December 1931
534
T h e K in g ’ s B u s i n e s s
Pastor Yasinitsky, living in Harbin, near the Siberian border, says: The persecutions against Christians in Siberia at pres ent can be compared only with those in the times of Nero and of Diocletian for their cruelty. Dr. Adolph Keller, executive secretary of the Central Bureau for Relief of the Evangelical Churches of Europe, supplies this side-light on conditions in Russia: Several thousand people of various creeds and races have been torn from their homes and sent into exile as the result of the Soviet “Five Year Plan for the Liquidation of Christianity.” The unfortunate victims are herded into rough barracks, unsanitary and overcrowded, compelled to labor in swampy forests or in mines, without sufficient clothing in a climate where there is winter for nearly ten months in the year, and with barely enough food to keep body and soul together. The scanty ration of flour is “stretched” with ground bark. Pitiful letters reflect the unutterable distress in such sentences as this: “They say typhus has broken out in one of the barracks. Thank God! At last the end comes!” The Deutsche Zeitung Telegraph informs us that the Soviet Government commands all,persons possessing Bi bles or prayer books to deliver them over for conversion into pulp for paper, as the paper is needed for other pur poses—much of it for the printing of the blasphemous atheistic propaganda of anti-God societies. Persons dar ing to retain even one Bible will be punished for anti-revo lutionary activity. As Russia lifts up her fists, shoves them into the face of Omnipotence, and cries, “I am against Thee,” the God of heaven and earth responds : “Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Russia, Moscow, and Tobolsk!” (cf. Ezek. 38:3). The fight is on, and the outcome is not in doubt! Sir Arthur Balfour, of England, speaking recently at Hamilton, Ontario, made the following interesting state ment : I say we must meet this, menace effectively. Condi tions of actual slavery prevail in Russia; and its most ter rible aspect, to my mind, is its ruthless suppression of all religion and desecration of the churches. . . I am satis fied, though, that, whatever may come from that land in the near future, God will step in and adjust things. But there will be much tribulation first, I fear. The show down with Russia is coining! It is exactly that—a “show-down with Russia” is an event that shall take place shortly before David’s great Son shall come to the throne of thrones upon the earth. It is set forth in a clear prophecy, unusually minute in its details, in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. Marvelously true to the picture is “the prince of Rosh [Russia], Meshech [Moscow], and Tubal [To bolsk]” (Ezek. 39:1, R. V.), together with his last allies, which Scripture does not hesitate to name; setting the stage for those tremendous scenes. Let us once again note the prophecy: “Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal . . . from the uttermost parts of the north.” Scofield.says it is “a clear mark of identification” and “that the primary reference is to the northern [European] powers, headed up by Russia, all agree.” “After many days thou Shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel . . . against the people that are gathered out of the nations, that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the middle of the earth” (Ezek. 38:8, 12). With what longing eyes does
this cruel, bloody, atheistic monster of the north even now look upon the riches that are being carried into the land of Israel by the Jews, gathering home from their wander ings among the nation^! This monster, taking advantage of nations having their troubles in. Egypt (Dan. 11:40- 45), will suddenly swoop down upon his prey in Palestine, over a protest from “the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof” (Ezek. 38:13)—a protest from Britain, who even now holds the mandate over the land. “The prince of Rosh” and all his allies will come “with all his hordes,” “horses and horsemen” (Ezek. 38:3). It is sig nificant that no other nation is still depending, as is Rus sia, upon “horses and horsemen” as implements of war. Daily she trains her tens of thousands of Cossacks, getting ready for this event. The Almighty God now steps on the scene. “When God shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah . . . my wrath shall come up into my nostrils . . . And I will call for a sword against him . . . and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many 'peo ples’that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezek. 38:18, 21, 22). “And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them” (Ezek. 39:12). Sir Arthur Balfour is right—a “show-down with'Rus sia is coming.” Just what forces the Mighty Ruler of the universe will use for the destruction of these anti-God hosts from the north is another story. Sufficient it is to know that the “show-down” is coming, with the nations sadly learning at last that there is a living God in the heavens, who is jealous of His holy name, for “my holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more” (Ezek. 39:7). “My name profaned” ? The awful, blasphemous profanities whereby even official Russia today takes constant delight in profaning the name of God, Jesus Christ His Son, and even the Holy Ghost are a mat ter of world-wide knowledge. The fact is known, but the profanities themselves are little known, inasmuch as they are too fearfully profane and blasphemous to appear in the print of decent peoples. Perhaps no other nation has ever so blasphemed the living God. How significant, then, are the words here: “Neither will I suffer my holy name to be profaned any more . . . And I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgments that I have executed” (Ezek. 39:21). Verily, verily, “the show-down with Russia is coming” —and, from every possible indication, it is coming soon!
Come, Lord Jesus! s. Sitting alone in the gloaming,
Holding sweet converse with Him, How clear grows the heavenly vision, The trials of earth, how dim! ijs sjc ^ As the shadows of earth grow deeper, The star of our faith gleams bright, Remembering His precious promise, “At eventide there shall be light.” And we list’ for the sounding trumpet That shall say to the dead, “Arise!” And summon His waiting children To meet their Lord in the skies.
' j^-NELLIE J. W h APLES.
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