1^3 :-NRLF >> What is rK^^^^&ifxS^.m^nt. great commotions of the DIFFERENT KINGDOMS OF THE EaRTH IN THIS Year of i88i ? ^(]|)^HEN the antediluvian world had become so XS!«Kw vile that they had . filled up their measure of iniquity, then the Lord brought upon them the waters of the deluge, destroying them all except Noah and his family. God, the Holy God, hath made the world, and He made it for His own glory, and for the happiness of His creatures whom He should place upon it. He gave them a law by which their happiness was to be secured to them for ever ; but the great enemy of the Lord, the apostate spirit, Satan, who was cast out of heaven for his rebellion, the great enemy of God and all His works, found this happy pair in the garden, and by his artful and deceptive reasoning with the woman, with his flattering speech he induced her to break the commandment of her Maker, and she in- duced her husband to do the same : thus they have both broken the command of God, who said, " For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." God's law cannot be broken with impunity, for His government must be upheld in righteousness to show that He is holy, just, and true. A God of love is He, but punishment will not bring the love of God into the heart of man, therefore a sacrifice must be made to reconcile God and man. Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, the second person in the blessed Trinity, undertakes our cause, to die as a sacrifice for our sin, and to plead our cause in heaven, that through Him we might have access unto the Father, and again be restored to His favour through the Son of His love. Now when the Serpent appeared to the woman in the garden of Eden, he could only use persuasion ; he had no power to force the woman to eat it. The power of force is not given to him against the crea- tures of this world, only so far as is consistent with God's holy and righteous law ; for the holy Word of God declares, " There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (i Cor. X. 13.) Now this shows the responsibility of mankind, because in the fiftieth Psalm and the iSth verse it is written, " Call upon Me in the day of trouble : I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." And there- fore the temptations and trials of this mortal life should only drive us more closely to the Lord as our protector against the snares of the evil one, " who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." Now this great adversary of God and of all man- kind hath been trying to lead mankind away from God, by presenting to their minds all kinds of delusive subjects as gods, that they may fall down and worship anything rather than the Most High, Jehovah, the first and the last, and beside Him there is no God. And kingdoms have arisen, and remained, and gathered much strength, and then gone to decay and come to naught. Why is this ? The answer is plain. Because they walked not in the commandments of God, but walked according to the fashion of this world, which is led captive by the devil at his will. And yet the Lord hath not left Himself without wit- ness that He is good, sending down mercies upon mankind in giving them food and raiment, and also by sending his prophets among them and calling them to repentance : but they rejected them and cast them out, killing some, stoning some, and ill-treating them and refusing to obey. Having therefore one well-beloved Son, the Lord of the universe said, " They will reverence my Son ; " but when they saw Him they conspired to take His life that the in- heritance might be theirs ; so they cast Him out and killed Him. But Him the Lord raised up, for it was not possible for death to hold Him captive. He hath therefore ascended up on high where He ever liveth to make intercession for His people. He said, " I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father but by me." We are therefore invited to come unto the Lord in humble supplication through the merits of His Son Jesus Christ, in whom He is ever well pleased. It is now and always has been from the fall of man, the Lord's will to gain the world to Himself: but alas ! the hardness of the heart of man is difficult to subdue, and must have remained in that hardened state had not the Son of God undertook our cause and in His own body bear the punishment due for our sins, by which the law was magnified and made honourable, and God can be just and the justifier of the poor sinner that trusteth on the atonement of Jesus Christ for salvation. God hath instituted a Sabbath Day to be as a covenant between Himself and His people. He hath also given unto us His Holy Word, the Bible, the word of life, filled with instructions, directions, invitations, promises, and threatenings to the rebellious. All this is given in His great mercy, because He willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his wicked ways and live, that mercy may be extended to him, and that God may be glorified in his salvation rather than in his condemnation. In God's holy word is written. History, how the world was created — the institution of the Sabbath — the fall of man — the earth cursed for man's disobe- dience — the promise of a deliverer from the great transgression in the seed of the woman. It also gives an account of how the Lord called Abram and bid him leave his father's house and go to a land that He would show him. And Abram went out, " not knowing whither he went." And when he had obeyed God's commandment, the Lord promised him that his seed should become a great nation, and that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. The word of the Lord also tells us of the rise and fall of many kingdoms : how God sent unto them His prophets to warn them of their destruction that He might have mercy upon them, but they refused to hear. The word tells how angels were seen by men and walked on the earth. It tells how the Son of God, the Messiah, the promised seed of the woman, was born into the world ; the visit of the wise men from the east ; the flight of Joseph and Mary with the child into Egypt ; the destruction of the children by King Herod, thinking to destroy the promised child ; King Herod's death and the command of God to Joseph to return out of Egypt ; they dwell in Naza- reth, and He is subject unto His parents. At about the age of thirty He entereth on His ministry, preaching the word of God to the people, healing the sick, relieving the afflicted, giving sight to the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, unloosing the tongues of the dumb, and raising the dead to life, casting out devils with His word, and suffering them not to speak because they knew Him ; and when His hour was come for Him to die for our sins. He was crucified for our sins, dead, and buried in the new tomb of Joseph the councillor. It tells how the tomb was sealed with the government seal and a guard of Roman soldiers set to watch, but on the third day He arose from the tomb and an angel came and sat upon it ; his face was like lightning, and because of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men. The word tells how He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils ; then He was seen of His disciples, but Thomas was not there ; — he was very incredulous, and declared that unless he saw in His hands the print of the nails, and put his finger into the print of the nails, and thrust his hand into His side where the spear had entered, he would not believe. After the space of eight days when the disciples were gathered together and Thomas with them, the doors being shut for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said, " Peace be unto you." Then said He to Thomas, " Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing." And Thomas said, " My Lord and my God!" And Jesus said, "Because thou hast seen thou hast believed ; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." The disciples had ample proof of the reality of His resurrection : He did eat and drink with them, talked with them, gave them instruction as to the future, and gave them the promise of the Holy Spirit, and after being seen of them at various times during forty days, He led them out as far as to Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed them. He was parted from them and carried up into heaven, where He must remain until He hath put all His enemies under His feet. Now the birth and ministry, and death, and resur- rection, and ascension of our great Redeemer denoted the beginning of another period in the world's history. We have the record in God's Holy Word in very plain words that sin against God has been the cause of the decay of all the kingdoms of the earth that have been, and are gone to decay. And now we are coming to our own times, and ask the question — What was the cause of the different wars that have been of late years? I will take two. First, the American civil war ; why did that take place ? Because there were two millions of human beings confined to slavery, bought and sold like cattle. Now the nation had power to redeem them and to set them at liberty, and thereby have saved all that bloodshed and sorrow, but they would not do it in mercy, and therefore the Lord did it in judgment. He therefore permitted the great enemy to go in amongst them, and a war ensued ; and first one party is beaten, and great loss of life ; and then the other party is beaten, and great loss of life ; and so they go on till at length they are compelled to take their slaves for soldiers to fight their battles ; and then the end of that dreadful war! But out of it did the Lord bring forth a people who had been bound. He broke off their chains and set them free, that they might shew forth His praise. Now we come to the Franco-German war. The papal head of the Romish Church, after assuming great power in various ways, at length declares him- self to be infallible, thereby shewing that he is God. This cannot be permitted. The Lord himself inter- feres, and again is the great enemy permitted to stir up rebellion among the nations, and the enemy of the Lord looses his right arm that the Lord's people might be set free ; that he might spread abroad the light of His glorious Gospel to the ends of the earth. " For God so loved the world that He gave His only 10 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." — St. JOHN iii. i6, 17. And now I come to the mercies and lovingkindness of the Lord, which have been bestowed on this nation (Great Britain), of which I am a member. Is it because we are so good that God hath made this kingdom great and mighty, and therefore He is a partial God in His dealings with mankind ? No ! for our sins are as mountains high and reach up to heaven : but it is because the Lord is a God of love and willeth the salvation of the whole human race. But then that cannot be only as according to the command of God at the first, to the man and to the woman, ^' This do and thou shalt live." His Holy Word is the guide book which He hath given to the people He hath made, and when the Lord first chose the Hebrew race to make of them a nation for Himself, not because they were so righteous above all other people, but because of His great desire to save the world ; therefore did He manifest Himself unto them that they might be a light among the nations of the earth, and because when He called Abram he obeyed the commandment, and the Lord loveth obedience and therefore gave unto him those blessed promises that his seed should be a mighty people, which He brought to pass in due time. But when their hearts were lifted up and they forsook the Lord, He caused them to be scattered all over the earth: yet is His great mercy over them, and II His promise standeth sure that He will gather them from the four quarters of the earth, and that they shall again become a nation, the joy of the whole earth, and that the restoration of them should be to the gentile world as life from the dead. Now the Lord God hath blessed this nation greatly in giving to us the light of the blessed Gospel of truth, and in permitting and enabling us to diffuse it abroad in the earth ; in enabling us to set at liberty our slaves, that all should be free who set their foot on British soil ; in protecting us from the evils of war in this land ; and when the Prince of the nation was at death's door, in answer to a nation's prayer, the Lord raised him up that he might glorify the name of the Lord. And now hath the Lord given unto this nation great influence for good upon the earth ; and for this we are accountable unto Him for the use we make of it for the glorification of His holy name, and for the benefit of mankind. I therefore come to you and humbly ask for the Crown of this kingdom to be given to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to be dedicated to His Most Holy Name ; to grace no other human head until the mighty angel of the Lord shall stand with one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, and shall swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever that there shall be time no longer. — REVELATION x. i to 6. I come not unto you with dynamite, or explosive balls, or infernal machines, or anything of that sort : they that use such means are the servants (slaves) of 12 the devil, and in due course they will reap their wages, which is dreadful. But I come to you in truth and righteousness, for nothing else can stand. I ask for the Crown to be given to my Lord ; I ask for the hearts of all the people to be given to my Lord ; I ask for God's Holy Day to be sanctified to the Lord ; I ask that the laws of this kingdom shall be fixed on the commandments of God, given on Mount Sinai, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, but which my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when on the earth, declared should stand fast till all things were fulfilled ; even so may the will of the Lord be done and His name glorified throughout the whole earth. A men, *' Will you do it in mercy, or shall the Lord do it in judgment?" ** Should not a people seek unto their God?" Isaiah viii. 19. John Wilson. YB 21971 H4n UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY >ii