The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-01-04
THECHARIOTSIN THE SKY
PRE-NILLENARIANISM AGITATING
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

Held Next Year, the Outcome Of
the Recent Gathering in Brooklyn
Reviving the Apostolic Belief That
Christ VIII Come Personally to Set
Up His King ON Before the Afillen-
MUM Prophecies and Signs Inter
preted- Eminent Clergymen Actively
Interested in the Movement.
CCopuiQhs)
NEW York. Jan. 3.-As the last decade
Of the nineteenth century opens, an aetlv-
ity such as has not been witnessed since the
days Of the great Millerite excitement pre-
walls among certain christian denomina-
tions all over the civilized world. 1t is sig
nifcant, too, that many of the greatest
puipiteers in Europe aud America are in
expectation of startling events at the close
of the century. which they bsheve will
mark the end Of an epoch in the worlds
spiritual history. While they do not share
the views of the Second Adventists or the
Milleri es, who set the time of Christ's sec
ond coming by charts and dates, they still
believe that great changes foreshadowed
by prophecy, are close at hand.
Even as l write. arrangements are under
way for three great conferences Of Pre-
Millennialists IN this country next summer
on a scale broader than that Of the prophetic
conference in Chicago. in 1885, W en minis
tiers of many denominations, from the
United States and Canada, attended. This
new activity is largely the outcome OF the
recent Pre-Millennial gathering Ia Brook
lyn, when twenty-six states were repre-
scented and national organIza-
ton was Effected with an enrolled
membership Of over 200 clergymen,
iHclud ng men Of such prominence as Rev.
DR.. A. J. Gordon of the Clarendon street
Baptist church, Boston; Prof. j. III. Sitter
of Crozier University Philadelphia; Prof.
Gilmore Of Rochester University, Rev. A.
G.. Dixon of Brooklyn, DIR. Ellis Of Balti-
more, Rev. DR.. Stone II Har tford, Rev.
John L. Atwater of Chicago, DIR. J. d. Herr
of Chicago, Rev. DIR. Mcbride of Brooklyn,
and many Others equally well-Rnown for
pulpit influence and progressive theol-
ogy. The st of the coming confer
ences will assemble in July next, and will
last ten days, being in the nature Of a sum-
mer school OF prophecy, TO which chris
tians of all denominations will DO invited.
There will be host of speal1e s, a large
majority of them being Baptists, for it is to
that energetic denomination that the credit
for the new spiritual agitation rightly be-
NV btIlOublF
ing in the " ork A general conference will
be held in Minneapolis in July. But these
are both TO b. dwarfsd by the great gather
ing in New York at later date, when all
Pre- Millenialists, whether Presbyterians,
Episcopalians, Methodsts or Baptists, will
meet and form the strongest array Of literal
believers in Scriptural prophecy ever wit
messed in this country or in Great Britain in
modern times.
Al I,.,gkI ~ L..
chairman OF the executive committee OF the
new movement, and With Evangelist George
G. Needham, the secretary. 1t was in DIR.
McBride's Centennial Baptist church, in
Brooklyn, that the late conference was held,
the influence of which is extOndiug over the
entire country. It is noticeable that, with
few exceptions, all the men foremost 10 the
pre-millennial agitation are in the prime of
life and the busiest sort of church workers.
81 have only lRuely returned from the
northwest" said DIR. Mcbride, land the
whole country there is full Of it. Besides,
ali the leading evangelists are Pre-Millen-
narians, including Moody. l can only re-
member q single exception among them,
here or abroad. It's astonishingly wide
spread, and reminds me of the remark
Beecher once made tn Moody on this very
subject. Moody said the great preacher,
Moody. II | could see tho coming of the
L@otQ AS lOu w, W Teu uOL, Anu
would watch with &C ing eyes for the
moment of his advent' Spurgeon, too, is
one Of us watching on the mountain-tops,
and it was only the other day that talked
with DIR. Talmage about it. 'Ah,' said the
Tabernacle preacher, as his whole face
lighted up with enthusiasm, i would give
the whole world if it would bring it about
tomorrow p"
''0n what grounds do you base your be-
tee T.. a. 7
ION prophecy first, which we interpret
literally. I believe, as do we all, that the
signs OF the times visible all around US are
such as were indicated by the prophets and
that one of the strongest evidences is the
many strikes and labor troubles we are
having everywhere, not in one country, but
all over the globe. These are the conditions
which the apostle James foresaw, when he
wrote: go to, now, We rich meu, weep and
howl for your mise les that shall come upon
you've have heaped treasure together for
the last days. Behold the hire of the labor
ers, which is Of you kept back by fraud,
crieth, and the cries If them that have
reaped are entered into the ears OF the Lord
of Sabbath. Be patient, therefore, breth-
rem, unto the coming Of the Lord There
are other signs equally potent. Everywhere
we see the failing away that was predicted
of the church. One statististical writer, in
OutCdSOs OcAloVcy aSetI ~ buhb Uu6ft are
10000 GOO nominal christians thoroughly
corrupt and worldly, while 10o, 900
protestant christians are apathetic and
sleeping, as il drugged by some fatal opiate.
The problem of the conversion of the
heather is more than ever perplexing, for
while the total number Of heather souls
converted to Christ during the last CEN
fury is estimated at 5000, 600, the heather
population has increased in the same
period 200,000,000. If these figures be true,
they show that nothing short of the per-
sonal presence of Oh ist will be able to con-
vert the whole worid.n
"You take the ground, then, the world is
growing worse instead of betterG"
Yes; see the increasing dissertation of
the Sabb tn. the augmentation Of intidelity
and of communistic, an rchistic and other
radical theories, assailing social order and
religion. See how the atheis ic and ma
terialistic press has multiplied. Look at
the increasing liceatiousness OF our age. the
absorption in money making. 1t Is even
claimed that one-nalt of our people never
enter a church. The Bible is attack ed Its au
the ITCHY is sought to be undermined by
infidels, doctors of divinity and de-
famers of divinity. We believe it
from cover to cover. Ours is the old apos-
tolic faith, the faith that was held by the
martyrs, the Waldenses, Bunyan, Toplad :,
Wesley, and ht st Of Others. One of the
signs of the times not to be overlooked is
the s.res. movement among the Jews look
ing 70 their return to Jerus lem. Another
is the commotion among the nations every.
where. keepinr all cfyilized kociefv IN n