The Coming King-No 2

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1903

The Coming King—No 2

Taking up further signs, our Lord said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days,” referring to the time of special tribulation of the Dark Ages, “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” And then he gave them the parable which we shall soon see spoken again in this coming spring season: “Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors. . . . This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished.”

These definite signs began with the darkening of the sun in 1780, the moon being darkened the same night. The falling of the stars in 1833 marked the definite time when it should be known that the hour had arrived when the purpose of God was to be fulfilled. The very year that the stars fell in such a wondrous star shower as to be emphasized as the falling of the stars,—in that very year William Miller was ordained by the Baptists to go forth to preach this message of the coming King. That marked the beginning of this message in a special manner to prepare the way of the coming King. That generation

heard the message. The children of that generation are the men and women of to-day, and it is to this people that he says that this generation shall not pass until all be fulfilled. Not that the date has been arbitrarily fixed when all these things will come to pass; but by the work that is to be accomplished, he has very distinctly stated the time of the end.

Then, the purpose of God was to be fulfilled not simply in the signs that could be read in the heavens, but in the giving of the message to all the world to prepare the way of the coming King. And so the message went forth. Now, the word is this, that the generation in which that message was given is the generation in which all these things shall be fulfilled; and the generation that rejected the message, the generation that crucified the message, the generation that treated the message as the Jews treated the message of John the Baptist, when he came as a forerunner to prepare the way of the coming King,—that generation, whose children have grown to manhood and womanhood, will not entirely pass off the stage of action until all these things are accomplished. And some who lived and heard the message in that time will live through to say with the multitude in that day, “Behold the King cometh! all hail the coming King.” This time is not an arbitrary date, but it is a time within which, a generation within which, the time will be fixed only by the zeal of the church. It is within the power of those who believe the message to hasten that day. It is within the power of those who know all these things so to give the message as to bring our Lord speedily. And that is the work to which the watchman is bidden to call a sleeping church. Now—

“O watchman, bid a sleeping church Awake, arise, and pray.”

In this time, this generation, this work under this third angel’s message—the gospel of the kingdom—shall be preached to all the world, and then shall the end come.

Now it is especially important that those who are looking for the fulfillment of these things should be intelligent concerning the time, the circumstances, and the work. Only think that after these thousands of years during which sin has been in the earth, and death has reigned, the day is, as it were, in sight when an end will be put to all this, when he whose right it is to reign will come. It is the blessed hope. This is the hope of the coming King. Now it falls to us to understand it, to take up the work and co-operate with God intelligently in his purpose for this time. But mark this, after the disappointment of 1843-44 there were thousands who could not gather their courage and rest their faith in the Word again, who could not see by faith to proclaim anew with the old-time zeal to all nations, tongues, and kingdoms the coming Lord according to the prophecy, but God raised up those who went forth in that work. Now more than half a century has passed away, and what do we hear?—We hear of scoffers saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?” and even those who have professed to believe the message of his coming are saying in their hearts, “My Lord delayeth his coming.”

Believers should have a very definite answer to give both to scoffers and to the faithless professors. What shall be the answer when scoffers say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” and professed believers say in their hearts, “My Lord delayeth his coming”? Then it is time for those who really believe, to take up the word of the angel that stood upon the earth and the sea, and lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever, who created all heavenly things, and things in the earth and in the sea, that “there shall be delay no longer.” The seventh trumpet then is about to sound, the mystery of God is to be finished. Is not this a definite answer to make when the scoffers say, “Where is the promise of his coming”? and when unfaithful professors say, “My Lord delayeth his coming,” then let the people of God take that word, and with great power say, “There shall be delay no longer;” “but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God.” That is the answer to give. “There shall be delay no longer.” How shall we give the answer?—Not simply by taking up a phrase, just some words that we shall speak; but we must say to scoffers and unfaithful professors, by a holy, consecrated zeal in carrying forward this work, that “there shall be delay no longer,” and every mouth will be stopped.