"And thou shalt speak My Words unto them whether they will hear, or whether they will for bear; for they are most rebellious" (Ezek. ii. 7)

      And now, as a final word, I would make an earnest appeal to my countrymen of England and America--the great English-speaking nations--to whom the subjects herein discussed are matters of vital importance. In these great changes and mighty movements of our day are involved, as I firmly believe, the destinies of the noblest empires that have ever risen and flourished in the earth. Notwithstanding our many and grievous national sins and shortcomings, God has greatly blessed and prospered us above all people on earth. Our armies have been victorious in time of war, and our commercial enterprises have prospered in time of peace. By the good hand of our God upon us we have spread to every quarter of the earth, and have extended our dominion over more than one-third of its inhabitants. If the wealth of the world could be rightly computed doubtless much more than half of it would be found to be, in our custody. The whole world has felt, and feels at this moment more than ever, the influence of our language and our institutions. To us, chiefly, since the apostasy of Israel, the custody of the Holy Scriptures seems to have been entrusted; and through us the Word of God has [354] increased, and its message has been carried to all peoples and languages and tongues and nations, for our fathers feared God and trembled at His Word. Above all the nations of this or any age, we have been the people of the open Bible; and, accordingly, above all the nations of this or any age, the God of the Bible has blessed us.

      But within a generation all this has changed. This change, in its magnitude and suddenness, is without parallel in the history of nations. Mr. White has good ground for saying that "Christianity in the sense of its Founder has a little in common with Europe" (and he might have added America) "as with Asia"; and that "if He were to appear in the flesh He could not call Himself a Christian." The substance of all that we have been considering is briefly this, that we are entering the dark shadow Of THE GREATEST NATIONAL APOSTASY IN ALL THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. The Bible does not occupy the place in England and America which, until this generation, it has always occupied. Our leaders once bowed to its authority; now they reject it. They have turned away from the God of Revelation, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have discarded Christianity for Pantheism, the degrading religion of the Hindoos. What does this portend, what can it portend, but the greatest national overthrow, ruin, and disaster, that the world has ever seen!

      "What shall we then say to these things?" Shall we forget the lesson of the olive tree? Because of [355] unbelief the natural branches (Israel) were broken off. "Therefore," we Gentiles are warned (for, says the apostle, "I speak unto YOU GENTILES"), "Be not high-minded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee, Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God" (Rom. xi. 13, 19-22). We have experienced His goodness, and now have incurred, more than any other nations, His severity. Let us then not follow any longer these evil men, who are leading the deceived masses away from the Source and Giver of all good, the Author of all our national wealth and greatness. Whether reverend doctors, or learned professors, or ecclesiastical reformers, or social economists, or philanthropists, they are leading us into the pit wherein many nations have fallen, and from which none has ever risen again. "For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed" (Isa. ix. 16). God is giving now a little space for repentance ere the storm of His well-merited wrath breaks upon us. This is the meaning of that strange "hush" which has fallen upon Europe, to which England's greatest living orator lately called attention in words that have been read throughout the world. But during this period of strange and ominous stillness there is proceeding a stranger and more ominous preparation for war, upon a scale hitherto unprecedented, and that at a time of profound peace. Let there be no mistake as to the meaning of this. It is not merely England's [356] national supremacy, but her national existence that is at stake. And the destiny and interests of America are so identified with those of the mother country that the former will also be inevitably involved in the impending crisis. Moreover, the daughter has fully shared in the mother's sins, and will surely participate in the punishment thereof. For in this "as is the mother, so is her daughter" (Ezek. xvi. 44).

      Shall it be in vain that the instruments of God's righteous anger are being made ready under our very eyes? Is it nothing that England's naval supremacy, upon which the existence of the Empire absolutely depends, has been definitely challenged by a great and warlike nation, whose ruler is a God-fearing monarch, who maintains the "Divine right of Kings?" Is it nothing that America's western border is menaced by a mysterious people, stimulated by conquest, capable of nurturing revenge for years until the moment comes, and then of striking a fatal blow? Is it nothing that while England and America are busy accumulating wealth, Germany and Japan are training every male subject for war? ¹ Let us then consider our ways; and let us be not so foolish and so oblivious of the plainest lessons of history as to suppose that these menacing evils may be averted by maintaining the [357] "two-power standard," and by expending vast sums for armament. There is but one way whereby the English-speaking nations may escape the unparalleled disaster that menaces them; and that is, by repenting and forsaking their sins, and returning to the God Who gave them wealth and greatness. The prophecies we have been examining must indeed be fulfilled; but there are to be some nations which, as nations, shall be admitted to blessing when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and shall sit upon the throne of His glory. For then "before Him shall be gathered ALL NATIONS; and He shall separate THEM one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matt. xxv. 31, 32). It may be, therefore, that God will be entreated for us, that the storm of His wrath may not overwhelm us, and that we may be hidden in the day of his fierce anger, "when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth."

      However that may be, there can be no question that, in a condition so serious as that which now exists, there is a special call to God's people, few and feeble though they be, for an unflinching manifestation of individual faithfulness to Him, and to His Word: "For thou hast a little strength, and has kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name" (Rev. iii. 8). There is also a special call to them, at such a time as this, to separate themselves from that system of confusion which will soon experience the severity of. His righteous judgments. For that vast system, religious and commercial, which has beep the [358] subject of our study, is none other than "Babylon the Great," whose destruction has been decreed (Rev. xviii. 1, 2). But Scripture shows us that on the very eve of her overthrow there are some of God's people who yet linger within the dangerous sphere of her showy allurements. To these there comes "from heaven" a clear and urgent message: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, My People, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. . . . She shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her" (Rev. xviii. 4, 5, 8). [359]

[TNOM2 354-359]