NEED FOR WATCHING AND PRAYING

We have now considered the three portions of Scripture which treat of the Turkish power. We have seen that in all three of them the end of that power is announced by the sure Word of God. We also see that in all three places not only is the end of that power marked, but with this, and following swiftly upon it, there is also marked in unmistakable language universal woe, world-destroying trouble, the coming of the Lord in glory, and the end of all things of this world.EQ 14.3

No man, therefore, is ready for the ending of the Ottoman Empire who is not ready for the end of the world. And who is ready for this? Oh, let every one who names the name of Christ turn his whole attention to doing His will! Let Christians be sure that they themselves are ready for these things, and then let them never rest, let them never hold their peace, till the warning message is sounded to all people, that whosoever will may come; whosoever will may be ready also, and that all may be continually watching and praying so that they “may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:36.EQ 14.4

We see that the sure Word of God announces that the ending of the Ottoman Empire is followed by a time of universal war, woe, and trouble, such as never was before since there was a nation. We see also the great powers of earth-the very ones which have this question constantly to deal with-expecting and dreading the “appalling danger” of this very thing, and in their uneasy expectancy doing everything in their power to hold back as long as possible the tide of woe which they know must come.EQ 15.1

There is yet one other element to be noticed in this connection. It is that the Turks themselves look for this very thing. They expect to be driven out from Constantinople, and that the seat of their power will then be Jerusalem. They expect, too, that the nations will come even there to war against them, and that then the end of all things will come.^{3 In Constantinople, in September and October last, I met a reliable Christian man, who told me that, in a conversation which he had with a Turkish judge, the judge told him that they expected, as the outcome of the dealings of the powers, that they would be dispossessed of Constantinople; that after that their capital would be Jerusalem; that against them there at last they expected the “Christian nations” to come to fight; and that then Messiah and Mahomet would come. With the exception of Mahomet, this explanation as stated by the Turkish judge is precisely the thing that is predicted of this same time in the Scripture of truth.}EQ 15.2

When the Word of God three times declares it, and when the Turks themselves, as well as all the other powers concerned, are expecting and dreading it, is it not high time that all the people should believe it? May the Lord in His mercy help all to hear it, to believe it, and then to proclaim it to earth’s remotest limits, that the world may be prepared and fully ready for those fearful evils, which, according to every evidence, are ready to burst in fury upon it.EQ 15.3