SUNDAY READING

Te Aroha News, Volume XVI, Issue 222045, 3 February 1900, Page 2

SUNDAY READING

TBy Truth.

THE WORLD’S PROSPECTS. Tiie world is beginning* to rock and reel, and governments monarchical and republican—are trembling at the wild and tumultuous rush of the forces

of anarchy and disorder. Christendom,with its nuiner.ius incoherent States, and conflicting political interests, has entered on iiS final existence, till the s ( rong, blasphemous, and infidel ruler of the west of Europe (Dan. ii. and Rev. xvii.) unites all in one vast king dom. Revolutionary movements are a curse to any country, constitutional changes—where the crcatorial rights of God are conserved—may result in blessing. But tho present wild hurri-

cane of Democracy that is fast covering the earth, will wreck every Government, overthrow every dynasty, and plunge those nations so afflicted into a sea of anarchy and misery, the like of which the world has never seen. The absence of a firm government, regardless of the fear of tho people: of a strong restraining grasp upon human

passion is a dire calamity. Britain was never more feared and inspected than when Cromwell in the fear of God ru e'd the country. li-eland was never so prosperous as when governed with a firm hand. The working classes are pu ting forth their strength. The conflict thickens all along the lines. L ibour is matched against capital, and loudly

clamours for the distribution or plunder of wealth in money or pioperty. Social title and position from the Queen downwards is sneered at —the people are determined to rule. The working classes are being taught, and are adopting principles which must result in ruining the commercial prosperity of this great nation, yea, all the na'ions. Trades unionism, in its tyrany in preventing free labour as b -tween servant and master, and in s -eking to control the labour markets of tho world is wholly unscriptural in its aims and ineihods, and should ho shunned by all who desire to obey the word of God. The labour wars in America and Europe, so far, are a sad indication of tho lawlessness which is

gonerat'ng. Wo have not reached, in this colony, 6uch an acute stage of this trouble yet, but the teachings and principles, of which the armed conflicts of lawless men wi'h (lie authorities are the outcome, have been loudly proclaimed and earneslly advocated by

press and platf <rm—yea, oven by the G .vernment (Liberal Governrn nt) f >r yetvs; and really the adop ion of revolutionary principles by the people is an alarming, sign of tJia S 'cLlistn, the handmaid of atheism, is rampant in this country as well as in America or Europe. It saps the foundation of morally, corrupts individual and corp -rare conscience. It ruthlossly tramples on the rights of capital and class privilege. Soei ilism never gives ; it demands. It is de s true five ; never constructive. We deliberately assort that tho world is rapidly nearing that final form of human g iverument on which like a mighty avalanche the Lord of Glory

shall descend and grind it to powder, and on the ruins of which He will establish His kingdom, wide as the globe, stable as the throne of the Ecernal, and everlasting in its durati -n. B}' a general consensus of thought from friend and foe alike of Christianity, the final struggle is nigh. The signs of the times portend a

o 0 t catas'rophe as certain as it is near and appalling. The horrors of the present S »uth African war are but the beginning of throes ; but that the sword in Europe will spring from its scabbard, and the roll of musketry sadden our

hearts, if not deafen our ears, is an event which like a clap of thunder may suddenly burst upon us at any moment. The French revolution of the eighteenth century is a conspicuous example of revolutionary principles —of government

established by the people and administered by the popular will. Rank, wealth, beauty; religion and right were guidotined with the victims of the popular will. Ah ! little did fair Gaul dream that her streets, littered with the corpses, and her rivers reddened with the blood of her noble

s ns, would but serve as a miniature and scenic repress ntation of the more awful and desolating rosult of the same revolutionary principles and acts throughout Christendom. But the present uprising of the people and their evident determination to seize the reins of government, bring us to the last phase of human ru'e, to b a succeeded by the horrois of the brief reign of the anti-chris:ian king (the seated in Rome) —and then the coming of the King of Kings, who will still the universal groan, staunch earth’s bleeding wounds, pass a healing hand o’er the fevered brow of man. After government by the people their is no other lower form of human political rule. It is on that that the judgment of God descends, and hence the working classes may be permitted to shiver royal diadems and break imperial sceptres, but their triumph will be but short lived. They, now so eager to taste the sweets of power, shall in God’s righteous ways be the first to suffer in the coming storm of Divine wrath which will desolate Christendom and turn Europe into a charnel hou c e (Rev. vii 4 8 ; and xii 20). Government of the people and by the people has been steadily advancing. Popular elected bodies for the government of local and municipal *

affairs is the idol of the hour, and are serving as an educational process for the management of imperial interests. The working classes are a recognised and potent power, and they are at once feared and courted. The representation of the working classes in imperial affairs is now a recognised principle in the government of this great empire on which the sun

never sets The Queen rules over many millions of people. Her 400 ships of war and half-million sailors sweep the seas. Her empire by far the largest, the" strongest, the most populous of ancient and modern kingdoms. But pers mully, though greatly beloved by all, the Sovereign is powerless, to stem the torrent of

Radicalism which threatens, at no distant date, the dismemberment of the of the empire. The fusion of iron and, clay (D m. ii. 33 35), the union oYstrong h with the government of many is an impossibility. Scripture (Dan. ii. 42-43) and facts dem mstrats the truth of this. The union of the people with a s'rong and independj&wKexecutive, cannot long hold together. Tta people of Britain, F i ance, Germany,

Italy, etc., are loudly demanding an equal share in the government of their respective countries. We seem to be on the eve of a general uprising of the people. You cannot successfully check the popular movement when it has reached the giddy height of power and the reins of government are grasped by the sons of toil, and Socialism sits iu high places, then thevengeance of an angry God will scatter* like chaff, the power of man, clo°e upthe times of the Gentiles, and establish the everlasting kinglonu of our Lord Jesus Christ. The death throes of the great political struggle shall »,

usher in a thousand years 'jf£ rest for wearied man. The s*one cut out without hands (ver. 34) refers to the , coming—it is not the gospel—of our Lord in destructive power upon fa kingdoms of the earth then divided into two vast opp osed and (East against West) opposing camps. The stone smites the image on his feet and toe 9 —'he last phases of Gteivile-rule o& eirth. Oh! h>w near is His first for His Church—all * then to execute judgment upon a guil y

world? But ore the blow and kingdoms c-afli, and crowns areshattered, and the earth rocks and. reels, and the magnates of th« civilised scene seek to hide ■theraj&pi.yas in. terror, the redeemed of God shall beciught up fr im tho earth to heavenTho m mient of this triumph is at hand. Are we each ready, waiting* watching, p aying, wo king ?.