His Glorious Appearing: An Exposition of Matthew Twenty-Four

by James White

But while the temple of Janus is closed as far as international strife is concerned, and angel hands are holding the winds of war (see Rev. 7:1-3), internal strife and dissension are rending the vitals of the great nations of earth. Within the confines of its own border, each of these nations is cherishing elements of the deadliest nature. Trouble is brewing that has for the people far more terror than foreign complications. For some time the ominous mutterings of an oncoming storm have been heard in every land, and it requires no remarkable acumen to discern the rapid approach of the crisis.

The apostle James strikes directly at the matter in a prophetic glance and exhortation in the following language:—

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” James 5:1-6.

The apostle locates the circumstances he here refers to in the last days. He denounces the rich men who have heaped together treasures, the rust and canker of which will be a witness against them. They live in pleasure and wantonness while the cries of those whose wages they have kept back enter into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

There is a universal cry of hard times in all the world. It is hard to obtain money; and yet, there never was so much money as at present. But it is being collected—gathered in heaps—by the powerful few, while the limited means of the masses are dwindling lower and lower. The poorer classes witness the absorption of wealth by the money-kings, with feelings that are being aroused to the point of desperation by the sense of their inability to secure what seems to them a more equitable distribution of the things of this world. The laborers cry, and God hears their cry.

That these things are taking place to-day as the most prominent feature of our social life no one will for a moment deny. Such colossal fortunes the world has heretofore at most but dreamed of. There are men living to-day who have risen in wealth from obscure stations to become lords [pg 059] of untold millions. Their wealth passes the bounds of just computation, for it includes the power of oppression by which it may be indefinitely increased. The lavish expenditure of these means for selfish pleasure often amounts to wantonness.

Well then, what is to be done? It is a difficult and delicate matter to frame and secure legislation by which this or any other class of men shall be deprived of the management of their own business as long as that business is legitimate and is legitimately conducted. Shall anarchy and violence be resorted to? Shall the laborer seize the torch and the weapons of death? Shall the country be devastated by strikes, strife, and civil war? Shall our communities be rent with murder, arson, treason, and intense personal hatred and enmity? No one possessing the natural instincts of humanity could contemplate such a condition of affairs except with horror. There are ghouls of society who gloat in blood; but such are not true citizens, they are not neighbors, they certainly are not Christians.

But what shall we do as citizens, neighbors, and Christians? This is a question of great importance just now. Inspiration long ago foresaw our situation. The pitying Saviour long since anticipated the sufferings that are to come upon this generation; and having, through his servant, outlined the present condition of affairs so closely, he certainly would not leave his followers uninformed as to the course he would have them pursue. We have to read only two verses farther in James's letter to find the counsel we need.

“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye [pg 061]also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5:7, 8.