tens of thousands who do believe in Him are lukewarm, and prefer the ease of quiet living to the battlefields of service for their Lord. Without judging others, let us judge ourselves; examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. The devil is in deadly earnest, and all over the world the powers of darkness are waging unceasing war.
If we want to help in God’s work we must face the evils of which we have been speaking in the power of God. How glorious to win souls for Jesus Christ day by day; to be true to Him in a world where He WAS crucified, and where He IS denied now! How good to remember that Jesus is God; to be able to say:
“There is no other name but Thine,
Jehovah-Jesus, name divine;
On which to rest for sins forgiven,
For peace with God, and hope of heaven.
So, fellow Christian, let us do each day definite work for Christ. Above all, pray. We must have daily prayer to God, together when we can, for Jesus said: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father, which is in heaven” (Matt. 18:1818Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18)).
Three things will characterize us if we are true to Christ:
1. We shall be living epistles known and read of all.
2. People will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.
3. We shall be like unto men that wait for their Lord.
Any request for prayer sent to us will be remembered before God, and any anxious about their souls we shall be glad to help. Write to Dr. Heyman Wreford, The Firs, Denmark Road, Exeter.
Note. ―The days in which we live are so solemn that we have printed this article in booklet form. Copies to be obtained from Dr. Heyman Wreford, The Firs, Denmark Road, Exeter; also F. E. Race, 3 and 4, London House Yard, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.4.