TESTIMONY OF MEN

CALVIN, on Matthew 24:30, says:FT 7.2

“There is no reason why any person should expect the conversion of the world.”FT 7.3

LUTHER, on John 10:11, 16 says:FT 7.4

“Some in explaining this passage say, that before the latter days all the world shall become Christians. This is a falsehood forged by satan, that he might darken sound doctrine, that we might not rightly understand it. Beware, therefore, of this delusion.”FT 7.5

DAVID PAREUS, 1590, says:FT 7.6

“It is a thing never to be looked for that the whole earth shall become Christian; since the enemies of the church, together with anti-christ, shall not cease but at the last coming of Christ.”FT 7.7

Dr. A. Clarke, says:FT 7.8

“Probably no such time shall ever appear, in which evil shall be wholly banished from the earth, till after the day of judgment, when the earth having been burned up, a new heaven and a new earth shall be produced out of the ruins of the old, by the mighty power of God, and righteousness alone shall dwell in them.”—Notes on Revelation 20:2.FT 7.9

MATTHEW HENRY, on Luke 18:8, says:FT 8.1

“Even to the end of time will be occasion for the same complaint; the world will grow no better, no, not when it is drawing towards its period. Bad it is, and bad it will be, and worst of all just before Christ’s coming.”FT 8.2

Dr. William Ames of Norfolk, England A. D. 1640, says:FT 8.3

“The last days by reason of that depravedness and corruption which hath ever prevailed among men, are as it were the SINK of all ages that went before to receive the dregs!”FT 8.4

INCREASE MATHER says:FT 8.5

“And when we pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we pray for the day of judgment; for then and not till then, will the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven.”FT 8.6

COTTON MATHER says:FT 8.7

“They indulge themselves in a vain dream, not to say insane, who think, pray and hope, contrary to the whole sacred Scriptures and sound reason, that the promised happiness of the church on earth will be before the Lord Jesus shall appear in his kingdom. They who expect the rest promised for the church of God, to be found anywhere but in the new earth, and they who expect any happy times for the church in a world that hath death and sin in it—these do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the kingdom of God.”FT 8.8

WHITFIELD says:FT 9.1

“As it was formerly, so it is now, and so it will be to the end of time; he that is born after the flesh, the natural man, does and will persecute him that is born after the Spirit, the regenerate man. Notwithstanding some may live in more peaceful times than others, yet all christians in all ages will suffer persecution.”—Memoirs and Sermons.FT 9.2

RICHARD BAXTER, in his prayer for Christ’s return, says:FT 9.3

“Stay not till faith have left the earth; and infidelity, and impiety and tyranny have conquered the rest of thine inheritance! Stay not till selfish, uncharitable pride hath vanquished love and self-denial, and planted its colonies of heresy, cruelty, and confusion in thy dominions; and earth and hell be turned into one! Alas! fellow christians, what should we do if our Lord should not return?”—Works, Vol. IV, p. 164.FT 9.4

Notwithstanding all the above testimonies from the Bible and from good men, thousands have taught that before Christ’s coming the nations would “learn war no more;” and all become holy and happy; and that “swords should be beaten into ploughshares,” etc.FT 9.5

The following will show how the matter stands with Protestant England:FT 9.6

“Comparative cost of swords and plough-shares.—It is estimated that all the agricultural labor done in England in 1847, cost ??18,200,000; and official returns show that the cost of their naval and military establishments for the same year was ??18,500,000; that is 300,000 more than for all their golden harvests and to the 700,000 laborers who produce them. Grave considerations must arise from such a state of things.”FT 9.7

“What a city!—a ragged-school association, in a public appeal, states that there are in London 1,400,000 who never attend public worship, 150,000 habitual drunkards, 150,000 open profligates, 20,000 professed beggars, 10,000 gamblers, 30,000 destitute children, 3,000 receivers of stolen goods. More than ten thousand young men under eighteen years of age are annually committed for theft in Great Britain.”FT 10.1

The Morning Star says:FT 10.2

“The Christian nations of Europe, ‘in time of peace’ are expending $1,000,000,000 annually in preparing for war with each other; while all the Christians of the world, in the largest munificence of their philanthropy, have never given more than $3,000,000 a year in preparing to preach the gospel of peace to the benighted regions of the earth.”FT 10.3

The National Police Gazette says:FT 10.4

“The principal among our leading contemporaries of the daily press, including the Herald, Tribune, Courier and Inquirer and Sun, have lately directed their attention to the subject of the increase of crime in our midst.... Crime they all agree has increased, is increasing, and should be diminished.”FT 10.5

The Christian Sun, Va., says:FT 10.6

“Alas! what are we hastening to. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their wickedness. Let us tremble when we think on the wickedness of our own land, and pray that God, in his infinite mercy, may pity us.”FT 10.7

The New York Chronicle says:FT 11.1

“Never was crime more rampant than now. Garroting, burglary, stabbing, fraud, lewdness, forgery, embezzlement, and every imaginable form of wrong, cruelty, and murder meet us at every turn.”FT 11.2

Says the Christian Herald:FT 11.3

“It is a fact that about in the same ratio that the cause of experimental religion declines, immorality and vice increases.”FT 11.4

The Philadelphia Times says:FT 11.5

“Honesty has fled from the world, and sincerity has fallen asleep. Piety has hidden herself, and justice cannot find the way. The helper is not at home, and charity lies sick. Benevolence is under arrest, and faith is nearly extinguished. The virtues go a begging, and truth has long since been buried. Credit is turned lazy, and conscience is pinned to the wall.”FT 11.6

Says the Hornelsville Times:FT 11.7

“The records of the past have never presented a more fearful and corrupt state of society than now exists throughout most parts of the United States. The newspapers from every quarter are becoming more and more loaded with the records of crime, and it would seem as though Satan had actually been let loose for a little season, and was improving his liberty.”FT 11.8

The N. Y. Tribune, speaking of that Christian city says:FT 11.9

“On every hand we have vice and crime, and splendor; crime, vice, rum and beggary.FT 11.10

“And this is the metropolis of the western world to-day, full of uncleanness within and without; the disgrace and sorrow of all good citizens; the very Mecca of political and moral rascals throughout the world.”FT 11.11

An exchange of the Review and Herald speaking of these days, calls themFT 12.1

“Times of moral debasement, political excitement, wars, convulsions and general prostration of the spiritual power of the churches.”FT 12.2

Says DR. GIFFORD:FT 12.3

“The world! the world! the world! This is the object which engrosses every care; this is the supreme deity that is adored. Buy and sell, and get gain—out with the thoughts of death—away with the judgment and heaven—my farms, my merchandise; I will have them, though the earth trembles under my feet, and heaven weeps blood upon my head!”FT 12.4

The Michigan Christian Herald (Baptist) says;FT 12.5

“The home circle is almost an obsolete term, and the lack of a holy home influence is apparent everywhere. The increase of lawlessness and crime among the young has excited the painful remark of hundreds who have not paused to inquire ‘what enemy hath done it.’”FT 12.6

The North American says:FT 12.7

“From the terrible evidences of human depravity which develop themselves from day to day, we begin to think that our cities are rapidly descending to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah.”FT 12.8