New Britain herald., 1917-05-21
CHRIST ID RETURN
 SOON SAYS PASTOR
War Only One Sign of Fulfill
 ment Of PrOphesies

At the Peoples church last night;
 Pastor Hartman preached his sekond;
 sermon in the "War and ProphScy",,
 series, his topic being .Is Jesus Christ ! really coming back to this world? ?"
 A good congregation had assembled.
 The preacher reminded them of the
 interest in prophetic matters occa-
 stoned by the war; stated his convic-
 tion that while the war is not full
 fllment of any specific prophecy, 1t
 is yet at least partially fulfilling many
 specific prophecies. and promised to
 point out the most striking of these
 when he breaches his sermon on
 Signs of the Times" which he had
 to put aside last Sunday night for
 more pressing discussion of Anglo
 1srael." The prophecy nation shall
 rise against nation. and kingdom
 against Kingdom" he said was being
 frightfully fulfilled. also this: "upon
 the earth distress of nations with per- fear and for looking after those things 1 which are coming on the earth.'' The preacher then addressed him. 1 self to the theme of the evening, and 1 answered the question in the affirm l ative: "Yes, Jesus Christ is really
 coming back for this reason: God says so in the strongest and clearest terms; three hundred and more times it is referred to in the New Testa- ment, almost as many times as all the other great doctrines put to- gether. Here is one text which shows that He is coming: For the 1 Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
 of the archangel and the trumpet of God That ought to be enough. And it can't mean death. or the de-
 scent of the Holy Spirit. or the de-
 struction of Jerusalem or any of the other things which men say His sec- ond coming is; for this text is ac- companied with the statement that statement that with His coming the
 dead in Christ shall rise.' No resur-
 rection accompanied those events.
 And that 1t is to be literal and per-
 sonal is proved by this: This same Jesus, which Is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven words uttered by angels at His ascension. Nobody denies the lit. eralnees of the ascension: how can they deny the literalness of His re- turn? But He must come back to finish the promised redemption of the world
 from all sin. Nothing else will meet
 the need. He came in grace and
 they spat upon Him nd despised Him.
 He came in weakness and they crucd-I ]
 fied{ Him. When He comes again He will come in power and bring an uas willing world to His feet. sWherefore God hath highly. exalted Him. and given Him a name that is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bows-in heaven and earth and hell-and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus
 Christ is Lord That" said the
 preacher with emphasis, must come
 to pass. And there is no sign of its
 coming to pass in the days of grace:
 judgement must come to accomplish
 that. Not willingly will all confess
 His name. They therefore must do
 it unwillingly. There is no power visible to bring that to pass. While
 Gods true children are signing and crying to God, hungry to know Him better, growing better if you please. the bulk of protesting Christians are in the grip of great apostasy, of
 which I shall speak in another ser mon And as to the world. there was never so much or the C0WecsOI! Babel spirit in the world as now, never so much vaunting of human l smartness and scientific greatness and even goodness-this in spite of the collapse of civilization which this great world war 1 has brought. One would think there would be an end of boosting, but there Is not. And this will go l on until Christ shall rise and take to Himself His great power and come and use 1t, and rule the nations with 1 rod of from till sin has hidden its 1 head. and a righteous reign of a
 thousand years-happy for those who | love righteousness-be set up"
 When He Is to come the preacher declared that no man knows, but 1 that 1t will be soon he believes. He told of the blind boy flying kite on London bridge, and pr. Norman l Mcleod asked him how he know there was a kite up there. since he could not see 1t; to which the boy | replied: II feels the. tug of it. And the preacher asserted that aside from the signs of the times' in the war, many are feeling the tug that an- nounces His soon return.