The Startling Cry by F. W. Krummacher

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1867

The Startling Cry.

By F. W. Krummacher

THE Lord cometh! The heart of many an one thrills at this call. He thinks of the approaching and complete establishment of the Lord's kingdom upon earth; and he sighs, “Ah, didst thou but come!” Yes, our heart also joins in this longing of eighteen hundred years; for even so long has it been in the church, not like a flood of water, which is gradually lost in the sand beneath, but like a stream, which, the nearer it draws to its destination, rolls onward with greater power. How many a prophetic omen has there been, that the grand moment of jubilee is not far distant. We already perceive signs of the publication of the Gospel in all the world; that of the shaken foundations of the Mohammedanism; that of the re-emergement of the Beast from the abyss; that of the decline from Christ and his word, extending through the world; and that of the powerful errors of the Antichristian spirit, acquiring domination over the cultivation of genius; of the idolization of men, and of many more similar signs.

Never did the church witness such a constellation of signs of the near coming of Christ as now. ‘The branches of the fig-trees are full of sap; and the summer is at hand.’ Assuredly I am not ignorant that a portion of the church has become gradually weary of the long tarrying, and has fallen into doubt. You also shake your head and are of the opinion that we have long talked of ‘the last time.’ Well use this language, and increase the number of the existing signs by this new one. Add that of the foolish virgins, who shortly before the midnight hour maintained ‘the Lord would not come for a long time.’ So also in the days of Noah. They ate, they drank, they wooed and were wooed, and inscribed over the festivity-decorated gate of their dwellings, “Peace! Peace! There is no danger!” But then, however, the depths suddenly burst open, and the floods rushed forth at the command of the eternal wrath. Only Noah and those with him watched and were preserved; upon every one else destruction came with the swiftness of a whirlwind. The Lord cometh! Oh, were he already here! How do we long for his revelation in these dark times!’

—F. W. Krummacher.