BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21245, 16 October 1940, Page 11

BOOKS AND WRITERS

BiBLE PROPHECY LAST CYCLE OF STRIFE EVILS OF WAR FORETOLD The elevation of bloodthirsty dictators has caused millions of people to slip away from the teachings of the “ Impregnable Rock.” the Bible, says a writer in the Sydney Sun in reviewing “ The Marvels of Bible Prophecy,” by Major-General Sargent. The number of professed Christains has contracted and the number of agnostics has expanded. Until a year ago, congregations dwindled. In Thibet centuries ago, cunning men, realising the tendency to preach rather than to practise religion. carried a praying machine through the streets and stopped at doors to earn a penny by grinding out prayers. In those days, however, the Bible was only in the hands of a few hundreds, while today it is in possession of hundreds of millions, and still paganism has cast nations into the fiery furnace of war for a few men’s insensate ambitions. Faith has to he renewed.

It is more than happy chance that has induced a soldier to attempt to let light into a dark world. Major-General Sargent has studied the Scriptures profoundly and with scholarly lucidity. At the outset of his researches he adopts a fundamental position. It is clear that to preach the Kingdom is to preach the Gospel. The Gospel is not preached when the Kingdom is omitted . . . the promised glories of the future are not attainable by mortal man without sacrifice, including a tasting of death for every man. Path of Man Foretold Both the Old and the New Testament are studded with prophecies which foretell the path of mankind, but since they are symbolic and figurative they are obscure to the multitude. When interpreted with understanding, however, they quicken to convincing truth. Noah disclosed the course of the inhabited world thousands of years before the events happened, and Abraham was sensible of the future enslavement and release of the Israelites. while the Book of Daniel tells of things to happen from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to the end of our days. The major part of the prophecies can be demonstrated to have been fulfilled already From the words of Daniel it is to be deduced that the British race consists of descendants of the lost tribes. Ils northern civilisation had nothing in common with the Roman world. It was peculiar tc itself and Huxley exploded the notion that the Celts and the Saxons were of different

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS

stocks. Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians poured across the seas into the English Isles, and all were kindred tribes. With meticulous and stimulating care, the fortunes of the tribes are traced down the long lane of history to the present, when it has become manifest that spiritual progress has not kept pace* with the rapid advance of science. “ The root cause of the world’s troubles is a departure from God. Fear of man bv man is substituted for man’s faith in and fear of God. Selfishness and fear bar the way to world peace and trade recovery. Neither will have any say in the Divine Kingdom of Love.” Anti-Christ State A true democracy or Brotherhood of Man cannot, Major-General Sargent urges, ever be realised upon a material or international basis. . . World events are unmistakably heading to an anti-Christ state of society. . . The battle intensifies, signs are multiplying and demonstrating the fact that we are approaching the end of the age and are actually now in those last days spoken of in the BiblQ (Timothy 111.. 1, Peter 111. 3). Peter said that “ false teachers would bring in damnable heresies and many would follow their pernicious ways,” and Paul foretold the time when " some shall depart from j the faith, giving heed to seducing ! spirits and doctrines of demons.” | In the fulfilment of the prophecies | and in the terrible tragedy which i has overtaken the world, the author sees the end of the last cycle of strife and doubt and the consummation of i the Gospel of the Kingdom. This j constructive exposition of BritishIsrael doctrine is vivid and responsible. TERROR ON HOLIDAY “MALICE IN WONDERLAND” EXCITING MYSTERY STORY Somebody began playing dangerous and terrifying tricks in Wonderland. a modem holiday camp by the sea. and the question before the amateur investigators and the professional, Nigel Strangeways, was whether the sinister joker was cun- j ningly clouding his real aim, an attack. perhaps murderous, on some one person, or whether it was his aim ] to ruin the Wonderland Company. J In “Malice in Wonderland” (pub- ! lished by Collins) Nicholas Blake parades two very obvious suspects : and makes one of the amateur de- • tectives end by suspecting himself; but the truth is well concealed, and the cleverness < 1‘ allowing the second amateur and chief clown to “adumbrate ' it. and he might have aaid, is admirable.