CONCLUSION.

Hall (a Baptist), and Thorp (an Independent), and Coke (a Methodist), and Heber (an Episcopalian), formed a sort of quadruple millenarian link, between the close of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth centuries. That talented French divine and master of eloquence, John B. Massillon, who died in A. D. 1742, while he admits that in the first ages it would have been deemed a kind of apostasy not to have sighed after “the day of the Lord," yet says it was very difficult in his day, on account of the worldly minded and lukewarm state of the Church, "to call up the minds of the people to attend to the subject of the Lord's advent." 1 Dr. Gill, too, testifies that the Churches in this (the eighteenth) century, had a name to live, and were dead: a sleepy frame of spirit," he says, "having seized upon us, both ministers and Churches are asleep." Bengel also called it "a poor, friged, slumbering age, that needed an awakener."

Such was the complaint, both in England and on the Continent. And there was a cause for this coldness. WHITBY had lived and wrote, and his "New Hypothesis," by which the personal coming of the Lord is necessarily postponed for 1000 years, had stifled the warning note of, "Behold, I come quickly." That "belief in the speedy advent of the Saviour and habitual contemplation of the last things, which adds weight and impressiveness to the ordinary preaching of the Gospel, giving it earnestness, fervor, and solemnity not often attained," was now getting unpopular, and, as in the fourth century, truth measurably dimmed before wide-spread error, and, with the decay of pre-millennialism, spiritual life, too, died away.

Such, then, was the disastrous effect resulting from the prevalence of the Whitbyan "New Hypothesis" in England and on the Continent at the opening of the nineteenth century. But, thank God, in that extensive field, and especially in Great Britain-and of which England is the principal seat—within the last half century, and particularly within the last 25 years, many of the leading pulpit orators, or who are so regarded by the mass of the people, are the decided advocates of the millenarian doc

1 See Massillon's Sermons, p. 1.

2 See New York Independent, for 1850.

trine of the speedy personal coming of Christ, and his reign upon the earth. Hundreds of voices and of pens, in the pulpit and through the press, have been and are still engaged in their endeavors to rescue the Church from the delusion of the Whitbyan theory, and to recover her to the acceptance and belief of those truths of the New Testament and early post-apostolic times, for which so many millions of martyrs bled and died. Many of the pulpits in Great Britain are employed in raising "the midnight cry, BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH, GO YE OUT TO MEET HIM." Nor are these pulpits confined to one class only. They are occupied by scores of the clergy of the established Churches of nearly equal celebrity, but of whom Dr. Elliott, Dean Alvord, Dr. Margoliouth, Dr. Tregelles, Dr. Hugh McNeile, and Dr. Ryle, take the lead. In the Scotch Church, besides many others, are Dr. Bonar and Dr. Cumming, the latter one of the most voluminous and eloquent writers of the age. Then there are the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon and the Rev. Mr. Cox, of the Baptist Church; and the Rev. Denham Smith, of the Independents. Nearly all of these have also employed their pens in the same cause, thus placing themselves in the ranks of the most eminently learned and extensive writers of the day. In addition to these may be added, among the most recent authors in defence of millenarianism, the following: Rev. Dr. French, Rev. W. Wood, Rev. E. Nangle, Rev. Wm. Harker, Rev. E. Auriol, Rev. C. I. Goodhart, Rev. Dr. Leask, Rev. Mr. Chester, Rev. A. Dallas, Rev. E. Gillson, Rev. T. R. Berks, Rev. James Kelly, Rev. J. G. Gregory, Rev. C. Molineux, Rev. David Pitcairn, Rev. Frederic Fysh, M. A., George Ogilvie, Esq, etc., etc. There are also large numbers of books and tracts issued by several of the leading publishing houses in London. Among these may be noted Wm. McIntosh, Paternoster Row; S. W. Partridge, do.; James Nesbitt & Co., Bernners street; and Wm. Yapp, Walbeck street. And to these may be added several periodicals devoted to the same cause, among which are, "The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy," edited by Dr. Bonar; and "The Rainbow," an interesting and sprightly monthly,. edited by Dr. Leask.1

This augurs well for the cause on the other side of the Atlantic. The Churches there have been aroused from that "poor, frigid,

1 See Prophetical Times, article "Words from Europe," vol. ii., Sept., 1864, pp. 140, 141, Philadelphia.

slumbering" state, as Bengel expresses it, into which "a worldlyminded and lukewarm" spirit had involved them, and the minds of the people have been awakened to attend to the subject of the Lord's second coming as nigh at hand.

With the American Churches, however, it is otherwise. The state of the Churches as described of the times of Bengel, Massillon, and Dr. Gill, on this momentous subject, is, to a lamentable extent, applicable to our own times. We have only to refer, I submit, to what Professor Shedd says of the alleged circumstance under which the Church has been recovered to his so-called "Catholic theory of the second advent," to obtain a clue to the cause of this state of things. Speaking of the Church in the time of Constantine, he says: "The pressure of persecution being lifted off, the Church returned to its earlier and first exegesis of the Scripture data concerning the end of the world, and the second coming of Christ. . . . The personal coming of Christ, it was now held, is not to take place until the final day of doom," etc. (page 398). But we have demonstrated that nothing is further removed from the truth than this. Why, what said the covenant God of Israel to his chosen people? "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with (or for, marg.) silver: I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, I will do it," etc. (Isa. xlviii. 10, 11.) And what saith Jesus concerning his followers? "In the world ye shall have tribulation," etc. (John xvi. 33. See also Acts xiv. 22.) And of the redeemed in "the world to come "it is said, "These are they which came out of great tribulation," etc. (Rev. vii. 14.) As, therefore, it was not "persecution" which made the early post-apostolic martyrs chiliasts; so, just in proportion as persecution was "lifted off" from the Church, and the tide of worldly prosperity and its concomitants set in, did she adopt, not, as Professor Shedd affirms, the "earlier and first exegesis of the Scripture data concerning the end of the world and the second coming of Christ," but the unscriptural theory of Augustine.

And so, we now affirm that, just in proportion as a similar tide of worldly prosperity and exemption from suffering for Christ's sake has marked the progress of the American Churches, -Episcopal, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, Methodist, and Baptist-while they have ignored the ancient Augustinian theory, they have adopted the equally unscriptural and, as Bishop Russell

of Scotland styles it, the "far-fetched" "New Hypothesis" of DR. WHITBY; which, removing that great event, the second personal coming of Christ, at least 1000 years hence, or, as the learned Professor states it, "until the final day of doom," they have settled down into "a poor, frigid, slumbering" state-that very state indicated by the "five foolish virgins" in the parable-regarding that crisis! We repeat: that "belief in the speedy advent of the Saviour and habitual contemplation of the last things, which adds weight and impressiveness to the ordinary preaching of the gospel, giving it earnestness, fervor, and solemnity not often attained" (we quote from the New York Independent for A. D. 1850), by having been rendered unpopular, has nearly died out. The Whitbyan "New Hypothesis " holds the decided predominance among us over both the clergy and the laity. Alas! over the laity, because of the tenacity with which the clergy still cling to it.

Nor this only. Our duty to God compels us to advert to the fact of the consequent lamentable neglect, on the part of most of the clergy of this day, to "study to show themselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed," in the article. of that "diligent inquiring and searching into what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in the old prophets did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." The writer could give the names of not a few of the most distinguished of these, who urge the pressure of other duties in justification of their neglect in familiarizing themselves with "the teachings of Isaiah and St. John concerning the second coming of Christ." And this is attempted to be fortified by the plea, that the prophecies are so dark, obscure, and enigmatical, that they lay beyond the reach of ordinary scriptural "exegesis;" that the most learned and pious divines differ in their interpretations of them; that they can only be understood by us as they are fulfilled; and finally, that, as their ultimate accomplishment is removed at too great a distance to interest our inquiries, therefore, all attempts to lay open these alleged secret councils of Jehovah's will, only tend to produce disquietude among sober-minded Christians, and to lead to fanaticism and delusion. It is in vain we plead, in the plain and emphatic language of Peter, that "we have a more sure word of

1

prophecy, to which we all do well that we take heed, as unto a light which shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts." In vain that we quote that benediction," BLESSED is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand," that is, for the commenced accomplishment of "all those things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

Pardon us, therefore, reader, if we once more repeat, that it is to the wide-spread prevalence and influence of the "far-fetched" "New Hypothesis" of Dr. Whitby throughout the Churches of this land, that we are indebted for that spirit of indifference, not only, but of open and covert hostility to the cause we advocate, so generally characteristic of these "last times." And so-the assertions of some to the contrary notwithstanding-the consequence is, that "the spirit of God seems to be withdrawn from the Churches," and that "they are dead, dead, dead:" words uttered in the hearing of the writer, by two of the most distinguished pastors of Churches in this city.

At the same time, we have cause for thankfulness that some efforts have been and still are being put forth-and they are gradually assuming larger proportions-both through the pulpit and the press, to arouse the Churches in this country to a view of the coming crisis before them. As in the record already given of those bright and shining lights in the Church, ancient, mediæval, and modern, who have avowed their belief in and have advocated the millenarian tenets, so with those of the present generation. Their deep piety," in union with an intelligent and earnest orthodoxy," and the eminence of their positions in the Church of Christ, form an invulnerable shield against those shafts of invective and satire hurled against them by their opponents. Associated as they were or are with one or other of the leading evangelical Churches of Christ, furnishes the evidence that, amid the general defection of said Churches in these premises, from that "faith at first delivered to the saints," "the God of mercy has preserved a remnant according to the election of grace," as so many beacon lights to those who, with sincere hearts, "stand in the ways," that they may "see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way," with a desire to "walk therein." Such,

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1 2 Pet. i. 19.

2 Rev. i. 3.

• Acts iii. 18.

• Jer. vi. 16.