The great world-war has been regarded by many as the birth-throes of a new era, which will ultimately be characterized by a world-wide diffusion of equity and peace, of which the League of Nations was hopefully hailed as the laudable first-fruits.

Like various other cherished hopes, however, disillusionment has largely come as to this also. So far from realizing the sanguine expectations placed upon it, conditions have developed in both civil and religious spheres which savor neither of equity nor of peace. Distrust, rather, and unrest among nations have arisen, and in the religious sphere there has been a wide-spread and fearful betrayal of truth by many who professed the Christian faith. An inordinate passion for wealth too is ever increasing, and an insatiable thirst for pleasure characterizes the masses. These are the general conditions, while grosser and sinister forms of evil cast an ominous shadow over the "civilized" world today.

Various cults too, with teachings subversive of Christianity are at work, as we know-openly anti-Christian, some, and quasi-Christian, others-by which the great adversary of truth, Satan, more successfully deludes and misleads the unestablished, by undermining the authority of the divine revelation in many over whom it had hitherto exercised a measure of control of conscience and conduct.

There are thus abundant signs that the Church has reached that stage of her history characterized as the "perilous times" of "the last days"-none more palpable than this sad fact, that many in high positions who have been accredited as servants of Christ are now in the forefront of those who practically deny the faith, while retaining a form of godliness, and assail the true glory of Him who gave Himself for their redemption!

In view of the demoralizing trend of the times, many confess that the only hope for the world lies in a moral and spiritual uplift, or recovery. And the cry is for confederated effort for the promotion of righteousness- in the individual and corporate life, in civic and national government. In furtherance of this movement, the message from many pulpits to-day, instead of "the preaching of the cross," is the inculcation of "higher ideals" as to the individual life and the duties of citizenship, with a view to a social and moral uplift, and to regenerate a world which, refusing to obey the gospel, is fast ripening for judgment. Alas, in much that appeals to the un-scriptural mind, we may discern the delusive cunning of the enemy! If, as Scripture assures us, Satan's emissaries are transformed into ministers of righteousness – not ministers of grace, be it noted, nor of "the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ"-is it not significant that the preaching of morality and legal righteousness-in other words, a travesty of the truth known as "modernized Christianity," with a view of "the betterment of the world," is insidiously supplanting the gospel of "the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men?"

Note how, with serpent wisdom, this correlates with the traditional, though unscriptural, view of "the betterment of the world," held by many well-meaning people who still cherish the hope of inaugurating the Kingdom of God by such means-resulting in a nominal "Christian world!"

There is much to enlist the sympathies and to grieve the heart in these efforts to combat the abounding evil. To further good government commends itself to every upright mind; but eternal issues are infinitely more than temporal ones, and God's remedy for a guilty world, and for sinful creatures, lies not in reformation but in regeneration; and as born anew, and partaker of the heavenly calling, the Christian's citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20-conversation rightly rendered is "citizenship"). The mission of the Church in relation to the world, therefore, is to witness for the still-rejected Lord while awaiting His coming again, to proclaim His free and full salvation, and to warn of His coming judgment on "the world that lieth in the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).

The Christian can best associate himself in sympathy with the cause of righteousness and good government in the world, by obedience to the injunctions of Scripture- "holding forth the word of life," being "subject to the powers that be," and "lifting holy hands to God" in prayers and intercessions "for all that are in authority… and for all men."

Thank God, His Kingdom is coming!-but not through the discordant agencies operating in Christendom to-day. Our Lord's prophetic utterance, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" negatives the unscriptural idea that the world will embrace the Christian faith and be brought under the sway of righteousness prior to the Lord's return. On the contrary, ere the Sun of Righteousness arises to usher in the Millennium, the darkness of apostasy and idolatry "shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people;" and ere Jehovah's Anointed shall establish peace over the world He shall first "be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel" (2 Thess. 2:7,8). Then shall the earth have its jubilee!

He who entered in with the blood shall come forth as the antetypal Melchisedek:"first, King of Righteousness, and after that King of Peace;" as King of Righteousness subduing all enemies, purging out all that offends, and establishing His kingdom in power. Then as King of Peace bestow on Israel and the nations all the blessings and glories of His millennial reign. Man's day, with its sad and unrelieved record of sin and misrule, will be brought to an end with divine judgments, culminating at Armageddon. The rightful Heir and Lord shall then take the scepter of world-wide dominion, bring the errant earth into harmony with the divine will according to the forecast of the prophet:"The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever."

Meantime, while in long-suffering grace He still tarries, may the Lord deepen in the hearts of all His own, in these days of weakness and defection, the earnest purpose to do His will in all patience and steadfastness, in separation to His holy and blessed Name, and from every form of evil. W. L. G.