FRIENDLY VISITOR. No. CLXXII.] JANUARY, 1833. [VOL. XV. THE TIMES. A very valuable work, lately published, opens with the following remarks: "Never, perhaps, in the history of man, were the times more marked, or big with greater events than the present. The signs of them are in many respects set before the eyes of men, and need not to be told; and they strike the senses so forcibly, and come so closely to the apprehension of all, that they may be said to be felt, as well as to be seen. The face of the sky never told more clearly an approaching tempest, than the signs of the times betoken an approaching convulsion,-not partial, but universal. It is not a single cloud, surcharged with electricity, on the rending of which a momentary flash might appear, and the thunderbolt shiver a pine, or scathe a few lowly shrubs, that is now rising into view; but the whole atmosphere is lowering, a gathering storm is collecting fearfully in every region, the lightning is already seen gleaming in the heavens, and passing in quick succession from one distant cloud to another, as if every tree in the forest would be enkindled, and the destroying tempest, before purifying the atmosphere, spread ruin on every side. Such is now the aspect of the political horizon. The whole world is in agitation. All kings on earth, whose words were wont to be laws, are troubled. The calm repose of ages, in which thrones and altars were held sacred, has been broken in a moment. Ancient monarchies, which seemed long to defy dissolution and to mock at time, pass away like a dream. And the question is not now of the death of a king, or even of the ceasing of one power and the commencement of another; but the whole fabric of government is insecure, the whole frame of society is shaken. * Keith on the Signs of the Times. 2 vols. 12mo. Longman & Co. Every kingdom, instead of each being knit together and dreaded by surrounding states, is divided against itself, as if ruin were the sure lot of them all. And as if the signal had gone throughout the world quick as lightning, nations, instead of progressing slowly to regeneration, start at once into life. And from the banks of the Don to the Tagus, from the shores of the Bosphorus to Lapland, and, (wide Europe being too narrow a field for the spirit of change that now ranges every where throughout the world,) from the new states of South America to the hitherto unchangeable China, skirting Africa and traversing Asia, to the extremity of the globe on the frozen north, there are signs of change in every country under heaven; and none can tell of what kingdom it may not be told in the news of to-morrow, that a revolution has been begun and perfected in a week. Every kingdom seems but to wait for its day of revolt or revival. And the only wonder now would be, that any nation should continue much longer what for ages it has been; or that the signs of the times should not every where alike be a striking contrast to those of the past. "Man, whatever expectations he may form, knoweth not what a day may bring forth. And never was the truth of the short-sightedness of mortals more clearly seen than it is now, when changes, of which none could recently have formed the conception, pass as common things before the eyes of all. Human wisdom is not in any thing more speedily set at nought than when it counts the chances, and attempts to define the issue, of national wars and commotions. But though, in the unfolding of ordinary events, the wisdom of man were equal to the task of marking their character before their time, there is no experience by which he could now be guided to a certain or even probable conclusion. For all history presents not any scale of reckoning for such times as these, when unheard of events, which tell of an universal crisis and a war of opinions throughout the wide world, such as never existed to be recorded before, are crowded together, and seem but the incidents of an hour. "It is not by a light issuing from the earth, nor by the meteor-gleam of high imaginations, that a page of future history can be read, or the dark recesses of futurity be disclosed. The Ruler among the nations, whose omniscient eye penetrates alike through space and through time, can alone show the things that are not as though they were. He hath the times and the seasons in his own power; and the signs of them can be known only from his word. From ancient times he hath declared, by his servants the prophets, the things that are now passing, and that are yet to come. And to the magnifying of the divine word, but in utter contempt of human conceit, it is to the most ancient of records, in the Old Testament, and to the more recent but still remote revelations of the New, that, with all meekness and child-like simplicity, a pious application must be made, and a patient study must be devoted, if by any means the ultimate consequences and final results of those existing events which agitate the world, may be ascertained with infinitely greater security and truth than belong to the daily fluctuating conjectures, which all the powers of reason, though vainly calling universal history to its aid, can deduce, as the final effect of those causes of which the partial operation is already seen." Such is the conviction of an eminent writer regarding the present state of the world, and every one who reflects seriously must be brought, I think, to the same conclusion. What then is our duty, as professing Christians, under such circumstances? It may be the duty of those who have time and are otherwise fitted for it, to be searching into prophecy, and to be trying to make out how far and in what respects the prophecies of Scripture have been already fulfilled and are now fulfilling; but while this may be the duty of some, there are plain and important duties for us all, and they are these: to be considering the peculiar state of the times in which we live, as calling upon us most loudly to be living like men who are waiting for their Lord. Christian Readers, let the opening new year find us more than usually engaged in holy resolutions and earnest supplications to the throne of grace. In what respects have our consciences chiefly reason to be dissatisfied and alarmed? What sins remain still in vigour? What worldly affections are still in exercise? What wrong tempers still allowed? Oh! let us examine well wherein we fail, and let us bring out the accursed thing, and never rest till it is fully and for ever sacrificed. For if in the coming night of fiery trial our consciences are not our friends, but condemn us of deceit and treachery, ah whither, whither shall we flee for comfort and support! Let us examine too wherein our faith fails us. A little faith may eventually save, and a little faith may serve for the common purposes of an even, easy course; but when Satan's devices thicken around us; when the storm of persecution arises because of the Word; when the great author of confusion and misery seems to be let loose, and we find ourselves adrift on the troubled ocean, without the sensible presence and support of our Redeemer; and are almost tempted to think that we are deserted by the God of Providence and left to be the sport of the angry billows; oh! then we shall need indeed that faith, which can remove the mountains of difficulty and impossibility which surround us; that faith, which safely and peacefully fixes us on the rock which is higher than we. Let us see then that we are keeping the eye of faith simply and constantly on the fulness and freeness of our great salvation. Let us get more into the habit of living daily upon the promises in all their broadness and comprehensiveness. Christ will cast out none that come to him-blessed be his name, I come to him as all my salvation and all my desire; I shall not therefore be cast out, or cast away. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. I am a guilty, helpless sinner, and the sins of my regenerate days are my most frightening sins: but I daily come to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and I must not, I cannot doubt its power to cleanse from my sin-from all sin. The very sparrows are cared for by Jehovah-surely then I shall not want his care, being of more value than many sparrows. Yea, of more value indeed, since for me, sinner as I am, the Son of God has died. |