The shadows of the expiring year are lengthening upon us, the end is fast approaching, another milestone in life’s journey will soon have been past. The sunrise and the sunset belong to this world, the eternal day lies beyond it all and above it all.
Let us then, standing on the verge of the closing period, pause and listen to the voice which speaks to us to-day.
Wherever we turn the eye, one great fact is clearly seen, namely, that we have reached in very earnest the era of universal instability and change. “The foundations of the earth are out of course.” The great moral obligations, which in times past have bound society together, are all in a state of dissolution.
In every department of life here, the same sad sight forces itself upon us.
The two spheres on which the eye is most fixed at the present moment are the church and the world. In the first, the symptoms of approaching judgment are thick on every side.
The apostasy from the faith has well-nigh reached its summit, so complete and far-reaching has the surrender of truth been, that but little remains to be given up. Blasphemy against God and His Christ is the pervading atmosphere of the professing church, and the blasphemy is nourished by pride; “proud blasphemers” abound on every hand; verily we are in a far-spent night, and a very dark night as well. Those who occupy this standpoint, and who witness from its elevation, are decried and refused as alarmists, pessimists, and so forth; in this, as in all else, history repeats itself.
Further, external appearances are all against them it is said, there is the increase of knowledge, the tremendous strides of science, the rapid growth of philosophy, the clear light of a deeper and more enlarged scholarship. All these are flung in their faces, and they are bidden to be silent in the presence of such indisputable testimony; thus the word of the living God is set aside, and its solemn and precious contents scattered to the winds—these as not worthy of this enlightened age, are characterized as puerilities, composed for a bygone ignorant generation and unworthy of present credit. Oh what a sight does the professing church exhibit! Superstition and rationalism, hand in hand, overflow the face of the land, carrying the great bulk of people on their flood- tide. In view of all this how solemn are the words of our blessed Master and Lord: “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith [J0< B4FJ4<] on the earth.”
When we turn and look at the condition of the world, how ominous the signs on the horizon. The lull of the armed peace is already broken, and a conflict for the existences of kingdoms is looming in the near future. Who can tell what complications may be at hand, what embroilment of nations may arise out of this present struggle between China and Japan? It needs but an open eye to see the dark cloud which overhangs the world; it will ere long burst, then oh, what a crash when the war fever asserts itself! Weapons of deadly power and magnitude are prepared, and in hand, too; man’s inventive powers having been all exercised to their utmost in devising the most effectual engines of destruction.
Amid all these time marks, and above and beyond all this upheaving, that is in sure progress, the bright and blessed heavenly hope shines in all its own brilliancy and warmth before the eye and heart of the watcher and waiter for the One who is coming for His own. The heavenly hope is the heart’s affectionate longing for Himself, it is not to be absent from the sphere and scene of trial, but to be with Him for his own sake, to be in His blessed presence and company above and at home forever; this has ever been the hope of the church, her heavenly hope. She will be no doubt associated with Him in other scenes, and her heart delights to know that He who was cast out here will reign here and have His rights here; but above and beyond that, her own special bright prospect and longing is to be with Himself where He is.
How near is this to faith and affection! How blessed to think that ere another year runs its course, we and all His own, so scattered here, may be gathered to Himself, raised or changed, and caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so to be ever with the Lord. May the Lord awaken, by His grace, the slumbering hearts of His own to go forth in greater distinctness and affection to watch for Him.