“The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish: yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.”—ISAIAH LX. 12.
MEN may give different answers to the above question, and assign different causes for the horrible conflict of the nations now proceeding on the continent of Europe. But the real explanation, which lies behind all others, is that furnished by God Himself through the pen of the prophet. The words contain a solemn message for all rulers, but especially at this time for the rulers of the belligerent nations. Never since the first battle was fought on this earth between the opposing factions of the human family has there been such a wastage of national resources as has been proceeding, by land and sea, for the past two-and-a-half years. Blood is being poured out with a ruthlessness, and treasure with a prodigality, which strains and stuns the imagination. “War, that child of hell whom angry heavens make their minister,” has never before exhibited his horrors to such an appalling degree. The vastness of the tragedy almost paralyses thought.
One result of this conflict of the nations has been the revival of the study of geography. Many a town and river and hill on the continent, hitherto unknown or little known, has assumed prominence and an interest it never had before, and is traced on the map with the utmost care. Another result has been an increased interest among Christians in the Old Testament scriptures. Many a historic and prophetic chapter of the Old Book has assumed a new significance and brought a new message to the child of God in these days of stress and anxiety. The prophetic utterance of the text is one of these portions. In it He who is the Prince of the kings of the earth pronounces the doom not merely of those nations who oppose or neglect His claims, but of those who refuse to serve Him and seek to promote the interests of His cause and kingdom and to acknowledge His authority in their national capacity. Such disobedient and rebellious nations “shall be utterly wasted.” This is both a prediction uttered concerning them and a sentence passed upon them.
1. The disobedient and rebellious nation which refuses to serve God is sure to be utterly wasted, because He who cannot lie has said so.
“God is not man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Man may speak in ignorance or in folly, and on more mature deliberation change his mind and refrain from executing his purpose. Or he may speak in weakness, and the event prove that he is unable to accomplish his design. But none of these contingencies can affect the unchanging word or purpose of God, who is infinite in wisdom and power. “His truth endureth to all generations.” Hence the nation that refuses to serve Him and obey His law—however strong, whatever be the extent of its resources or the multitude of its armies—is sure to be “utterly wasted.”
2. The nation which refuses submission to the authority of God and withholds its service from His cause will be utterly wasted, because there is no punishment for rebellious nations, as such, hereafter.
The disobedient and rebellious citizen may escape punishment in this world, because there is a judgment-seat before which he must appear in the world to come. “For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” Such is the description we have in the Word of God of the final judgment. That dread tribunal is for man in his individual, not in his corporate, capacity. If a nation sins as a nation it must be punished for its national offences in this world. It cannot hope for a postponement of the day of retribution. He who is the Prince of the kings of the earth may bear long with such a nation. He may utter many warnings and bring many chastisements, but if it still refuses to serve Him it will be finally overthrown by His terrible judgments, and its place and power will be given to another people. “And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say, every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have worshipped other gods and served them” (Jeremiah xxii. 8).
3. The solemn truth that the nation which refuses submission and service to God will perish utterly is verified by the doom which has overtaken the rebellious nations of the past.
This is not only a truth of Scripture, it is a fact of history. Egypt at one time served God by providing bread and a home for His people in the days of famine. But by-and-by it began to serve itself by the oppression of His people. In rebellion and insolence the king demanded, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” Then the nation was plagued, her first-born were slain, and ultimately her armies perished in the sea. Egypt has been ever since the hunting ground for the other nations of the earth in their turn.
The Canaanites served their idols instead of God, and, though they were borne with till their iniquity was full, they were at last utterly wasted by the sword of Israel. Their land, which they had defiled, spued them out.
Babylon was one of the greatest nations of antiquity. Herodotus tells us that its capital had a circumference of seventy-five miles; that it was surrounded by a wall two hundred cubits high, and so broad that two war chariots, each harnessed with four horses abreast, could easily pass each other upon it; that one hundred gates of brass formed the entrances to the city; that its streets were 150 feet broad, and its houses were four storeys in height; while its gardens made it the praise of the whole earth. But Babylon refused in its pride to serve God, and it ultimately became a heap of ruins from which the modern archæologist exhumes the mouldy remains of its long-departed magnificence.
The Jews not only refused to serve the Lord, but in the days of His flesh rejected and crucified Him, and for over nineteen centuries, though nationality has been stamped upon them, they have remained without a nation.
Imperial Rome, the subjugator and moulder of the nations, whose victorious legions were once the terror of the world, and whose Emperors gave names to the months of the year, refused to recognise the claims of God, and Rome declined and fell.
In more modern times Spain, which once commanded the seas and planted her colonies in the uttermost parts of the earth, rejected the claims of God, becoming the home of the Inquisition, and shedding the blood of the saints. Spain has been weakened, and wasted, and stripped of her colonies.
But never before in the history of the world has this ominous prediction of the prophet received such a tragic fulfilment as in the case of the nations now at war. The Central Powers of Europe have long since repudiated the claims of God as well as the rights of humanity. Turkey has worshipped the sword and the assassin. Austria has exalted the tyrant, and bowed to the Anti-Christ. That might is right is the national creed of Germany: her god is militarism, and her ambition a world-wide empire. Her philosophers have sought to expel God from His universe, and her theologians have striven to eliminate the supernatural from His word. Her rulers, if they acknowledge God at all, would take Him by force and make Him not their king, but their servant. The wasting process has set in. It has come upon them at their own invitation, and the whole military situation to-day indicates that it will continue to the point of exhaustion. Though the Allies themselves will be wasted in applying the process, the Central Powers will be “utterly wasted” when it is completed.
Where does Britain stand to-day with regard to the doom of rebellious nations—Britain, which was once bound in solemn covenant to the service of the Lord? For generations Britain, with all her faults, has done for the world what no other nation could or would do. Hence the Messenger of the nations has made her rich and strong, expanding her empire until it encircles the globe. But, should Britain cease to be a blessing, or should she become a curse to the other nations of the earth, she must, sooner or later, resign to another her dominant place, and be relegated to the derelict Powers of the past. Instead of recognising the claims of God our Government has for years been yielding to the demands of the Papacy. At the bidding of the Papal representatives in Parliament, when our present King came to the throne, our national testimony against the idolatry of the Mass was removed from the Coronation Oath. Maynooth College, which has been described by a prominent Roman Catholic writer as “a hatchery of treason,” has been financed from the British Exchequer. Under the late Chief Secretary in Ireland the control of three-fourths of the educational institutions of the country was handed over to those who were the avowed enemies of England, the teaching staff in these being salaried to train in treason the youth of the country. Some of the evil fruits of this policy were reaped in the recent rebellion.
Yet many people in England were astonished to find so many youths among the rebels, forgetting that they themselves had contributed to their training. But the crowning act of apostacy was reached on the 11th December, 1914, when an envoy was secretly appointed to the Vatican, at a salary of £3,600 a year, with expenses. This was not only a recognition of the seat of blasphemy by our Government, but was also a violation of the British Constitution. The Bill of Rights forbids the King, under penalty of the forfeiture of his throne, “to have any communion with the See or Church of Rome.”
It is not only the Papacy that Britain has been serving. Mohammedanism has now been practically endowed in Egypt and Brahminism in India. The Pantheon, which imperial Rome erected before the days of her decline, has been re-erected on a more extensive scale in the British Empire. Godlessness pervades the whole social and political fabric. By the State and municipality the divine law has been systematically violated. In both, thousands are induced and hundreds compelled to violate the sanctity of the Sabbath by working during its sacred hours. In a large measure “gain” has become the god of the merchant and the manufacturer. The tax on war profits last year, claimed by the State, amounted to some £78,000,000. Such is the disposition to prey upon the necessities and agonies of the nation.
In our capital city only one person in five attends the house of God on the Sabbath. Our late Queen is reported to have said that the Bible was the secret of England’s greatness; yet we only spend £202,000 annually on the circulation of the Scriptures, while our national devotion to football is represented by the sum of £7,000,000 ; to the theatre, by £16,000,000 ; to gambling, by £50,000,000 ; and to strong drink, although it is daily hindering us in the war, our devotion is represented by the sum of £166,000,000 !
It may well be asked, “Can God make us victorious without condoning our iniquities?” The wasting process has now been proceeding for two years and a half. Our treasure is being poured out at the rate of £5,700,000 a day, and the best of our manhood are going to death by the thousand. Our shipping is being gradually sunk in the seas. No wonder that some of our naval and military leaders recognise the Hand of God in this War, chastising us for our national sins, and are eagerly looking for national repentance as the sure harbinger of peace and victory. Sir David Beatty wrote from his ship in the North Sea, “When religious revival takes place at home then we can begin to count the days towards the end of the War.”
How long will a rebellious nation refuse these tokens of success to our brave forces who face the enemy by sea and by land? How long will it rebel and expose itself to the wastage of War? The gracious promise is : “If my people, which are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways : then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron. vii. 14).
“Now therefore, kings, be wise : be taught,
Ye judges of the earth.
Serve God in fear and see that ye
Join trembling with your mirth.
Kiss ye the Son, lest in His ire,
Ye perish from the way,
If once His wrath begin to burn :
Bless’d all that on Him stay.”
* A friend has sent us this instructive discourse by the Rev. E. Teaz. Free Presbyterians going to Liverpool would be well advised to take note of the address of the Reformed Presbyterian Church there.—E.D.