Sunday, October 24, 2021

Spirit of French Revolution Grips Planet in Post 1844 Homestretch

"In the books both of Daniel and the Revelation distinct reference is made to that abnormal national experience known as "The French Revolution." (See Daniel 11:36-39; Revelation 11:7-10).
 
The time when the principles of irreligion and infidelity were given full opportunity to bud and blossom and bear fruit, that all the world might judge of their nature; when men were left to show to what deeds of darkness the carnal heart would lead, unrestrained by any principles of righteousness and truth, was most appropriately noted in prophecy. 
---And the descriptions given of the character of the last days by the
same pen of inspiration, are such as to show that the masses will then fall, to a large extent, if not wholly, under the same principles of evil. While such is the representation of prophecy, it is a serious question in many minds whether the preliminary stages of this condition of things are not already appearing before our eyes, and if we may not now be on the threshold of one of those eras wherein "history repeats itself " in its worst forms. 
 
The wisest of men has said, "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished." (Proverbs 22:3
Noah was not an alarmist when he warned the world of the approaching catastrophe of the flood: nor Lot, when he warned the Sodomites that an all-devastating storm of fire was hanging over their doomed city; nor our Lord, when he foretold the utter destruction of Jerusalem, and gave his people directions how to escape it. 
---Let us not be diverted from the real situation by the cry of "alarmist," nor think that there can be no danger because all do not see it; for St. Paul has warned us that "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them." (1 Thessalonians 5:3).
 
1. Spiritualism. -- Says Samuel Smucker in his Memorable Scenes in French History, p. 116: "We find in the records of that period,
materials and events which prove that then it was that the impostures of modern spiritual rappers and mediums were first practiced, in precisely the same way and for the same results as they are at the present day. ... Count Cagliostro enabled Cardinal Rohan to sup with the deceased D'Alembert, with the king of Prussia, and with Voltaire, all dead some years before. He convinced His Eminence that the worker of these wonders had himself been present with Christ at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. ... In the triumphs of Cagliostro, of Misner, and of St. Germain, which at this period were at their greatest hight, we behold another instance of the uprooting of the firm and stable foundations of society in an excessive desire for novelties, and a restless itching after things new, mysterious, and wonderful
." 
As a system of pretended communication with the dead, Spiritualism is as old, at least, as the Mosaic dispensation, for it was strictly forbidden in his day; and it has at favorable epochs manifested itself among men; but its wonder-working phase is peculiar to modern times, and first manifested itself in this country, according to the prophecy of Revelation 13. 
 
2. Infidelity. -- ...., says: "Never let it be forgotten that before the Revolution of 1792, the promoters of infidelity in France are stated to have raised among themselves, and spent, a sum equal to
£900,000 in one year, -- nay, again and again. -- in purchasing, printing, and dispersing books to corrupt the minds of the people and prepare them for desperate measures
.
....says: "The way for such a revolution was prepared by the writings of Voltaire, Mirabeau, Diderot, Helvetius, D'Alembert, Condorcet, Rousseau, and others of the same stamp, in which they endeavored to disseminate principles subversive both of natural and revealed religion. Revelation was not only impugned, but entirely set aside. The Deity was banished from the universe, and an imaginary phantom, under the name of the Goddess of Reason, substituted in his place. The carved work of all religious belief and moral practice was boldly cut down by Carnot and Robespierre and their atheistical associates. Nature was investigated by pretended philosophers, only with the view to darken the mind, and prevent mankind from considering anything as real but what the hand could grasp or the corporeal eye perceive."
 
3. Socialism. -- Webster makes this word synonymous with "communism," which he defines as follows: "The reorganizing of society, or the doctrine that it should be reorganized, by regulating property, industry, and the sources of livelihood, and also the domestic relations and social morals of mankind; socialism, especially the doctrine of a community of property, or the negation of individual rights in property." 
These principles were carried into practice in France, and as the result the Revolution blossomed into all its horrid reality. The relations of the different classes of society were completely changed. The monarchy was overthrown,
and an infidel republic established on its ruins. The king and queen were beheaded.
It was a conflict between the rich and the poor, between capital and labor. The motto of the Revolution was, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" -- blessed words, but, with the strangest inconsistency, wholly outraged and misapplied
The same principles are treated in the same way to-day, and are shouted as the watchword among the discontented masses and the labor organizations the world over. The principles of socialism, or communism, were probably never so widely diffused as at the present time. 
 
4. Free Love. -- When the existence of the true God was denied, as it was during the French Revolution, and in his place men set up a lewd woman as the Goddess of Reason, and the object of their highest adoration, it was a natural consequence that the sacredness of the marriage relation should be wholly discarded. Marriage was therefore declared a civil contract, binding only duringthe pleasure of the contracting parties. Divorce became general, and the corruption of manners reached a height never before known in France. One half of the whole number of births in Paris was illegitimate. Free-loveism is an integral part of the spiritualistic movement of our day, not so openly advocated as formerly, but none the less cherished and practiced as a part of the boasted "freedom" to which the human race is attaining. 
 
 5. The Commune. -- This word is derived from a small territorial district in France governed by an officer called a mayor. It has come to have a much more extensive application at the present time; but the origin of the word is not so important as the principles which it is taken to represent. Of these we have already had a definition from Webster, and seen a practical illustration in the French Revolution. gives the whole number of persons guillotined during the reign of
terror as 1,022,351, besides massacres of other kinds in other places, in some of which the population of whole towns perished.  says: "Such was the rapidity with which the work of destruction was carried on, that within the short space of ten years not less than three million human beings... are supposed to have perished in that country alone, chiefly through the influence of immoral principles, and the seductions of a false philosophy." 
In connection with this, as showing the tendency of the times, may be mentioned the "International," an association which, not long since, was prominent and created a good deal of apprehension. The object of its members was to overthrow those whom they esteemed their enemies, namely, kings and capitalists. Its platform was, briefly, the abolition of all class rule and privileges; political and social equality of both sexes; nationalization of land and instruments of production; reduction of hours of labor; education to be controlled by the state, and to be obligatory, gratuitous, and secular; religion to be ignored; a direct system of taxation based upon property, not upon industry; the abolition of all standing armies; and associative production instead of capitalist production
It will be seen at once that to put these principles into practice would be completely to change the present political and social relations of society. The different branches of this revolutionary body may now go by different names, as Nihilists in Russia, Communists in Germany, Anarchists and Monarchists in France, Fenians and Land-Leaguers in Ireland, the different labor organizations in this country, and Socialists everywhere. The principles involved are similar in all their divisions; the end sought, the same; and in the natural order of things, a great crisis in respect to these movements is inevitable.
 
The impress of the satanic hand is clearly seen in that the state of society sought for is exactly the opposite of that established by God in the garden of Eden. 
There God was supreme; Christ, by whom God made all things, was recognized and honored; God's law was the governing rule; a spirit of true worship, prompted by love, controlled man's mind; the marriage relation was sacred; and the Sabbath was honored as God's great memorial. 
 In the French Revolution
God was dethroned, 
Christianity denounced, 
all restraint broken off from the carnal heart, 
worship discarded, 
the rest-day abolished, 
the marriage relation annulled, 
and society rent into mournful fragments." 
Uriah Smith
Q: Can anyone say the 2020's?....i knew you could...