1900
New Year Sermon
Rev. Alford Porter last evening delivered a sermon on the topic of "The Angel of Time" at the First Baptist Church. He said in part:
Rev. 10:5-6: "And the angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever that there shall be time no longer."
"Wonderful" is the only word for this mystic book of Revelation, and wonderful has been its effect upon the minds of men. It has made popes shudder and toss upon their midnight-pillows. It has made conquerors tremble and pale as they thought they saw their own doom speeding down upon them out of the open mouths of the vials of wrath. It has made all men dizzy and awe-struck by its succession of rushing noises and colossal figures. Of all that procession there is no scene more thrilling, no figure more majestic than appears in our text.
It represents a mighty angel, with a face like the sun and feet like pillars of flame, crowned with the token of mercy — a rainbow, and clothed with the emblem of judgment — a cloud. The mighty Colossus stands with his left foot on the land and his right foot on the sea; his left hand holds an open Bible, while his right hand is uplifted to heaven appealing to God for ratification of his solemn oath that "there shall be time no longer."
On this solemn night let the vision of the angel of time confront us with his assertion that time is about to end, and eternity about to begin.
Time, as far as this passing year is concerned, shall soon be no longer. The year is winging to its close, and is even now hovering on the brink of eternity. It has seen its last sunrise, its last sunset. How rapid its passage! Stay, stay, thou flying year; stay thy swift wings, for I am bewildered by this giddy sound, and would pause for a space and breathe." The winged year sweeps on, and will not stop. Turn now, everyone, and bid good-bye to the passing year. Good-bye to the companion who one year ago was an angel in your home and tonight is an angel in the long home! Good-bye to the child that twelve months ago was clasped in your arms and tonight is cradled in the everlasting arms! Good-bye to our Christian brothers who walked these aisles with us and tonight are walking the aisles of the heavenly temple! Good-bye! Good-bye! Year, thy comedy and thy tragedy alike are ended. Vanish! We shall meet but once again, when they record is unfolded in the dazzling light of the all-judging day.
Time, considered as a whole, shall be no longer. Time is the age of the visible world. It began with the flat, "Let there be light," and it will end with the summons, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," and "Depart, ye cursed." Time is the age of this visible creation, but eternity is the age of God: "Before time was, and when time shall end, He is." The age of time is winding up by minutes, days and years. On, on it is hastening, soon to be swallowed up in eternity. For aught we know the hammer is about to strike the last hour, and shiver the universe asunder.
When Lord Nelson was buried in St. Paul's cathedral in London, it is said that the heart of all England was touched to the core. The procession passed on amid a nation's sobs. There were thirty trumpeters stationed at the door of the cathedral, with trumpets at hand, waiting for the signal, and when the illustrious dead arrived at the gates these thirty trumpeters gave one united blast, and then all was silent. Yet the dead warrior slept right on. But none shall sleep when the trumpet that shall call all men to judgment shall sound in our ears. The clock of the universe has struck 8, 9, 10, 11. It shall strike once more, and time shall be no longer.
Time, as far as each one here present is concerned, shall soon be no longer. From life's beginning we have been on the borderland of eternity. With one hand the mother touches the cradle and with the other hand the tomb. The fragile floor of our life is built upon eternity. Look at the cracks! You can see eternity shining through.
"Great God, on what a slender thread
Hang everlasting things."
How frail our tenure of time, which above and beneath us is an eternity so vast that arithmetic has not figures enough to express its length or breadth or depth or height.
We are always complaining our days are so few, yet squandering them as though there were no end of them. Napoleon beat the Austrians because they never knew the value of time. While they dawdled he overthrew them. The devil will defeat some of you, I fear, for the same reason. See those incandescent lights! One of them awhile ago burned out. A little while ago, and it was blazing like the rest; but it is gone. And where will you be, my hearers, when the fires of your life have burned out like that vanished spark? Let us cry, as did Bunyan, stopping our ears to earth's siren voices, "Life, life, eternal life."
"There's an end to all that the world can give,
When the house we build shall fall;
How great is the wreck and the ruin then,
When the dark-flood swallows all."
—Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA, Jan. 1, 1900, p. 5.
Showing posts with label 1900. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1900. Show all posts
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Last Battle
1900
Muscatine Man Thinks End of the World is at Hand
The following communication speaks for itself:
To the Editor:
After the sixth angel poured out his vial John saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. * * * to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.
"Is China the Armageddon where the armies of all the nations of the earth are to he gathered to fight the last great battle of the world? I wonder the ministers do not preach more on the prophecies, which seem so plain. These are certainly the last days spoken of by Christ and the Apostles, according to the signs of the times.
Peter says: Knowing this, first, that these shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. It is evident then that these are the last days, as that is the cry from pulpit to pulpit. They are not ready yet for the coming of our Lord, or the end of the world. They are walking after their own lusts — they like their salaries, and to be left alone to indulge in the comforts of life. This world is to them good enough to live in, therefore the cry of peace and safety has gone forth, and according to Paul — when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them * * *, and they shall not escape.
"The Book of Revelation is so little understood. When they preach from any passages therein they speak as if what is written existed previously or at the time the Revelation was given to John when he was upon the Isle of Patmos. There never was a greater mistake. Not a single prophecy given by the angel to John had been fulfilled nor was fulfilled until many years after John's death. Look at the first chapter of Revelation, first verse. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass — and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. John saw in vision the things that were to come to pass from that time all the way down to the end of the world. John was commanded to write the prophecies concerning the future of the church and its connection with the rise and fall of nations — the changes and counter-changes among the nations of the world, and how the church would be affected thereby.
Seven Stages.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia, is not addressed to the local church at each of those places named in Asia Minor, as much as it is addressed to the different states or stages of the church throughout the Christian dispensation all the way down to the time that Christ makes his second appearance at the end of time. I will leave this matter as a subject for an article on the churches for another time. Returning to secular and civil government, so often dominated by military power, we read in Rev. 11:18, and the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great — and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth.
Coming back to the inquiry, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, is not that prophecy now being fulfilled as the nations of the world are being gathered into the ports of China? The kings of the earth and of the whole world (will be gathered) to the battle of the great day of God Almighty — Rev. 16:14, and the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. — Rev. 14:20. Verily, is not China the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon?
W. L. DEXTER. Muscatine, Iowa.
—Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, IA, Aug. 5, 1900, p. 2.
Muscatine Man Thinks End of the World is at Hand
The following communication speaks for itself:
To the Editor:
After the sixth angel poured out his vial John saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. * * * to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.
"Is China the Armageddon where the armies of all the nations of the earth are to he gathered to fight the last great battle of the world? I wonder the ministers do not preach more on the prophecies, which seem so plain. These are certainly the last days spoken of by Christ and the Apostles, according to the signs of the times.
Peter says: Knowing this, first, that these shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. It is evident then that these are the last days, as that is the cry from pulpit to pulpit. They are not ready yet for the coming of our Lord, or the end of the world. They are walking after their own lusts — they like their salaries, and to be left alone to indulge in the comforts of life. This world is to them good enough to live in, therefore the cry of peace and safety has gone forth, and according to Paul — when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them * * *, and they shall not escape.
"The Book of Revelation is so little understood. When they preach from any passages therein they speak as if what is written existed previously or at the time the Revelation was given to John when he was upon the Isle of Patmos. There never was a greater mistake. Not a single prophecy given by the angel to John had been fulfilled nor was fulfilled until many years after John's death. Look at the first chapter of Revelation, first verse. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass — and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. John saw in vision the things that were to come to pass from that time all the way down to the end of the world. John was commanded to write the prophecies concerning the future of the church and its connection with the rise and fall of nations — the changes and counter-changes among the nations of the world, and how the church would be affected thereby.
Seven Stages.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia, is not addressed to the local church at each of those places named in Asia Minor, as much as it is addressed to the different states or stages of the church throughout the Christian dispensation all the way down to the time that Christ makes his second appearance at the end of time. I will leave this matter as a subject for an article on the churches for another time. Returning to secular and civil government, so often dominated by military power, we read in Rev. 11:18, and the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great — and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth.
Coming back to the inquiry, and he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, is not that prophecy now being fulfilled as the nations of the world are being gathered into the ports of China? The kings of the earth and of the whole world (will be gathered) to the battle of the great day of God Almighty — Rev. 16:14, and the wine press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine press, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. — Rev. 14:20. Verily, is not China the place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon?
W. L. DEXTER. Muscatine, Iowa.
—Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, IA, Aug. 5, 1900, p. 2.
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