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Conditions in the Cities
81
means of glorifying self. They add house to house and land to land;
they fill their homes with luxury, while all about them are human
beings in misery and crime, in disease and death.
By every species of oppression and extortion, men are piling up
colossal fortunes, while the cries of starving humanity are coming up
before God. There are multitudes struggling with poverty, compelled
to labor hard for small wages, unable to secure the barest necessities
of life. Toil and deprivation, with no hope of better things, make
their burden heavy. When pain and sickness are added, the burden is
almost unbearable. Care-worn and oppressed, they know not where
to turn for relief.
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The Scriptures describe the condition of the world just before
Christ’s second coming. James the apostle pictures the greed and
oppression that will prevail. He says: “Go to now, ye rich men....
Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire
of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you
kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped
are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in
pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your
hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the
just; and he doth not resist you.”
James 5:1-6
.
This is a picture of what exists today. “Judgment is turned away
backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth
from evil maketh himself a prey.”
Isaiah 59:14, 15
.
Even the church, which should be the pillar and ground of the
truth, is found encouraging a selfish love of pleasure. When money
is raised for religious purposes, to what means do many churches
resort? To bazaars, suppers, fancy fairs, even to lotteries and like
devices. Often the place set apart for God’s worship is desecrated by
feasting and drinking, buying, selling, and merrymaking. Respect
for the house of God and reverence for His worship are lessened in
the minds of the youth. The barriers of self-restraint are weakened.
Selfishness, appetite, the love of display, are appealed to, and they
strengthen as they are indulged.
From age to age the Lord has made known the manner of His
working. When a crisis has come, He has revealed Himself and has
interposed to hinder the working out of Satan’s plans. With nations,