In Times Like These

Words: Ruth Caye Jones (b. _____, 1902; d. Aug. 18, 1972)
Music: Ruth Caye Jones

Note: This 1944 song is not included in the over 9,000 presently on the Cyber Hymnal, but you can see a picture of “Mother Jones” there. On the Wordwise page you’ll learn how the text of the hymn came to be written, and the most unusual background of the tune, plus a bit about the unique and amazing ministry of the Jones family.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

Some form of the word “time” is found 698 times in our English Bibles (NKJV). Great lessons can be learned by a study of these texts. Here are a few samples from the epistles.

• God’s timing is always perfect. It was so in the sending of our Saviour (Gal. 4:4), and it is in His dealings with us as well (I Pet. 5:6).
• If you are not a Christian, now is the time to trust Christ and be saved (II Cor. 6:2).
• It is also time “for judgment to begin at the house [i.e. the household or family] of God” (I Pet. 4:17). That is, now, before Christ returns, is the time we should be concerned about the purity of the church. Local church discipline is in view.
• Our lives as individuals should be characterized by holiness, in the fear of God (I Pet. 1:17). And we need to realize the brevity of this mortal life (Jas. 4:14).
• Because of the shortness of this life, we need to be “redeeming the time,” making it count for Christ and for eternity (Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5).
• Christians will suffer for the cause of Christ at the present time, but that suffering cannot be compared with the glory to come (Rom. 8:18; cf. II Cor. 4:17).
• We are invited to come before God’s throne in prayer, seeking help “in time of need” (Heb. 4:1).
• We are reminded that, at least in God’s way of reckoning, the time of the end is very near (Rev. 1:3; 22:10).

Much is said about the time of the end, the last days before Christ returns. “The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Tim. 4:1-2). It will be a time of spiritual apostasy.

How much more, then, do Bible believing Christians, and orthodox evangelical churches, need to defend the fundamentals of the faith, and take their stand for the truth of God (Jude 1:17-18). Let us “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

In the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.

II Tim. 3:1-5

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

II Tim. 4:2-4; cf. II Pet. 3:3-4

It was meditating on Second Timothy 3:1 which speaks of “perilous times” that led Ruth Jones to write her song, In Times Like These. “In times like these you need a Bible; / In times like these, oh be not idle!” (2).

(1) In times like these you need a Saviour,
In times like these you need an anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

This Rock is Jesus, yes, He’s the One.
This Rock is Jesus–the only One;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

Questions:

1. What is it about the present time, spiritually and morally, that most grieves or concerns you?
2. In addition to the preaching of the gospel of grace, what truths and principles of God’s Word need to be proclaimed with clarity in our day?

Links:

• 18 August 1972 – Ruth Jones Died
• Ruth Caye Jones (The Cyber Hymnal)