The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-02-23
The SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
Men Should Regard This as an
Ever Imminent Fact,
But They Are Not Doing This-When the
Terrible Scenes Of the Last Day Come
the Church VIII Not be Prepared to
Meet Them-Apostaoy Is Telling on
Our CivIliEatIon-what are the Young
Men Doing.

1orme them that Chrl5e WALL NOS come I'LL |
there be falling away (spostacy}, first
II. Thes. II; 8. Said he, snow the Spirit
speaketh expressly" (gives special
reyelstion), ''thst In the latter times
aome shall depart from the faith" 1.
Tim. iv, 1. This is regarded So apostaoy.
There is to be in the world the great
est social corruption and disregard OF |
virtue.
This know also. that in the last days |
psrilous days shall come" etc. II. tin. |
iii, LIS.
Those who have form OF godliness |
but deny the power are church members. |
There is to-day no want of outward OBJ |
'servance in public. worship, there is
lack Of power.
We are evidently in the Lsodecean
age Of the ohureh. She feels "rich and |
Increased With goods, and has need Of
nothing"
TO this eelf.righteous, selt.sufflclent
church, Jesus says, Behold, stand OF |
the door and knock." Rev. Ill, 90.
Many expositors of prophecy believe
Jesus is just at the door-the midnight
cry is sounding-she church knows little
OF this doctrine Of the second coming
Her preachers do not care to be called
fanatics.
"Knowing this first, that there shall
come in the last days scofers, walking
after their own lusts, and saying, where
lis the promise of his coming? For since
the fathers fell esleep, all things con
tinue as they were from the beginning
,of the creation" IL. Peter iii. 8, a.
We need more preaching, and more
literature on this subject. To be pre-
pared for His coming Is motive to
holiness, "a seen by the following Scrip.
lures:
Teaching us that, denying ungodli-
ness and worldly LISTS, we should live
aoberly, sighteously md godly, in this
present world; looking for that blessed
hope. and the glorious appearing OF the
Titus II, 10.
But the day of the Lord will come as
q thief.in the night; in which the heav-
ems shall pass away with great noise,
and she elements shall melt with fer
vent heat, the earth also, and the works
that, are therein shall be burned up.
"SeeiRg then that these things shall
be dissolved, what manner OF peraons
ought we to be in all holy conversation
and gadiinass. II. Peter Kill, le. IL.
land when the CHEZ shepherd shall
appear, 20 shall receive q crown of
glory thatftadeth not away" I. Peter
VA.
II we knssy Christ Was coming next
year wonld-wp spend this year amafsing
wealth. Sod intended ns to live as If
this were an ever imminent fact. The
pulpit does mt 30 urge It, Indeed, Il
has been ao.sEe.nt on the subject, that
many people dp not know that the Bible
: teaches 1t. When the terrible scenes OF
the last GeyccGme, the church will be
r.lnprepared to, n eelt them. She Is liable
through Ignorance OF the prophecies to
Gbe deceived by4s1itf- Christ and 60 after
the beast .And it was given him to
make war With the saints and 40 over
,coue them. And power was given him
over all kindred, 3ongues and nations"
land all that dw ell upon the earth
shall worship Him, whose names are
not,written in the Lambs Book OF Life,
slain from the foundat ion OF the world
The true church will OF apogtatize; but
manys3elf styled oh1rc hes Will.
Believers should DO f,,rearmed by the
careful inculcation of this dootrlne.
This spostacy is telling upon our civil.
zation We are In a ira nsition period.
ThingsEan never be IS they have been,
but what is to be nert? If we would
know what is to be to.nor row we muat
know what the young men are to-day,
What are the facts? There are about
100000 young men incur country, OF
those young men 350,e9O ire church
members. and 5000 are criminals.
That 10. they belong to the criminal
population. They have tbeens or are
now, in the panisentisry.
So there are $50, 600 more young men
in this country who belong to the GRIM
Gnal populationthan to the charc b. What
terrible Significance in these figures?
have lately ,ssen the tahulated re-
ports of the state penisentierles. They
reEeal the sad fact that the peiliten-
tisries are filled with young men. They
say, to every legislature comes She cry,
"moso cell room, moro cell 9oom."
What for? To incsrcerate the young !
men OF the nation. 80 wonder oEsme ia !
incresaing when the governments sends |
out the saloon and the brothel, each |
with government license in its hand to |
and their legitimate pDey in the yoang |
men of the nation. AleeI alas!
One reason of this widespread degen- I
ersey amonG young mea Is, they have
no Sabbath. The no-Subday law of the |
general government acts rs an anti
Sunday Inv. All the States but Cali
fornia. Idaho end Wyoming hsye Sun
day laws. But these State lssgs cannot
stop inter state commerce or postofice
work.
The railroads condemn ESQ. 00o men to
desecrating toll every Sabbath. the post.
office $4,000 more. Greedy corporations
work or leave their places, which acts
places are mostly filled by young men
epho are thus Withdrawn from the esv-
Eng influence Of the sanctuary.
OF the $50, 200 who are church menu
bers, only the feWest numbers are wit
nacnea for Chrfat. or active I'm ShurCh