My Witnesses

"YE are my witnesses, saith the Lord." He says this to his people; and these witnesses he has had through all the rebellious ages of this world's history. The deeper the darkness of the age, the brighter has shone the light of God's truth in the lives of his followers. And he has never suffered himself to be outdone. He has matched evil with goodness every time. In the ages of the most fearful apostasy, some have ever been found who felt it incumbent on them to be as pre-eminently good as the servants of sin were pre-eminently wicked.

Noah among the antediluvians, Lot among the Sodomites, Ahijah in the days of Jeroboam, and Elijah in the days of Ahab, appear as notable examples.

The earth was full of violence, when Noah stood out in brilliant contrast with the dark background, as righteous before God. The wickedness of the Sodomites was such that God through his judgments made them an example to all who should after live ungodly, when Lot vexed his soul with their filthy words and unlawful acts. And the sinfulness of the age of Jeroboam and Ahab was such, that the lives of Ahijah and Elijah stand out as striking examples of godliness and virtue.

To realize the full wickedness of Jeroboam and the moral darkness that prevailed during the period of his reign, one must carefully read the record of his rebellious deeds, the frequent reference made throughout the Scriptures to him as a leader in sin, and the terrible denunciation of God's wrath against his iniquity. God expressly gave him the opportunity of following him. A prophet of the Lord announced to him his future sovereignty over the ten tribes which should revolt from the house of David, and promised him that if he would walk in the way of the Lord's commandments, his throne should be made sure like the throne of David. What a magnificent opportunity was presented before him. But he turned from it. Selfish considerations took supreme possession of his soul. He turned to idolatry. A powerful ruler of ten of the twelve tribes, he turned the people also into idolatry. He caused Israel to sin. He cast God behind his back, so that, God testified of him that he had done iniquity above all that were before him, and determined in righteous indignation to root his house and posterity from the land of the living.

A fearful tide of apostasy thus swept over Israel. A monster of iniquity has the control of affairs. Will all be carried away by this flood of evil? Where are God's witnesses? Where are his agents to match this work of the enemy? Suddenly they appeared. A "man of God," we read, testified against the king, and Abijah the prophet, the same who announced his elevation to the throne, announced his utter overthrow and rejection for all the iniquities which he had committed. Thus God had servants who were true to him and filled with his power; and the light of their life relieved in a measure the surrounding darkness.

But that age of rebellion and apostasy went still deeper into sin. Soon Ahab appeared upon the throne of Israel; and wicked as Israel had been, wicked as Jeroboam had been, it is recorded of Ahab that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him," and that he "did more to provoke the God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him."

To match this monument of wickedness, as a witness for God's truth and an instrument of his power, appeared the illustrious prophet of Heaven, Elijah, towering, as a man of God, above the ordinary level of saints and righteous men, as Ahab towered above the masses of sinners, as an embodiment of iniquity and evil.

And thus it has been in every age. When the enemy has worked, God has worked. Evil has not been able to surpass the good. Whenever the enemy has put upon the stage a prime minister of sin, God has raised up servants of his own as eminent for righteousness and virtue as the former for corruption and crime. And as it has been, we may expect it will be.

Reader, do these thoughts suggest further comparison and present duty? How is it at the present time? Will it not be in these days as it ever has been? Does not God design to have living examples of his righteousness and truth, equal to the development of iniquity and evil in these days? But we all know that the last days are to be days of surpassing wickedness. Evil men and seducers are to wax worse and worse. Sin is to run riot, and the world be swallowed up in floods of unprecedented wickedness. What then may we, on the other hand, expect? That God will have a people eminent for piety and holy living. Who will they be? Those to whom he has committed his truth; those who are called out to look and prepare for his coming and kingdom. Do we, then, come up to the standard? Are we endeavoring to live as holy lives as the wicked around us are living abandoned ones? As the world is growing worse are we growing better? We must be doing this if we would be among his chosen ones at last.

To maintain the required standard of purity and devotion is our privilege, for God has promised all needed help; it is our duty, for God requires it; and it is our necessity, for without it we fail of Heaven at last