wherein the heavens being on FIRE shall be dissolved, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up.” Our Adventist friends say that {his
is a lileral,five; but there is nothing in the Apostle Peter’s statement to show
whether this tjre is a literal or symbolic. In order to learn nhat the Scriptures
say on the subject we must “compare Scriptuse with Scripture”: and by so do-
ing we shall see that it is NOT a literalfire, but a symbolic “fire.” The Presi-
dent of the United States, when referring to the angry exhibition of passion by
the nations at war and to the unrest of labor in general, employed this apt
Scripture phase, “The World’s on Fire.”
To illustrate: You have perhaps heard some one say, “It is getting hotter and
hotter between Capital and Labor!” Yes, the friction is increasing, and soon it
will burst into flame. So we should understand the Apostle Peter’s statement,
“The ELEMENTS shall melt with fervent heat”-the elements comprising this
present “world” or order of things, the present arrangement of society. What
are the “elements” that compose society? The rich element and the poor ele-
ment, the Capital and Labor elements, political, financial and religious ele-
ments. All these shall disintegrate, MELT, in this “day of the Lord,” as il is
elsewhere called.
But some say that such things have always been; that there have always been
financial, religious and social troubles, and that those coming will be no differ-
ent from those that are past. The Prophet Daniel, however, did not so express
it. He said that the Time of Trouble which is coming in our day will be such as
“never was since there was a nation, even to that same time”; and our Lord
adds, “No, nor ever shall be.” (Dan. 12:l; Matt. 24:21) The troublc that is
coming, and to some extent is already here, will not be an ordinary trouble.
When the Word of the Lord says that it will be a trouble such as never was
BEFORE, and never will be afterward, we may know that it WlLL he so. Is
there not all about us every indication that this trouble is beginning now, in
which the elements of society shall melt with fervent heat? We have reached
new and peculiar conditions.
These peculiar conditions are not found merely in one nation, nor in a small
comer of a nation. They are world-wide, and are becoming more and more
frequent in their recurrence. The present terrible war was long ago foretold in
Scripture (Jer. 25:15-38; Joel 3:9-13) and will be followed by revolution, then
by anarchy. The Word of the Lord assures us that before the end all the king-
doms of the world shall be thrown down (Hag. 222; Dan. 2:44); for the Lord
“will judge among the nations.” (Psa. 110:6.) This is the Day of the Lord’s
reckoning It is the Day in which it will be said of some, “Ye have heaped
treasure together for the last days.” (James 5:3) From the expression one
would think that this was written by one living in the present time, and familiar
with the trend of events as we see them. But who wrote it? St. James, eighteen
hundred years ago. And he goes on to say, “Behold the hire of the laboren
who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth;