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throw will be as inevitable as was the Deluge, the destruction of Babylon and the massacre of Jerusalem! Not one word in the Scriptures leads to the hope (much less belief) that peace Will be the outcome of the disturbed condition of the world, rather everywhere is judgment described. God seems to have exhausted all ef forts to instruct men. By the voice of Prophets, the testimony of Christ, -the teaching of the Apostles, by analogy (every former age has ended in judg ment) by parable, by beseeching appeal has the message been given. The very attitude of men at the end-time has been graphically pictured: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. 3:3, 4.) “ For when they shall say, Peace and safety: then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thess. 5 :3). • What a finale! When theological professors, famous poets, doctors of di vinity, great statesmen and all who have exalted human opinion and philosophy against the Divine decrees, are, with their dupes, overtaken by ignominious rout and ruin! Seeking to construct a refuge against coming disaster, their very device for protection is made the instrument of their destruction. Their wall of mud overthrows and smothers them. They are suffocated and covered with shame by their own lies! , If it were only a temporary discom fiture that befalls these enemies of truth it would be ludicrous enough to see them — gowned, mortar-boarded, frocked and robed— crawling out with mouth, ears, eyes and hair filled with mud, their finery bedraggled and bespat tered, 7 —poor discredited gentlemen; but their end being shameful and utter de struction, there is left no room for laughter, rather only for sorrow pro found.
— and as such the civilian soldiers of the State— do all that In us lies to pre serve this inspired vision of the Fathers, for again the solemn warning of the wise man of old recurs to us: ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law [evidently he makes this apply to our civil law ], happy is he’.” This passage from Proverbs 29:18 is to him only the words of “ the wise man of old.” Its use as he employs it is pitifully misapplied and inadequate. Over against it we set “ the word of the Lord” which “ came unto” Ezekiel “ say ing (v. 2, 3), Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say unto them that proph esy out of their own hearts^ Hear ye the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord Ood; Woe unto the foolish proph ets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing,” * * *,(v. 9) “ mine hand shall he upon the prophets that see vanity and that divine lies.” God’s Only Deliverance The speaker referred to utters not one word about man’s attitude toward God, his treatment of the crucified Re deemer, the necessity of repentance, confession and the submission of his will to God, hut leaves mankind in its wickedness, with faith in “ the inex tinguishable spark of the Divine nature which is in the human soul,” a senti ment which ,is denied on nearly every page of the Bible. How clear is God’s deliverance: “ There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21). And the words of our Lord: “ As it was in the days .of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man * * * the flood came and . destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot * * * it rained fire and brim stone from heaven and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:27-29). Reader, believe it, the sequel of over
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