The herald., 1897-01-18
SELECTIONS OF SERMONS |
Continued from Fifth Page.

COntlueu from Fifth Page.
! cred to be treated with irreverence or
ridicule. On the contrary, he held that
human nature haS> always honored it.
| self in it's traditions of golden ages ard
gardens Of Eden, and it's hopes and
prophecies of mil!ennial glory The
word millennium involves the whole
story of our theme 1T is the nucleus
around which the whole error of Ad-
ventism has woven itself. Here is the
! process: Christ had predicted the de-
struction of Jerusalem and the end of
the Jewish age-not the end of the
world" as falsely translated in the
English New Testament. His Ian
guage was highly metaphorcal, it being
his custom to speak in figures, parallels.
He represented the downfall of the
Jewish rulers and the great tribulation
of the people, under the sublime figure
OF the darlSening of the sun and moon
and the falling of the stars, etc. The
apostles and first Christians understood
these metaphors in a literal sensA. and
SO described them in their writings
And as Christ had expressly declared
that all those things would take place
during that generation the apostle
writers began to sound the alarm of the
approaching end-the day of Judgment
the second coming of Christ, etc. For
he had used a number of strong figures
of speech in lofty portrayal Of the great
tribulation," such as the coming of
the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven" the gathering of the nations,
the separation Of the righteous and the
wicked--all of which being understood
literally The apostolic writings abound
in earnest exhortations to their breth-
rem to be ready for the dreadful ca
tastrophe. Paul adds the solemn
pomp of sounding trumpet and the
nj CT b, Of b.a 1ao1 Dafa .,,to &C..
the awfulness of the drama by adding
the particular method of destroying the
world. namely, by fire, when the
heaven should be on fire and the eie-
ments melt with fervent heat" So
they were all looking for the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the
Lord" The fiery visions of the book
of Revelation also added their testi-
mony-"the time is Short" "behold. 1
come quickly" 1t was that book which
struck the millennium keynote in It's
vision of the STRONG angel from
heaven with the key of the bottomless
pit and great chain in his hand-bind-
ing the dragon and casting him into the
pit to remain a thousand years" Mil
lennium-"a thousand years"-is re-
peated six times in the passage, and has
given to theology it's doctrine of the mil
lennium.
But now see how it worked. The
Christians became impatient waiting
They complainingly asked whether God
was not slack concerning his promises"
Then Peter had to write another
epistle to explain matters. He told the
brethren that lone day with the Lord
is as a thousand years" That quieted
their impatience ana the people settled
down into an indefinite idea as to when
the millennium would come And,
strange to say, although the destruction
of Jerusalem did xake place during that
generation in fulfillment of Christs pre-
diction, still. under the delusion of the
literal theory the Christian church has
gone on nearly two thousand years, look
ing for Christ to come, the stars to fall
and the world to be burned up! True,
the church in general has practically
abandoned Adventism as a matter of
serious concern, but the Adventists
proper are still ''vexing their righteous
souls" on the subject, and Grazing many
simple-minded, honest people with the
same old agitation.