the fig tree begin to bud. we know that summer is now nigh at hand (Luke 21:29, 30). We are see ing today the national budding o f Israel and the long winter is showing signs of spring. The most patriotic nation on earth is Israel and her spokes men are aflame with strange devotion which they themselves do not understand for only God’s Cal endar which they do not accept as yet can explain the new “ season” in Palestine. Autumn is a season o f sadness. The poet wrote: “The melancholy days have come, The saddest of the year.” There is a wistfulness about the passing sum mer, the departing birds, the falling leaves. There comes a day when the wild duck on a Canadian lake feels the hint of eoming frost in the air and something tells him to start to sunnier climes. The tiny warbler knows when the day comes to fly from New York to South America, from autumn to spring-time. The beasts and birds and bees can learn what they need to know but man, for all his boasted intelligence, cares little when the summer is ended, the harvest past and that still he is not saved. No wonder Isaiah said, “ The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” We are living in the autumn if not the early winter of this age. Paul Harvey, the commentator, wrote a fine book, Autumn of Liberty. To him the season of liberty is passing, not only behind the Iron Curtain where winter’s night already reigns, but even in America where little by little the free dom for which our fathers fought is fast departing. We are so busy making money and spending it, gambling on give-away shows and taking tran- quilizing pills, that we are unaware o f the change of season. If it was autumn when Paul Harvey wrote the book, it must be early winter now. Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Today, somebody has remarked, we only say, “Gimme!” And while we are busy getting and grabbing, our liberties stealthily are stolen from us. The few voices that still cry out are disregard ed. It is not a day for statesmen and prophets but for diplomats and politicians. Civilization heads for its blackest winter. We have reached that “ perplexity,” the state of hav ing our way, which our Saviour prophesied (Luke
21:25). To use His own figure of speech, the car case awaits the vultures (Luke 17:37). The world is sick and we are treating the symptoms, not the disease. The operation may be brilliant but the patient dies. To all our problems today—nuclear, race, juvenile delinquency, war—there is no hu man solution. We may temporarily alleviate some of the distress with diplomatic aspirin and eco nomic happy pills but the case is beyond us. We do not understand God’s calendar. The peo ple of Noah’s day were eating and drinking, marry ing and giving in marriage AND KNEW NOT until the flood came and took them all away. We are told that when they shall say, “ Peace and safety (or security),” then sudden destruction cometh (I Thess. 5 :3 ). No two words are more often on our tongues today than peace and security, and we have neither. The season has changed in the religious world. Regimentation and standardization have steam rollered us into a faceless uniformity. There are many politicians and few prophets. The four hun dred false prophets bid Ahab go up against Ramoth-gilead but if a Micaiah should dare to be a lone dissenter, he will fare on bread and water. The man who would rise in the face of all this, determined to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made Him free, would be classed an “odd number,” non-co-operative and unchristian. We have mentioned Jeremiah who lamented the end of the season. Never forget that it was the false prophets who preached peace and serenity in his day. Jeremiah would be regarded a neurotic today, a disturber of the peace and an enemy of morale as indeed he was considered in his own time (Jer. 38:4). Today we are lulled into false serenity by religious fads and chemically by tran- quilizing drugs. A spirit of deep sleep is poured out upon us as in Isaiah’s day. No wonder Paul writes, “And that KNOWING THE SEASON, it is HIGH TIME TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP.” It is not considered good taste to cry out against the times, to condemn false creeds and evil conduct. Both Amos in the Old Testament and Paul in the New called their day an evil time and our Lord tesr tified against His generation that its works were evil. They were right and we are still reading them while the happiness boys of their day have long since been forgotten.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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