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Prophets and Kings
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:
For I am God, and there is none else.”
Isaiah 60:1-4, 10, 11
;
45:22
.
These prophecies of a great spiritual awakening in a time of gross
darkness are today meeting fulfillment in the advancing lines of mis-
sion stations that are reaching out into the benighted regions of earth.
The groups of missionaries in heathen lands have been likened by the
prophet to ensigns set up for the guidance of those who are looking
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for the light of truth.
“In that day,” says Isaiah, “there shall be a root of Jesse, which
shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and
His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant
of His people.... And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and
shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed
of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Isaiah 11:10-12
.
The day of deliverance is at hand. “The eyes of the Lord run to and
fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of
them whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
2 Chronicles 16:9
. Among
all nations, kindreds, and tongues, He sees men and women who are
praying for light and knowledge. Their souls are unsatisfied; long have
they fed on ashes. See
Isaiah 44:20
. The enemy of all righteousness
has turned them aside, and they grope as blind men. But they are
honest in heart and desire to learn a better way. Although in the depths
of heathenism, with no knowledge of the written law of God nor of
His Son Jesus, they have revealed in manifold ways the working of a
divine power on mind and character.
At times those who have no knowledge of God aside from that
which they have received under the operations of divine grace have
been kind to His servants, protecting them at the risk of their own lives.
The Holy Spirit is implanting the grace of Christ in the heart of many
a noble seeker after truth, quickening his sympathies contrary to his
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nature, contrary to his former education. The “Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world” (
John 1:9
), is shining in his
soul; and this Light, if heeded, will guide his feet to the kingdom of
God. The prophet Micah said: “When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall