Alas,
alas, God’s "way of salvation" is almost entirely unknown today, the
nature of Christ’s salvation is almost universally misunderstood, and
the terms of His salvation misrepresented on every hand. The "Gospel"
which is now being proclaimed is, in nine cases out of every ten, but a
perversion of the Truth, and tens of thousands, assured they are bound
for Heaven, are now hastening to Hell, as fast as time can take them.
Things are far, far worse in Christendom than even the "pessimist" and
the "alarmist" suppose. We are not a prophet, nor shall we indulge in
any speculation of what Biblical prophecy forecasts—wiser men than the
writer have often made fools of themselves by so doing. We are frank to
say that we know not what God is about to do. . . . But this we greatly
fear: unless God is pleased to grant a real revival, it will not be
long ere “the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people” (Isaiah 60:2), for the light of the true Gospel is rapidly
disappearing. Modern "Evangelism" constitutes, in our judgment, the
most solemn of all the "signs of the times."
What
must the people of God do in view of the existing situation? Ephesians
5:11 supplies the Divine answer: “Have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,” and everything
opposed to the light of the Word is "darkness." It is the bounden duty
of every Christian to have no dealings with the "evangelistic"
monstrosity of the day: to withhold all moral and financial support of
the same, to attend none of their meetings, to circulate none of their
tracts. Those preachers who tell sinners they may be saved without
forsaking their idols, without repenting, without surrendering to the
Lordship of Christ are as erroneous and dangerous as others who insist
that salvation is by works and that Heaven must be earned by our own
efforts.