THE K I N G ' S BUS I NE S S 249 , When that Body is complete and Christ comes in the clouds to receive His own, there will be a great disillusionment on the part of those who have cried, -‘ where is the promise of His coming?” They will see that they have been misled by that world spirit who is “ arrayed as an angel of iigHt.” K. L. B. M A N ’S Extremity—God’s Opportunity The message which we print here is not a preacher’s sermon, but an editorial, in a secular daily, the Pittsburgh Leader, of October 31st-, 1919, and was designed as a preparation for a national day of prayer Sunday’ November 2nd, 1919. We give it with the same emphasized words as in the original. You would search many denominational papers in vain for such a message, and they would view it as a dismal, gloomy song of the pessimist ; but there is a ring of truth in it not often found in these days ; a note of warning that we may well ponder. Read every word of it. Then read it again. Then pray. Then pray again: ‘‘Man’s Extremity is God’s Opportunity. Human management of the affairs of the universe is failing. Without Divine Intervention, the world and its people will plunge into chaos. America is rent asunder by the spirit of Defiance of Law and Order. There appears to he no man or men big enough in this land to stay the rising tide of disaster. - The President of the United States has failed to bring order out of disorder. No public man possesses power or influnce sufficient to allay the turmoil. Employer and employe cannot reach that mutual understanding, that neces sary harmony, upon which the livelihood of all of the people is dependent. An industrial warfare is being waged behind whose lines lurks anarchy. Famine, destitution, bloodshed and misery fringe the battlefields. The American flag is no longer reverenced by all of the people. American institutions, American traditions, American hopes, American aspira tions are no longer respected by many Americans. Raucous voices rail at patriotism’s plea. The American republic is_already in the twilight of its darkest hour. It would be folly to deny the desperate conditions that exist. It would he criminal to conceal the deadly peril of the nation. The people of the United States must arouse themselves to a realization of the growing menace before they are annihilated by the powers of evil. The true Armageddon is at hand, and the eagle, flying in mid-heaven, is say ing with a great voice, ‘Woe, Woe, Woe, for them that dwell on the earth.’ All that human power could do, has been done. Man’s extremity has arrived. It is now God’s opportunity. God alone can Save the world. ‘Make haste, O God, to deliver me, cried the Psalmist; bow down thine ear to me and save me; in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.’ If the world is to be saved, if America is to be rescued, if life and happiness for all the people are to be perpetuated, then must we all echo that prayer. ‘In God we trust is our national motto. And it is to God that we must now appeal.’ Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Perhaps these trials are being thrust upon us to bring a wayward people back to the Throne of Grace. Our efforts, our thoughts, pur labors, our progress have all been along material lines— of the earth, earthy.
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