Chapter II.

The Evidence that the Times of the Gentiles have nearly run their Course

(Continued from page 161.)

The prophetic Scriptures are as a light shining in a dark place. So marvelously has God therein depicted the characteristics of the age in which we live, and the conditions that would prevail as its end drew near, that no reverent reader of the Bible need be left in the dark as to the place now reached in the history of the Gentile powers. Recent startling events are so fully in accord with what Spirit-taught servants of Christ have long seen foretold in holy writ as to be overwhelmingly convincing that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." He alone sees the end from the beginning and speaks of the things that are not as though they were. It is this feature of foretelling the future that differentiates the Bible from every other book. Human writers guess and theorize. God has by inspiration communicated facts which are attested by each passing year.

In this last respect, the book of Daniel stands preeminent. The 2nd and 3rd chapters give an outline of the times of the Gentiles from Nebuchadnezzar's day to the setting up of Messiah's kingdom. The four empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome as depicted in its earlier form, have risen and passed away as foretold. But a later form of the last empire is predicted to arise in the time of the end, immediately before the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Son of Man, as the Stone falling from heaven.

Now the last state of the 4th empire is to be brought about as a result of an effort to combine the iron of imperialism with the miry clay (or, more correctly, brittle pottery) of democracy. This union -which can never be unity-of royal authority and socialistic principles characterizes the feet of the image even before the formation of the ten toes. This latter condition does not come in so long as the Church is still upon earth. It is subsequent to the rapture of the saints of the present dispensation. But the iron and clay are already in evidence, and statesmen are making desperate efforts to combine the two, after having learned, to their chagrin, in the last hundred or more years, that the "voice of the people," if not "the voice of God," is yet something to be reckoned with – is to be acknowledged and appeased if possible. With our Bibles open to the ad chapter of Daniel and the records of the present day before us, we do not hesitate to say that we are now in the iron and clay period, and at any moment the Lord's assembling-shout may summon all that are Christ's to the skies, after which, the re-formation of the Roman empire in its last Satan-controlled condition will be a matter of but a few brief weeks, for "a short work will the Lord make in the earth."

When, in past years, teachers of the Word of God have positively declared that the Scriptures foretold a new socialistic-empire formed of ten great kingdoms, on the ground of the Roman empire of old, many found it hard to take such predictions seriously. But the last ten months have wrought
a wondrous change in the minds of men as to this. It is not only that the enlightened Bible believer declares such must be, but the secular press has taken the matter up, and it is being pointed out that the formation of a United States of Europe is absolutely necessary to safeguard the interests of all nations, and to preserve the peace of the world. This in itself is a remarkable .sign of the times, and shows how rapidly the end is approaching.

In the last chapter of the same book of Daniel there are three statements made which also have a bearing on the times in which our lot is cast. The angel says to the prophet:"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end:many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (ver. 4). Observe that three things are mentioned here, which if any one of them came to pass without the other two would be of no real value in determining the question that is before us. But if all come to pass at the same time we must be convinced that God has spoken, and has pointed out unerringly three signs that the end-times are almost upon us.

Note the three predictions:1st, The end-times will be characterized by prophetic enlightenment, marvelously unsealing the book of Daniel and the visions therein recorded understood by spiritual men. and, There will be a period of world-wide restlessness:men will run to and fro as never before, owing doubtless to new and convenient methods of locomotion and insatiable desire for travel and adventure. 3rd, There will be a wide diffusion of knowledge-bringing educational advantages to the door of the poorest if there be but an ambition to learn and acquire. Now what are the facts ? The last century has been more and more characterized by the very things mentioned. It is not that these things are occasionally fulfilled, but that they are everywhere apparent in the civilized parts of the world. Here then is a threefold cord that cannot be quickly broken. Insignificant as anyone of these facts might seem if it stood alone, the combination of the three at one and the same time is the startling fact. Man's day is nearly at an end. The day of the Lord comes on apace!

Now link on to this evidence a New Testament prophecy that clearly applies to the same times. Turn to i Thess. 5:2, 3. "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." Here is a strikingly convincing statement, if received in literality as it is written. The day of the Lord is going to break upon the world at some special time, foreknown by God, when men will be talking loudly of Peace and Safety! These are the very themes talked of on every hand for the last decade, and, despite the fearful European tragedy, are heard more loudly to-day than ever. Men of affairs are loudly proclaiming a coming era of universal peace to be brought in by arbitration treaties and the evolutionary forces of society, while the day of the Lord steals on them unawares in overflowing judgments to cut off the ungodly from the earth, at the very time that universal peace and safety become the slogan of a world devoted to destruction. All man's efforts to make this world a happy and peaceful scene, while still rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, are futile and vain. " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

It is not to those who wait for the return of His Son from heaven that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night, but to those who ignore His word and despise His grace. "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that day should overtake you as a thief . . . therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober." H. A. I.

(To be continued.)