Our Day / In the Light of Prophecy

by William Ambrose Spicer

Material Agencies for the Work

The prophecy represents not only a world-wide work, but a quick work in proclaiming the gospel message in the last days. The movement is symbolized in the Revelation by an angel flying in the midst of heaven, from land to land. And as to the closing work, when the end is near at hand, the Scripture says:

"He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." Rom. 9:28.

"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." This is the hope for a quickly finished work in all the earth in our time. Yet the Lord lays hold of material things for service; and wonderfully the hand of Providence has wrought in bringing into existence material agencies for a quick work in carrying the gospel to the world—such agencies as no generation before ours ever had.

Consider the marvelous facilities for world-travel. They are the product of this time of the end. "Many shall run to and fro," said the prophecy. Some interpreters have restricted the Hebrew phrase to a "searching" to and fro for knowledge. Even this would include a literal running to and fro; for the light of increasing knowledge was to be diffused over all the earth. But the best authority on the Hebrew declares for the plain meaning of our English translation: "Many shall run to and fro." In two recent works, Dr. C.H.H. Wright, the English scholar, says of this text:

"The natural meaning must be upheld, i.e., wandering to and fro."—"Critical Commentary on Daniel," p. 209.

"Why should not that expression be used in the sense in which it is employed in Jeremiah 5:1, namely, of rapid movement hither and thither?"—"Daniel and His Prophecies," p. 321.

At the time when the first foreign missionary movement was being launched in America, Robert Fulton's steamship, the "Clermont," was making its first trip on the Hudson.

HIEROGLYPHICS
The "Ox Song" of the Egyptian threshing-floor.

In 1838 the first ships to cross the Atlantic under steam power alone—the "Sirius" and the "Great Western"—came into New York from Liverpool, a few hours apart, forerunners of the fleets that furrow all the seas today, making quick pathways for the gospel messengers to all lands. Verily, they are a gift of God's providence to this generation, when all the world is to hear the gospel message.

CUNEIFORM WRITING
An account of the capture of Babylon, b.c. 538. From the cylinder of Cyrus.

"He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the earth."

In 1825 Stephenson built his first railway passenger locomotive, which may still be seen in the Darlington railway station, in England. It was the beginning of the great revolution in land travel. The late Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, scientist, wrote:

"From the earliest historic and even prehistoric times till the construction of our great railways in the second quarter of the present century [the nineteenth], there had been absolutely no change in the methods of human locomotion."—"The Wonderful Century," p. 7.

MANUSCRIPT WRITING
The process by which the books of the great library of Alexandria, Egypt, were made.

For nearly six thousand years men had traveled in the old way. Why should these revolutionary changes in travel by sea and land come abruptly just at this time?—Because the time foretold in the prophecy was at hand, when the last gospel message was to be carried quickly to all the world—"to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." We see the hand of the living God opening the doors into all lands, and His wonderful providence laying at the feet of this generation agencies for quickly covering the whole earth.

GUTENBERG'S FIRST TYPES
Reproduced from the first edition of the famous forty-two-line Latin Bible, printed by Gutenberg.

Later came the electric telegraph, for the quick transmission of news. It was in 1837 that Cooke and Wheatstone in England, and Morse in the United States, made their application for patents on the electric telegraph. It was in 1844 that the first long-distance system was successfully demonstrated—when the historic message was sent from Baltimore to Washington, "What hath God wrought!" Now news of events fulfilling prophecy, and news of progress and conditions in all lands, are daily spread before the world by this agency of our wonderful time.

THE GUTENBERG PRINTING PRESS
On which was produced the first printed Bible, in 1456 A.D.

THE FRANKLIN PRESS
Operated by two men, it has a maximum speed of 250 impressions per hour.

As the closing events take place, the Lord has in His providence so ordered it that no one need be ignorant of the signs of the times fulfilling before the eyes of men.

"Speak the word and think the thought,
Quick 'tis as with lightning caught—
Over, under, lands or seas
To the far antipodes."

Here is an incident illustrating the way in which the electric telegraph may multiply and spread abroad the witness borne to the truth of God in some obscure corner of the earth:

THE HOE DOUBLE OCTUPLE PRESS

The largest printing press in the world. Length, 48 feet; height, 19-1/2 feet; weight, 175 tons; number of parts, 65,000; revolutions, 300 per minute; paper used per hour, 18 tons, or 216 miles of paper three feet wide; production per hour, 300,000 eight-page folded newspapers.

The Mighty Press

"When old Gutenberg, inventor
Of the printing press, and mentor
Of the clumsy-fingered typos
In a sleepy German town,
Used to spread the sheets of vellum
On the form, and plainly tell them
That the art was then perfected,
As he pressed the platen down,
He had not the faintest notion
Of the rhythmical commotion,
Of the brabble and the clamor
And the unremitting roar
Of the mighty triple decker,
While the steel rods flicker,
And the papers, ready folded,
Fall in thousands to the floor."

Some years ago a young man in Europe—a Seventh-day Adventist—was giving answer for his faith. His conscience would not allow him to do ordinary labor on God's holy Sabbath. He had declared to the court that the oath of loyalty which had been required of him forbade his breaking the Sabbath. "How is that?" asked the judge. The young man replied:

"I was sworn in with a Christian oath, and therefore cannot be under an obligation to violate the commandments of God and work on the Sabbath. One must regard God as the highest authority, and obey Him in the first place."

This witness was borne in a little courtroom, before a small group of men; but the press dispatches took it up, and the description of the scene and report of the words spoken were carried by electric telegraph to the press of at least four continents, and millions read the testimony of the young man to the faith that was in him.

In the days to come, with great events taking place and solemn issues calling upon men to make decision for God and His truth, how quickly, in some great crisis, all the world may be warned, and the last individual decisions be made for eternity!