The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-17
GODS WORK
.TheShaking
the Nations.
UNREST DUE TO HIM
A Timely Sermon by Dr.Bar-
ton at Plymouth Church.

! Yesterday morning, Rev. James L.
Barton, D. D., of Boston, secretary of
the foreign department of the Ameri-
can board, preached a sermon in its be-
half in Plymouth Church. His theme
was ''The shaking of the nations and
his text was Haggai 2:vii, and 1 win
shake all nations and the desire of all
nations shah come" In part he said:
| There has never been a period since
modern missions begun that the ma
tiOns were so shaken as they are to-
day. Unrest is everywhere and over all
hangs an uncertainty before which we
stand in expectancy, if not in awe.
Armies are moving, diplomats of world
VIDE renown are in conference, mighty
navteS are in commission while others
| are in process of construction, and at
the same time from the foremost nation
of conquest and greed goes forth the
call for peace. Something is shaking
| the nations. This political unrest is
but typical of the social intellectual
commercial and religious 1isquiet
winch marks the age in which we live
There is a drawing together of ma
| tons with a deeper and ever deepen
ing sense of a Community of interest
which neeessitates concerted action,
while jealousies and suspicious drive
| others apart. We ask why this nation
al unrest? TO what end this commo-
! ton? The only reply is that God is
| in the nations OF the earth. shaping
| their course that they may be puri-
| fed, exalted, sanctified. The end is not
| that one nation may gain strength, but
that righteousness may have fuller
sway, not that wealth may increase,
but that justice, mercy and love may
multiply, not that any man or party
or nation may rule the world, but that
| Christ may reign.
The past is the prophecy for the fu-
ture- History teaches us that there
IS God of nations whose viii and plan
are supreme. The divine law through
the blindness and greed of men kas
often been written in blood across con-
| tinents and yet the end promoted
righteousness in the world
Today Africa. Japan, China, Russia,
Turkey, Spain and our land, to say
nothing of other countries, are in q
| state of political, social and religious
| evolution. No other expression 50
| states the conditions so we'll as the
words of Haggai when he prophesied
that the Lord would shake the nations.
Africa, that dark and mysterious con-
|
of day. Into it are. pouring life and
power and impulse of modern enter
| prise and trade: sluggish intelIects are
| arouslng, old systems are giving way
and it requires no sage to prophesy that
out of it will soon come a new ciziliza.-
ton, a new Africa. Japan has thrown
| off her shaekles, accomplishing in two
| decades what Europe failed to do in
eight centuries. In that time she
Ileaped from the rule of military arts
tocracy to constitutional government.
/ She is today in the midst IF terrible
social and commercial struggles, while
burning with an ambition to be reck-
oned among the world powers.
China, surrounded by that mighty
| Chinese wall of pride, superstition, ar
rogance and conservatism, mas with
stood the assaults of the ages. The
God of nations shook up Japan ard
hurled her against her northern neigh
| Dor until she began to arouse from
| her thirty centuries of sleep. China be-
| gins to move, and the world stands
| aghast. What will be the end? Mar
Vicious possibilities are opening before
| that great people.
! With Turkey it is different. Here we
note a national decadenee, but prom
Using to open up grave possibilities
even in death. Is it the death struggle
or will she again rise almost from
the ashes of her burning, with the evil
| passions oflthe former existence inten-
sifed, or will she die and IN her death
strike off the chains that have bound
her helpless, subject to the dungeon Of
! despair?
Spain, too is in the conflict. 1t seems
| as if the old Latin national life has
been weighed in the balance and found
wanting. Proud Spain has lost her
former glory and power, and she now
meditates upon the lesson she has
learned. The war has not been SPANS
war clone, but the war of the Latin
race with the old Latin civilization IN
conflict with the enlightened Christian,
| political administration of the 10th
century. The struggle still goes on.
We as a nation are in the whirl Of
this great national and international
upheavaf. We, too, are aWakinS from
our sleep of one hundred years, and
are catching our first glimpse of the
fact that we have a duty to perform
| among the nations of the world. Duty,
opportunity, ability, privilege are
heard today above the din of the
roar of our seething, national life. What
does all this mean? Is it the activity
of the nations of the world in their
mad zeal for wealth and power2 1t is
the shaking of the Lord that he may
use the nations in preparation of the
world for world righteousness. Ma
lions are aroused to the fact that in
justice must inevitably work destruc-
ton. Individual intellects are awak-
ened to grasp the deep eternal truths
of the true God.
| Never has there been laid upon the
| Christian Church a responsibility
equaling that of the present hour. Shall
the new Africa be heather Africa?
Shall the new japan, with its splendid
intellect and ambition, remain pagan?
Shall aroused, awakened, mighty China
sweep over the world with her Budd
hSsn, ConfuciAnis1n and immortality
Shall Turkey continue to shock the CIV
ilized world with her crimes, and Spain
! slay with no voice raised in protest?
If this is to be otherwise, the church
of Christ must be alert and with Gag
+ erness, tirelessness and self-sacrifice
carry to these peoples the living Christ.