Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1915-09-02

the right objective, and third, it does
not represent the right alignment Of
the nations.
The battle of Armageddon will not
be fought in Europe, but in Asia.
"Har-Magedon," as the revised YER
sion translates 1t, is a mountain ris-
ing up out of the plain Of Esdraelon
In northern Palestine. Great and de-
cisive battles have been fought there
by the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the
%Saracens, and the crusaders, and
here the kings of the prophetic earth
are to be gathered, under the inlu.
ence of lemons working miracles, for
that battle Of the great day of the
Lord God Almighty.
The object of this battle will be the
capture of Jerusalem, when 1t shall
again be restored to the Jews prior to
the second advent of the Messiah on
their behalf; and the nations of the
prophetic earth engaged in 1t will
be those Of the Roman empire fed
Grated again under a secular despot
whom many associate with the anti.
christ. Those nations do not include
Russia, nor do they include Germany
or Austria-Hungary, except in part,
80 that a new alignment Of the nations
seems necessary before that battle.
How far the present European war
may contribute to that new align
ment M cannot say, but so far as it
does so, it may be called a prepare
ton for the battle Of Armageddon.
The End Of the World.
2. That this war cannot mean
that we are neal the end of the world
is indicated in another way. For ex-
ample, all Bible scholars are agreed
that a long period Of peace and right
eousness is to prevail over the earth
before the end comes. From a pass
age in Revelation 20, it is gathered
that it will last a thousand years.
from which it takes the name mil
lennium. This period not having be-
gun as yet, it is clear the end of
the world is at least 1000 years away.
But we may be neal the end of the
age, which is a different matter.
There have been several ages in the
history of the race in which God has
dealt with his people in different
ways; each of these ages ended in a
catastrophe. That Of Eden ended
in the expulsion from the garden.
That following it ended in the flood.
The Mosaic age ended in the crucifix-
ion of our Lord and the dispersion Of
the Jews among the Gentle nations,
where they are today; and it seems
to be the teaching of the Scriptures
that the same will be true of the age
in which we live. The catastrophe
impending Is not one which affects
| the true church which is the body of
Christ, but the protesting church, and
the nations which, having a form Of
godliness are denying the power there
of. The church will escape the ca.
tastrophe by being caught up to meet
the Lord in the air, as 1t is written in
I Thessalonians 4, but that which be-
| falls the false church and the nations
is the battle Of Armageddon and what
is connected with 1t, of which this Eu-
ropean war is so frightful a fore.
runner.
Second Coming Of Christ.
3. The second coming Of Christ
means, of course, his personal in the
sense Of visible reappearing, and as
stated before, so far as the church Is
concerned the event may be very far.
1t is after the church T. caught up to
meet him In the air that the events
%transpire on earth which focus In the
battle of Armageddon. His coming to
the earth means the destruction of
the nations thus headed up in the anti
christ, not in the sense that all their
inhabitants are slain, but that as ne
lions they cease to exist.
The certainty and the imminence Of
our Lords return is a mighty motive
for repentance and faith in his name,
and in the case of those Of us who ere
saved through faith 1t speaks with
equal potency of the necessity for q
holy life.
To quote the language of another,
suppose this titanic conflict among
the nations were the very last event
to occur prior to the Lords coming
for his people to take them out of
such a scene. does 1t not give intense
significance to the words of Paul in
the thirteenth chapter Of his epistle
to the Romans where he says: And
that, knowing the time, that now It is
high time to awake out Of sleep: for
now ia u salvation nearer than
when we believed. The night is far
spent, the day Is at hand: let us there.
fore cast Off the works Of darkness.
and let US put on the armor Of light.
Let us walk honestly, as In the day;
not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
c~hambering and ~wantonness, not In
strife and envying. But put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfill the
lusts thereof"