The Tupelo journal., 1904-07-15

nI HE day of the Lord is near" how
i near no one can know. God guards
His secrets well. God does not mark on
mans calendar the time of His move
ments, but He does tell us that the day
of the Lord is near" God does not reck-
on time as does With him a thou
sand years are as one day and one day as
a thousand years" The sun in its course
counts off the days and weeks and
months and years as reckoned by man,
and the day of the Lord draws nearer and
nearer. We know that it is nearer by
several thousand years than it was when
the prophet Joel uttered the words of our
text. Yea, and as the judgment of the
Lord has fallen upon the individual ma
lions successfully since that day the
world has witnessed a sort of minor full
fillment of the prophecy, which gives a
faint but convincing proof of the greater
and more awful day to come. There is
the same spirit of unbelief abroad in the
world to-day as there was in the days
when Noah warned of the coming judg-
ment of God in the flood. Jesus made
solemn reference to this when He said:
LAS in those days which were before the
flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving In marriage, until
the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and they knew not until the flood came,
and took them all away; so shall be the
coming of the Son of Man" Careless in
difference and stubborn unbelief blind
the world to the truth. Either there is
hardness of heart which refuses to be-
lieve that the Lords day" is coming at
all. or there is that fatal folly which finds
comfort and encouragement in it's sin
by saying: MY Lord delayeth His COM
ing" Injustice and oppression mark the
relation of man to man; the qualification
OF every appetite and desire and lust is
sought with feyerish and persistent eff
fort: the human will and heart run riot
in the life. Man is having his day" to
the fill, but, know ye! 'the Lord shall
come in a day when he expecteth not.
and in an hour when he knoweth not"
sThe day of the Lord is near!"
THERE is a sense in which every day
i is the Lords DAY. God cannot be
crowded out of His world, ever though
the world has plainly declared that it
will not have Him rule owe it. God is
moving in the midst of men to-day in a
mysterious way His plans to execute and
His wonders to perform. 1t is the Lords
day in the sense that God is surely and
steadily executing the plan of the ages.
1t is the Lords day in that He is near to
them that fear Him and serve Him. 1t is
the Lords day in that all the universe
is upheld by His omnipotence and di-
rected by His omniscience. 1t is the
Lords day while nature responds to His
touch and life is vibrant everywhere.
But the present day is not the Lord's day
in the sense that He rules supreme. The
will of man is athwart the will of God;
the heart OF man is turned from the Gre
ator to the creature and the things which
appeal to the physical life and the lower
animal nature. 1t is mans day in the
sense that he may choose good or evil;
NAV serve God or self. 1t is mans day,
because upon him has been bestowed the
freedom of choice. His will is supreme.
Within the limits of the human sphere
he may think as he wishes, do as he
pleases, and go and come as the purpose
of life or the fancy of the moment dc
tates. He does not ask Of God whether