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THE K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S
January, 1938
EXPECTATION ! [ Continued from page 5]
to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horse men were two hundred thousand thou sand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest o f the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, .and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of w ood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” In reading such a passage as this, we must recognize the fact that we have be fore us a very highly figurative vision. The angel made known the unveiling to John in symbols: “ He sent and signified it by his angel” (Rev. 1:1). “ Signified” is literally " sign-i-fied ”—that is, symbolized. If this key is kept in mind when one is reading the Apocalypse, it will save from many erroneous interpretations. The symbolic picture, then, of the sixth trumpet judgment is that of a great army — on land and in air belching forth fire and smoke— coming down over the eastern steppes and plains of Asia, across the Eu phrates into the land of Palestine, with the cry “ Asia for the Asiatics.” Who will be the leaders of this horde? The definite explanation of the sixth vial makes this clear. The way of the kings of the East is to be prepared by the drying up of the great river that was once the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. I am inclined to believe that this symbolizes the complete destruction of the Turkish power which has acted as a buffer between the East and West for so long. Others think it refers to the actual drying up of the river itself, that river which was one of the four that of old went forth from Eden. In either case, as a result of some great cataclysm, the way is to be effectually opened up for the onslaught of the kings of the East. Symbolism in the Revelation Who are these kings? It is not necessary to guess. The word for “ East” is simply “sun-rising.” The kings of the sun-rising! Japan has been known as the empire o f the rising sun for a millennium. * The last three decades have brought this nation to the front in a marvelous way, but recent events have shown up her malignity, her ferocity, and her evident determination Viewing the Empire of the Rising Sun
OH, QU ICKLY COME , LORD JESUSI Oh, quickly come, Lord Jesusl The long night waxeth old, Thine own are waiting, watching, Thy glory to behold; The warring world grows weary And knows no rest or peace— Oh, quickly come, Lord Jesus, And bring Thy saints release! Oh, quickly come, Lord Jesusl We long, we long, for Thee Ev'n more than wearied watcher Longs coming morn to see; For wars and strife are round us, And troublous times begin— Oh, quickly come, Lord Jesus, And end this night of sinl Oh, quickly come, Lord Jesus! In yonder paling sky We see the crimson flushing That tells us dawn is nigh; Break forth in all Thy splendor From out Thy starry dome— Oh, quickly come, Lord Jesus, And bear Thy children Home! — E. Margaret Clarkson.
bridegroom is with them?” (Matt. 9:15), “ for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” (Rom. 8:24). Indeed, He “ is our hope” ; so while He was present with His people on earth, hope centered in Him and was satisfied, and was no longer in operation. This remarkable omission of any mention of hope in the Gospels is an other happy reminder of how much, indeed everything, centers in one blessed Person, for us His children and servants. Our Present Expectation But now He is gone, as to bodily pres ence, and in His absence hope must again come into active operation. And thus the noun or verb reappears sixty times in the Epistles, from the “ consolation and good hope” which results in “ rejoicing,” to the confident “hope . . . in God,” which “ mak- eth not ashamed” and includes the present “ hope of the gospel,” and the future “ blessed hope” of Christ’s return. For if faith is the upward attitude of the soul;/ and love the outward, hope or expec tation is that forward attitude, which reaches out to those things which are be fore, and anticipates the promises. How blessedly different from the condition of the poor worldlings who are “ having no hope, and without God in the world.” So we have thought a little of the Psalm ist’s expectation of coming events, and of the waiting people’s expectation of God’s visita tion and blessing, which is still in the hearts of God’s people today. But there is one more “ expectation” which needs to be found in our hearts as well. It just expresses the apostle’s outlook. And so eager is his desire for “ this grace also,” that a special intensive form of the word has to be used— "apokaradokia," “ earnest expectation” (Phil. 1:20). And what was the object of this most eager expectation? Was it “more worlds to conquer,” more mis sion fields to evangelize, more Epistles to write? No, it was none of these, yet some thing really even more important. Magnifying Christ Paul’s ambition expressed in this passage was just that, like the magnifying lens of the astronomer, which, unseen itself, brings the heavenly body nearer and makes it vis ible, so he might “magnify” Christ in the eyes of all around him. Surely this is a safe and very pure ambition, for the bet ter the lens is doing its work, the less it will be seen itself. And the same very great privilege and service is open to the very humblest of His own. Many of our lives have to be lived among common things, but if this grace o f magnifying Christ becomes ours, they will never be commonplace. Gracious Lord, may the self in. each of us be so lost sight of that Christ, and only Christ, shall be seen through the little lens of our lives, and that we may ever and effectually magnify Thee to the needy world around I As we face the year 1938, let us say with the Psalmist: “M y soul, wait thou only upon G od ; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation.”
to dictate all the policies and dominate all the nations of the Far East. The puppet king of Manchukuo, possibly Japanese-con- trolled rulers in other northeastern Chinese territories, perhaps at last an alignment with China itself, and there you have the kings of the sun-rising— all in readiness for the great day of God Almighty—the Arma geddon conflict. The instructed believer in the inspired Word of God knows that the fierce winds of the great tribulation will not be let loose on the earth till the church is raptured and the remnant of Israel sealed, but “ coming events cast their shadows before,” and we may well look with bated breath upon the amazing and truly horrible developments in the territory of the coming kings of the East. The tocsin of doom is sounding. The yel low peril becomes more and more ominous. The preparation of the day of the Lord goes on apace. Christian, lift up your head. Your redemption draweth nigh. and said to a group of military leaders: “ Gentlemen, there lies a lion asleep 1 Let him sleep!” The bayonets of Japan are arousing that lion to fury. China can throw into battle five times as many men as Japan has, and see them die, and have plenty left for battle. If Japan forces China into modern armor— and she may do that very thing— what then? Arma geddon? “ O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” Such was the question that burst from Daniel’s lips when he saw the events of the last days in his vision across the centuries. Well may we echo his exclamation in the days when “ these things” are taking place. — Louis S. Bauman. DR. BAUMAN’ S EDITORIAL COMMENT [ Continued from page 8]
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