47. LATTER-DAY IDOLS

Love for his sorrows—love

Alone can lift you above

The pain of your misgiving,

The doom and the horror of living.

"Within ourselves we must find the light,

And in ourselves, our Gods to be,

Not throned beyond the stars of night;

Here in America we must see

The love of man for man,

The new world republican—

A heaven, not superhuman,

Reborn in man and woman."

We need not quote further, nor is extended comment necessary. It is clear that what commended this poem, and procured for it the cordial reception it received, is not its poetical merit or its literary excellence, for in these particulars it is mediocre, or worse. But, as an expression of the blasphemous thought predominant in the mind of the man of to-day, though not all have the boldness to declare it so distinctly, these verses are eminently satisfactory. The lesson they emphasize for us is that, at the very centre of the culture and intellectuality of America, a stage of religious development has already been reached wherein all is fully prepared for the enthusiastic welcome of that man of prophecy "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. ii. 4).

GATHERING FORCES OF ANTICHRIST 343

Thus it is written, and such must needs be the end of that "career of humanity" which Satan instigated, and for which, through his countless subtleties and deceits, he has continually supplied the incentive and inspiration. But let us be thankful that it is indeed the very end. Beyond this it is impossible for presumptuous man to go. Then "the Lord Jesus shall 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 of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. i. 7, 8). "Who, in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (1 Tim. vi. 15).

"Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. They shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are MAKERS OF IDOLS.

"But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end" (Isa. xlv. 15, 17).

And now, people of God, "flee idolatry," and separate from all those who put their trust in idols. The enemies of our God are gathering into a massive, compact body, ignoring minor differences and magnifying the great unifying principles of the Solidarity, Deity, and Imperial Destiny of MAN. The children of this age are wiser in their generation than the children of light. The latter are scattered and sundered by discords, utterly forgetful of the Oneness of the Body of Christ, and giving little diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that should unite all brethren. Let us be awake to what is going on, and to what these current events tell us of the near approach of our Lord for His waiting people; and that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of the sleep of listlessness and indifference; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Rom. xiii. 11). Let us seek, in the little time that remains, to make known to those who are perishing the Salvation that is in Christ Jesus for all who believe on Him; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire (Jude 23).

"Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that CANNOT SAVE.

"Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? and there is no God else beside Me, a just God, and a Saviour; there is none beside Me.

"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isa. xlv. 20-22).

CONCLUSION

"And thou shalt speak My Words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious" (Ezek. ii. 7)

And now, as a final word, I would make an earnest appeal to my countrymen of England and America—the great English-speaking nations—to whom the subjects herein discussed are matters of vital importance. In these great changes and mighty movements of our day are involved, as I firmly believe, the destinies of the noblest empires that have ever risen and flourished in the earth. Notwithstanding our many and grievous national sins and shortcomings, God has greatly blessed and prospered us above all people on earth. Our armies have been victorious in time of war, and our commercial enterprises have prospered in time of peace. By the good hand of our God upon us we have spread to every quarter of the earth, and have extended our dominion over more than one-third of its inhabitants. If the wealth of the world could be rightly computed, doubtless much more than half of it would be found to be in our custody. The whole world has felt, and feels at this moment more than ever, the influence of our language

CONCLUSION and our institutions. To us, chiefly, since the apostasy of Israel, the custody of the Holy Scriptures seems to have been entrusted; and through us the Word of God has increased, and its message has been carried to all peoples and languages and tongues and nations. For our fathers feared God and trembled at His Word. Above all the nations of this or any age, we have been the people of the open Bible; and, accordingly, above all the nations of this or any age, the God of the Bible has blessed us.

But within a generation all this has changed. This change, in its magnitude and suddenness, is without parallel in the history of nations. Mr. White has good ground for saying that "Christianity in the sense of its Founder has as little in common with Europe" (and he might have added America) "as with Asia"; and that "if He were to appear in the flesh He could not call Himself a Christian." The substance of all that we have been considering is briefly this, that we have entered the dark shadow of THE GREATEST NATIONAL APOSTASY IN ALL THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. The Bible does not occupy the place in England and America which, until this generation, it has always occupied. Our leaders once bowed to its authority; now they reject it. They have turned away from the God of Revelation, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have discarded Christianity for Pantheism, the degrading religion of the Hindoos. What does this portend, what can it