“THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2429, 16 May 1922, Page 3

“THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.”

In the Town Hall supper-room on Sunday night there was a. croAvded attendance to hear Mr Forde Carlisle’s lecture entitled “The Signs, of the Times.”

The preacher commenced by stating that it was not the opinions of men or a theological proposition he had to put beforsj. his audience, but authoritative words of Christ, the Eternal Son of God. Christ being the only authority, attention Avas first of all directed to His words in Matthew X., and special emphasis avos laid upon the phrasi “Beware r 6f Yuen.” The'Speaker said we blame conditions and circumstances, but the fault was Avith men, and not those, for .the distress in the world at the present time. Matthew XXIV. wa's next noticed, which, the speaker pointed out, gave the characteristics of the present age, and these included deception, Avars, famines, earthquakes, liwlessness; all to end in great tribulation. He asked, wasj Christ right in this forecast of this dispensation’s eharaeteristics, and av ho could, in the light of history and current events, say that He Avas not ? Attention Avas directed to A-erse 37 of the chapter, reading, “But as the days of Noah ivere, so .shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” These Avords, Mr Carlisle asserted, proved beyond question that instead of getting better, the world was ripening for divine judgment, and that all schemes for Avorld betterment to bring about the millenium by human projects were doomed to failure and disappointment.; It Avas pointed out that there Avas a. correspondence betAveen conditions that existed just prior to the deluge and conditions that exist noAv, and these were sure signs that the Lord’s Return .to earth was near. Five of these correspondences were mentioned, viz.: (1) Worship of God as Creator and Benefactor, Avhile repudiating Him -as-Redeemer; (2) Undue prominence of the female sex, with disregard of the primal law of marriage; (3) progress of the mechanical arts to mitigate the curse of sin; (4) alliance of God’s people Avith the Avorld; (5) Rejection of preaching of the Word, and consequent hardening of the people beyond recoA'ery. \ The JeAvs and their present activities were particularly mentioned as a sign of the times. Their return in unbelief to their oavh land, and the recent giving of the latter grains again in Palestine, the measuring of the 1 City from the hill Bareb to Goalh, and the planting in the land of strange slips, Avere all in fulfilment of Old Testament predictions, these being the budding of the fig tree, typical of Israel mentioned by our Lord in Luke XXI., yerse 30. In conclusion, the speaker exhorted his hearers that while they could not put the world right, as this depended upon the Advent of Christ in glory, to get right themselves by closing in with the Divine offer of mercy through acceptance of the only Saviour, the Lord Jesus (Christ: .; ( Mi*. Carlisle announced that his last meeting for the present would be next, Sunday evening, when he Avould give an address on “The Four Watches.” • '