it of humility and devotion in the church had given place
to pride and formalism, love for Christ and faith in His coming had grown
cold. Absorbed in worldliness and pleasure-seeking, the professed people
of God were blinded to the Saviour's instructions concerning the signs of
His appearing. The doctrine of the second advent had been neglected; the
scriptures relating to it were obscured by misinterpretation, until it
was, to a great extent, ignored and forgotten. Especially was this the
case in the churches of America. The freedom and comfort enjoyed by all
classes of society, the ambitious desire for wealth and luxury, begetting
an absorbing devotion to money-making, the eager rush for popularity and
power, which seemed to be within the reach of all, led men to center their
interests and hopes on the things of this life, and to put far in the
future that solemn day when the present order of things should pass away.

When the Saviour pointed out to His followers the signs of His return, He
foretold the state of backsliding that would exist just prior to His
second advent. There would be, as in the days of Noah, the activity and
stir of worldly business and pleasure-seeking--buying, selling, planting,
building, marrying, and giving in marriage--with forgetfulness of God and
the future life. For those living at this time, Christ's admonition is:
"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come
upon you unawares." "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be
accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of man."(491)

The condition of the church at this time is pointed out in the Saviour's
words in the Revelation, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art
dead."(492) And to those who refuse to arouse from their careless
security, the solemn warning is addressed, "If therefore thou shalt not
watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I
will come upon thee."(493)

It was needful that men should be awakened to their danger; that they
should be roused to prepare for the solemn events connected with the close
of probation. The prophet of God declares: "The day of the Lord is great
and very terrible; and who can abide it?" Who shall stand when He
appeareth who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," and cannot "look on
iniquity"?(494) To