THE QUIET HOUR

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 33, 9 February 1929, Page 8

THE QUIET HOUR

SUNDAY READING.

THE MARVELS OF OUR MODERN AGE.

(By Pastor L. R. Harvey.)

There is no period of human history comparable to the present. All the, faculties of the human mind have been sharpened and developed to an astonishing degree during very recent years. The age in Avhich Ave live is unique, different', wonderful. Other ages have equalled it in courage, in feats of valour, in Avar; but no age can be compared to it in knOAV-

ledge, invention, transportation, ami dh semination of intelligence. For nearly sixty centuries, from the beginning of the world until a century, and a-quarter ago, the human race carried on its affairs in just about the same way as that AVith which it started. The workmen did they accomplished either with their hands, or Avith some crude, rough implement's or Equipment. When men fought they used primitive weapons of Avarfare. When they builded, it was with the simplest kinds of material and methods. When they travelled, they either Avent afoot, or on the back of some beast of burden, or in some crude cart. Their tastes were primitive; their wants were few and easily supplied; their comforts were scanty; their conveniences were limited.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Go back a hundred years. We scarcely know how to live. All the comfort's and conveniences are gone. There is no telephone, or telegraph to use, and every mail delivery is slow and uncertain. There are n'o electric cars, no subways, nor elevated trains, no steam boats, no airplanes,' G not even a cable car; in fact, not a horse car, and the buggy is the very datest and most' up-to-date method of rapid transportation. there are no electric lights, no illuminating ggs, not -even a kerosene lamp. It is the old tallow candle we depend upon for light. And we don’t need much light, for it is the custom to go to bed soon after sunset.

There., are no phonographs, and nfdio broadcasting is incredible and unthought of.

There is no sewing machine, no reaper, no thresher, -no farm machinery, no electric sweeper, no electjric irons. (Hlouse work and fanh work are done by hand. There are n 0 India-rubber goods. There are no* phonographs, no cameras. There are no newspapers as we kn'ow them. Such a thing as the wonderful adtuple web-pcr-fecting printing press, which prints, pastes, cuts, folds, and counts newspapers at the rate of 95,000 ah hour, 0 r 1000 a minute, is hot dreamed of.

There is no pasteurizing or any knowledge of its need. There is no k'onwledge of microbes, or disease germs. There is no sanitary plumbpig, no use of anasthetics in sui gery, And the list might go on and on. 1 wonder whether we could live in such a world as that? the marvels oe our time. The wonders and marvels of our age are so common to us that we seldom stop to consider how recently these things have all come into use. It seems almost as if the human race had been in a sleep for nearly sixty centuries, and then a little more than a century ago had been awakened to intense acth ity. In the realm of science and invention, human ingenuity has done more during the past century than m all IJie centuries which went\ before, and our attitude is one which leads us to expect anything at all and be I surprised at nothing. Our fathers and grandfathers, some of them, believed) in their days that human progress had reached its limit. An interesting illustration of this is given in the “Scientific American” of October 16, 1915. “Some one pouring over the old files in the United States Patent Office at Washington the other day found a letter written in 1833 that illustrates the ( limitations of the human imagiuaI ti'on.

“It was from an old employee of the Patent Office, offerings his resignation to the head of the department. His reason Jwas" tfiat as everything inventible had been invented, the Patent Office would soon he discontinued, and there would be no further need of his services. He, therefore, decided to leave before the blow fell.” THE WORLD JUST ONE-TENTH OF A SECOND WIDE. Millions of people now sit at home with head-phones on, or, before loud speakers, and twirl little black dials in 'order to mine the air for something worth while, as men mine the earth for precious metals. Millions of pcjople can sit! in 'their homes and hear the audible voice of one man. Speaking of the possibilities of this wonderful invention, French Strother, in “World's Work” for April, 1922, writes:

“This world is not just one-tenth of a second wide. Wireless has done it. Man has touched the ether waves. At last the world is one chamber. . . If the inventions of

present daily use had been in existence in their time, Robinson Ciusoe on his lonely island, Columbus, in his caraval, Gorsar in Britain, oven Dante in the remotest hell, could have heard the gossip of London, the wither rep'ort of Genoa, the chariot racing results in Rome.” What possibilities are here opened up for the gospel of our Lord! In a way undreamed of hitherto and independent of weather conditions and transportation facilities, the seed of truth may reach untold millions at the very poles of the Avorld. The burning sands of Sahara, the frozen steppes of Siberia, the jungle fastnesses of India, the inaccessible gicirges of the Himalayas, the serene calm of the mountain shepherd in his hut, as well as the groups of men and women on the far-flung oceans, could be put in touch with Christ’s truth instantaneously, for the wireless leaps over all barriers of time and space.

WHAT DO THESE THINGS MEANS

It is not my purpose, however, in calling attention to these things, to arouse in the reader merely a sense of wonder, but rather to raise the queAJon: “What do these things mean?” It is the significance of qhese wonders which concerns me, and which I would have .concern you.

Why is it, then, that' these amazing developments, these wonderful time-and-labour-saving devices, have all come in our day? Why is it that they have been crowded into the past century? Here is contained a lesson for all the world. Here is a sign from G'od Himself. Prophecy us being rapidly and wonderfully fulfilled.

THE TIME OF THE EO.

This is the prophecy

“But thou. 0 Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Daniel 12.4.

Here Daniel is instructed to seal his writings until a future time called “the time of the end.” On this “time of the end” his writings, and, indeed, the great Bible prophecies, would be unsealed, made known, disclosed, and disseminated widely over the earth. For this purpose “knowledge shall be increased,” and “many shall run to and fro.” “The time of the end” is not the end of time; that is, it is not the end itself, it is a short time pre-ceding-the end. 'There is to be, just before Jesus returns,, a time during which Daniel’s prophecy is to be made plain, is to be preached m all the earth, to acquaint men with the importance of the time in which they live, and prepare them to meet their Lord when He comes. r ihis < is here called “the time of the end.” This time is to be known by two things; it is to be a time of unprecedented increase in knowledge, and it is to be a time of unparalleled running to and fro.

All this has been witnessed during the last century and a quarter. The London Tract Society was organised jn 1799; The British and Foreign Society in 1S04; The American Bible Society in 1816; The American Tract Society in 1825. The Bible has been printed in nearly 800 languages and dialects, and nearly 800,000 000 copies of it, in whole or in part, have been distributed over all the earth Schools are everywhere, and seminaries for the deaf, dumb, and blind. ' There is no mistake here. e time pointed forward to by Daniel is the time in which we live. Everything called for by his prophecy has been fulfilled. Knowledge has b een increased most marvellously. This is one of the great signs of the return of Jesus.