THE K I N G ’ S B U S I NE S S made, for their chastisement. And the purpose of such punishment is to deter men from further sin and to bring them to repentance. “ If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land, but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the sword.” But the sword is very frequently one of man’s own fashioning and with it “ the high ones are hewn down and the haughty are humbled.” Nevertheless, God has His own sword in addition, and with it He chastises the nations. He puts it into the hand of one or another to take peace from the earth but He so over rules it that all alike are chastised. Nebuchadnezzar wielded His sword against the Jews, yet his kingdom fell before the next holder and Persia in turn gave place to Greece, and Greece to Rome. In Rev. 6:4 we read of one to whom power was given to take peace from the earth and that they should kill one another, and there was given unto him a great sword. Whether this refers particularly to the last war or to the time of Antichrist, it is certainly ap plicable to both. Prophecy is frequently susceptible of more than, one fulfillment. Broadly speaking, and viewed from the stand point of long periods of time, retribu tion appears to fall justly upon those nations which have deserved it most, and not infrequently they have been
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made to suffer precisely the same hor rors they have inflicted on others. The measure they have meted out has been measured to them again. These great and drastic judgments were intended to be a solemn warning and a deterrent to succeeding ages, not something to be airily dismissed as a legend, because men in their folly choose to pronouce it unthinkable that God should act in such a way. We have to deal with fact, not with senti ment, and here the unalterable fact is that God did sweep the whole race out of existence, and has placed it upon record, not only through Moses, but also on the authority of our Lord and His apostles. He might have done it without leaving a single trace behind. He could have translated Noah and his family, or caused them to die in the course of nature, and started afresh, leaving np trace to succeeding ages that such an event had ever occurred, lest His claim to be a God of love should be impugned. But He did not. He has stated it clearly in Scripture and graven it deeply on the earth in order that it might be “ an ensample to those who after should live ungodly.” If the present apostasy sweeps on, will not God unsheathe His sword again? Prophecy declares that He will. History testifies that He will. The honor of His word demands that He should.
PROGRESS DOWNWARD, NOT UPWARD ^ —^SECTURING on “ Some Difficulties of Evolution” at the Victoria In- g ■ stitute, London, Dr. A. T. Schofield, celebrated English medical ' authority, said: “We fear we must at last part with our old friend ‘the missing link.’ Leading scientists of the day deny the existence of our friend^ anywhere. He is certainly backward in coming forward. Professor Keith says, indeed, this missing link is now generally given up. For man to have descended from the ape would require millions of years and a hundred links; and of such there is no record, nor any trace. Some Japanese fossil skulls just discovered, and some others of very remote date have actually a larger brain capacity than the average brain today.”
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