Missionary alliance 1888.pdf - DSpace

22 INTER.8E~[[NARY MIssIONARY AJ~LTANCE .we speak did not embrace aU human interests; that this contest betweengood and evil, whlle it involved politics and social life, and educationaland industrial in~erests, was especially waged for souls; thatwhile other things must be affected incidentally, they did not comedefinitely within the plan of salvation. Now it seems to me that wehold but half the faith of revelation, and clip the wings of the church'saspirations, and sever the cords of her energies the instant we concedethat all the!:ie vast concerns, which, from the very nature of things,belong to human life and center in human society, are to be left underthe dominion of the evil one. If I understand this revelation, thatworld crisis was world-wide in its sweep. The contest was not alonefor soul mastery but ,ooTid mastery. The redemption Jesus wroughtwas not soul redempti0n merely but world redemption. The divinepurpose was Dot to snatch a soul here and there from amid this worldruinbut, by a mighty revolution that should reach to every concern ofworld-life, to extend the dominion of righteousness till it was aU-embracing.It is a great and blessed thing, my young brethren, to go forthin Christ's name with the expectation of winning souls, but oh! itthrills me with unutterable hope and joy to realize that at the sametime he is moving out to a world, conquest, that shall yet restore the lostdominions to the eternal king, and place on that brow that was tornwith thorns the crown of universal empire, and place in that hand thatwas pierced an universal scepter and wake the song that shall rollround the .arth and fill the heavens: " The kingdoms of this world arebecome the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Let us try totake in the len~h and breadth and the depth and height of this mightyenterprIse. It IS more than the conversion of souJs. That would be~orth all effort and sacrifice, it would seem, to bring a Jost and doomedImmortal out from under the eurse up into right relations to its G dand fit it for a place. in heaven before the throne j but it is more thOa~that, vastly more, thiS work of ours, for it is to lift a race a wo ld 'II'ts ' r, Ina . I vast concerns, and make it the kingdom of God . W'th I ou t enterlD~ upon a formal discu,sion ~f this point I shall content myself andtax your patIence with but ,a slDgle incident, which shan be both 81' u-ment and IllustratIOn, as It IS both prophecy and h 'lst ory. AI most two gand,a halfNthousand years ago there reigned at Babylon a mIg' hty sovereIgn,ebuchadnezz~r by name, We go back' th hthese twenty-five centuries and find ourselves in glrn t °Bugb tl across'fi ' ea a y on themost magm cent CIty of earth. We are in the palace.It is of htWe pass the guards and enter the bed chamber of the I . k~'There lies the man that rules the world' that head s ehepm g 109,. I ' wears t e crown ofUDlversa empire; that,limp right hand sways a scepter wh'Ich command 8 a b so Iute obedience throughout one hundred d, B an twenty andseven provlDces. ut see! the king starts· he drea H ''ts h If . I . ,ms, e rtses andBI a nprtght n hIS bed, His right hand clutchesasforh'IS scepter,TIlE WORLD CltISIS. 23while his left hand is lifted to his head as though feeling for his crown.H is brows contract wit h mighty thoughts that are crowding his brain,while his bosom heaves as though a whole cohort of terrorB weretra.mping through his soul; he moaos a.nd is in agony,8s a sovereignwhose k ingdom was dissolving and who saw his palace and hiB thronein ruins and himself dethroned, a crushed and conquered, helplessman. H e awakes, H e starts and stares and clasps bis hands to hisfevered brow as one awaking from a frightful dream. IIe calls hiscourtiers and bids them summon without delay all the wise men ofBabylon. And now there is hurrying to and fro through all the Btreetsof that glorious capital, the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and ChaIdeansare summoned to the palace, and bow themselves into the augustpresence of the mighty monarch. T he king declares to them that hehas had a dream, a dreadful dream, and dem ands that they tell himwh at it was and its interpretation. for it has escaped his memory, Theyask to know t he dream and promise to interpret it. But no, he cannotrecall it, The thing has gooe from him; and he rightly j udges that ifthey can interpret dreams they should be able to tell the dream itself,He tells them they must give him both dream and interpretation, or dieas a set of impostors. They protest; "the king demands an unheard ofthing. No king had ever demanded the like." Bnt Nebuchadnezzar isunrelenting and drives them from his presence under sentence of death.T he decree has gone forth ; " all the wise men of Babylon must die."Now among the wise men of Babylon were four young H ebrews, Danieland his companions. As Arioch, the chief murderer of the king's guardgoes about in preparation for this wholesale slaughter of the wise men,he meets Daniel on the street. These two men were fast friends. Danielmarked the expression of confusion and distress on the countenanceof bis friend Arioch. and inquired its cause and import. H aving learnedthe frightful facts of the case, and getting a brief respite from the swiftand murderous decree, he sought his fellows and w ith them invokedthe interposition of heaven, and sought, and in a visionof the night, learned from God the dream and its interpretation,Then springing from his couch with a burst of thanksgiving and shoutof jor, he repaired at once to the palace, lIe is h astily brought intothe presence of the sleepless, agitated sovereign, W ith an ascription ofall the honor of his knowledge and discovery to the God of heaven, heat once begins, "Thou, 0 king, sawest and beheld a great image,"- 8ndthe king's countenance lights up like thE" countena.nce of one who, rostin the darkness, gets the points of the compass by the first streaks ofmorning dawn. Daniel goes on. " This image, which was mighty, andwhose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the aspect thereofwas terrible," Then, as he describes th e image with head of gold,and breast and arms of silver, the lower parts of the body and the thigbsof brass, the legs of iron, the feet partly of iron and partly of clay, the