The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-07-13
"CHRIST'S SECOND COMING"
Captain KeIso Carriers Address on That
Theme Last Night.
He Quotes Prophecies and Makes Com
putations to Prove That 1t is
Close at Hand.

Close at Hand.
Captain Kelso Carter addressed large
audience last night at the First Baptist
Church on the subject of 1.-THE Second
Coming Of Christi
The sermon, or address, or argument
for it might have been denominated
any ofthe three, was remarkable one in
the facts presented. the Bible quotations
collected and grouped together and the
fitting together of the figures and COM
putatious used and would have been
listened to with interest both by those
who were disposed to agree with him in
his conclusions and those who doubted or
disputed them. 1t was one of those dis
courses which are very difficult to synop-
size without weakening or destroying the
chain of reasoning and losing through
omissions many beauties Of arrangement
and sequence. The Bible quotations,
both from the Old and New Testaments,
followed each other with great rapidity,
the speaker apparently turning TO any
passage he wished TO with accuracy and
CELEBRITY.
He is rapid and pleasing speaker,
with a clear, unstudied enunciation and
personal magnetism that holds his hear
ers closely to him, and mis- discourse as
sumes almost the character of personal
conversation with each individual of the
audience.
lie opened his address by saying that
he felt at loss how to introduce his sub
ject, as there were so many phases grow
ing out OF it, and all connected with it and
important i'll their bearings.
Among other things he said: There are
three specially important divisions of
this subject. There are those who believe
That Christ is coming personally after the
millennium. There are those who believe
that the church will never do better in
converting the world than it has in the
past, and that it will be necessary tor
Jesus to come before it will be different.
| There are still others who spiritualize
His coming, and believe 1T will be ii
spiritual coming and not a personal one.
The second one of these views was the
one the speaker would treat OF, the pre-
millennial coming of Christ.
That the church has not yet converted
the world is fact on which all agree.
We believe that Christ must come in
some miraculous way to revive his
church; that there will be a relapse Of
the church and an unloosing of Satan,
after which there will be a sharp, sud-
den time Of the destruction of evil.
lie said that the first chapter OF Genesis
was more hated by Satan than any other
in the Bible, because IL tells of the curse
pronounced on MIN in it. He has raised
up men OF science to tell the people that
it speaks of impoSsibilities, and therefore
must be taken hguratively; that it could :
not be understood unless so taken. Next
to this he especially hates the first chap
ters OF Revelation, because they tell of
his discontinue, and also because it says
that he who reads shall receive the bless
ing. Many say they do not read Revel-
alton because they cannot understand it
and the meaning of its statements. No
man, said he, can understand it unless
God gives him wisdom to do SO.
The church has arranged thirty-six
prophesies, which have all been fulfilled
in their season, as proof OF the first COM
ing of Christ. Instead of thirty-six
prophesies in regard to the second COM
ing, there are more than three hundred.
and in the Old Testament as well as the
New they are to be found. There are five
in regard to the second coming to one in
regard to the first coming, and almost all
allude TO the glories of his reign. Both
the Hebrews and we look for his second
coming. At his first coming the Jews
missed the point by installing the figures
of speech used in the prophesies concern
ing him. They lost the spiritual mean
| ing and held to the material. So it is now.
and we do the same.
Even in the Epistles go references
/ are IIldll6 W Ills second COM
| ing. No other subject has one tenth as
many illusions to it, ii we except the one
of salvation. 80 in the EvangeIists, there
are not one-half as many illusions to the
new birth. 1t must be considered, there
fore, an important subject. lie did not
| understand that the Bible says specific
ally that Christ will come pre-millen-
nially, but most of the leading men ofthe
church have believed III pre-miIlenniaI
Christ, The doctrine that Christ will not
come till after the millennium was not
preached till about 300 years ago, bv
Daniel Whitney, i'll his book, The New
Hypothesis"
Gibbon, the historian, states that the
general belief of the early church was
| that the second coming OF Christ would
be soon. Such men as the Apostles and
early Christians were looking for Christ
to come back. They did not see that His
coming was so far away. The five apos-
toilc fathers and the early Christian
fathers looked for the coming of Christ.
The Waldenses, Wyckliffe and others in
the middle ages looked tor His coming.
The W esleyS, Watts. Whitfield and others
down to Dean Afford, and many of his
contemporaries of to-day, have looked
and DO look for it.
Every evangelist of to-day is an ardent
pre-millennialist. The missionaries ali
through the world and of al denomina-
tons do likewise.
The speaker mentioned a long list of
names more or less familiar to his hear
ers. The subject was so broad, he said.
that all he could expect to do was to whet
an appetite and arouse an interest in his
hearers, and he gave them list of books
in which they might, if they wished.
pursue their investigations.
lie was not, he said one of those who
believed in defining certain dav or
hour, as mad been done by others, when
Christ shold come; still. be was too cara |
ful to deny that day might have been
set, for the Lord has permitted some to
know things that He hid from the rest of
mankind. he permitted few like John
the Baptist, Simeon and others to know
OF tue hrst coming of Christ, but not the
very day of His coming.
In the same way the Lord has given
numbers to show the second coming. ]