The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-04
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Predicted Millennium Is Yet
Far OFF, Thinks William.
#OULD.BE PROPHETS WHO FAILED
conversion Of the World 10 Christ ls
Much Too Slow and Better Prog
rees viii Have to BE Made
BY Missionaries.

e'N AAlAhAhluH craze nus
subsided for awhile. Within my recol-
lection Il has bobbed up three or four
times and excited good people all over
Tx country. for good people wish It
20 come, and live in expectation.
remember when William Miller. Of
Massachusetts had all New England
excited, for he was a very learned man
and @ sincere Christian and believed
all that he protested. For ten years
he eHhortcd the people to be ready for
the coming Of Christ i'm 1S43, and even
liked the day when they would see
Him descending from heaven in mag
niiicont glory and escorted by Moses F.
and Elijah and a retinue Of angels. He +
had over 10000 devoted converts and .
the night before the promised day
they arrayed themselves in white RAJ
ment and sang and shouted and prayed /.
until morning and then climbed the /
high hills and the tree tops and the /
kpnes of the churches to meet Him as
lie neared the earth. But lie didn't
come and it nearly broke their hearts,
and they like to have persisted to
death, for they had given away all
their earthly possessions.
Next came Dr. John Cummings, a
very learned minister of London. who
wrote a book on it and fixed the mil
iennial year at 1863. We were fighting
over here about that time and the mil
ySsnnium had to be postponed. The mil
ldnnlum means the reign Of Christ
upon the earth for a thousand years,
when everybody will be good and there
shall be no more death nor pain nor
sorrow. and there has not been a cen
fury since the cricihxion that the re-
Agious people have not been looking
Tor His coming. The Christians got
their belief from the prophecies Of
Daniel and from St. John and st. Pc,
ter and later on from Irenacus and
Justin Martyr and they delighted
themselves with dreams Of glory that
was near at hand. Some of them de-
clared there would be no more winters,
/. mo more nights and everlasting wells
MOULD run with honey and milk ard
Awine. Jerusalem would be rebuilt ana
the fruits of the earth would be 60.
l0ssal and never dying One notable
writer said that every grape vine
would have 10000 branches and every
branch 10000 shoots and every shoot
10000 punches and every bunch 10000
= grapes and every grape would make
25 gallons Of wine. Good gracious!
how thirsty that fellow must have
been But the millennium didn't come,
and by and by Origin, a very wise and
good man came along in the third cen
fury and declared that there would
no such grapes, but that Christ's COM
ing would be altogether spiritual Still
His coming kept on being predicted
land when the reformation of Luther
and Calvin came about they said that
the pope was the anti-Christ and the
millennium was near at hand. Next
came Oliver Cromwell, who excited
his followers with prediction of the
millennium-an so it goes on and on
and now it is about time for anothes
just as soon as we have done killing
~ off tie Fillipinos and England has
killed off all the Beers.
WE'LL now all these nominations
about the millennium we're provoked
by what I have been reading about
the recent discoveries Of oil all over
the country. One thing brings on ar
other. and if the coming of Christ il
near at hand and His Reign is to be &
n spiritual one for q thousand years, ant
u there ia to be no winter or night Of
sickness or pain or sorrow, we won
need all this oil, neither for fuel Of
light. And SO / don't believe the millen
mum is very near If all the people
are to be converted and become gooC
it will be a long time of, for it is ;
slow process, and all the coal and OF
IN the bowels of the erath will b.
needed. It wasn't put there for moth
ing. Missionary work is going OF
more rapidly than ever before, but
IS like a drop in a bucket Of water
We have got 10000 missionaries II
heather lands and they are aided b.
10000 native preachers and teachers
INIT these 100000 will have to CONVEX
an average for each Of ten a year t
make a million, and there are over
thousand million, and there are over
more coming on. But they do not cor
vert half million a year, for the las
rcotr. gives only 100000 all tol(
last year we spent $2O,OOO.OOO on theI
and have now over 100000 childre
going to Christian schools and hav
81 600 nhnrches. and over 1000 SCI