The Inner Life

BRETHREN, I beseech you that you stand fast in the faith, knowing that the Great All-in-All does not sleep, neither does he forget his own.

Therefore, when you say that you have been betrayed by those set in authority over you, who have forsaken the paths set for them by their fathers and have gone forth seeking strange gods, does it matter?

When you complain that there are those among you who dream of making themselves great and powerful and would sell you in bondage to the AntiChrist, forget not that the Christ himself was carried up to the top of a high mountain and offered dominion over all things. If lesser men have failed in their trusts, can it upset the fact that Christ will rule?

When you complain that those whom ye have set over you to minister to your spiritual needs have dealt deceitfully with you; when you see the blind leading the blind, and the majority of mankind headed toward destruction; when you see these things and men revile you for trying to wake them, does it matter?

When you see all manner of vileness and crimes done, when you see men dying like flies, and nations crumbling from rottenness, when you see men suffering and crazed with the things which destroy them, know that these things and worse must come to pass before the world is purged.

When you look and see the folly of the rulers of mankind and the evil and sins of the people under them, the lying and uncleanness, the stealing, the cowardice and cruelty; when you see their hearts failing them and things look hopeless, are you dismayed?

All these things must come to pass before the world can be cleansed and the accumulated evil removed therefrom.

How can God make all things new and leave the old?

Therefore, hath not the Master—even Christ—said that all these things must come to pass before His Kingdom can come? Hath He not said that when you see all these things come to pass, to look up, for your redemption draweth nigh? Verily I say unto you, these very seeming evils are but a proof of His promises. Again I ask you if knowing that He is to come and establish all things new and in righteousness, even as He hath promised aforetime—DOES it matter what prevails for a little moment?