Knowing the Time by Miles E. Cornell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 1, 1874

“Knowing the Time.”

By Miles E. Cornell

In the prophetic numbers and signs of the Scriptures, there is so much definiteness that many have thought it was duty to try to ascertain the very day or year for the end of the world.

Martin Luther remarks: “It would, therefore, seem as if God would somewhere raise up a Noah who shall be able to calculate the identical day, and to strike it unmistakably.”—Watch’s Luther, Vol. 6. Bengelius and Wesley limited it to 1836. Habershon and others fixed on 1844. Wolf and others on 1847. Hales and others on 1850. Faber, Scott and others on 1866.

In 1787 Wood, of Ireland, suggested that the 70 weeks of Dan. 9, formed part of the 2300 days of the preceding chapter, which as he judged by a natural inference would bring their termination in 1843. Of this view Dr. Hales remarked that “it is the most ingenious of the class,” and he considered it worthy of being republished in the “Inspector,” in 1789, and again in the “Orthodox Church Magazine,” in 1803, and afterwards in his great work the “New Analysis of Chronology,” vol. 2, p. 66. These calculations carried out, resulted in the great Advent movement of 1840 to 44.

In his letter to Mr. Miller, Prof. Bush says, “Nay, I am even ready to go so far as to say that I do not conceive your errors on the subject of chronology to be at all of a serious nature, or in fact to be very wide of the truth. In taking a day as the prophetical term for a year I believe you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high names of Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Kirby, Scott, Keith and a host of others who have long since come to substantially your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods mentioned by Daniel and John, do actually expire about this age of the world, and it would be a strange logic that would convict you of heresy for holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominent in the notices of these eminent divines.” Prof. Chase speaks as follows:—

“We need not wonder that the minds of many have, within a few years, been greatly agitated by an expectation of the speedy fulfillment of certain predictions in the book of Daniel. The way for this was prepared by some of our standard English writers on the Prophecies, men of former ages, venerated for their piety and erudition.” Prefatory Remarks on Daniel, p. 5. Prof. Stuart more than admits the same. See Hints, pp. 8, 38.

Scores of the most learned writers on eschatology have penned similar sentiments to the above. Why, then, should it be regarded as a criminal thing for Adventists to be expecting the second coming of Christ about this time? Though we may not know the day or the hour, yet we are commanded to know when it is near, even at the door. We are also told to “Look for and haste unto” the coming of that day.

Bishop Russell of Scotland says: “The tradition that the earth, as well as the moral and religious state of its inhabitants, were to undergo a great change at the end of 6000 years, has been detected in the writings of pagans, Jews and Christians. It is found in the most ancient of those commentaries of the old Testament, which we owe to the learning of the Rabbinical school.”

Rabbi Gedaliah says: “At the end of 6000 years the world shall return to its old state, without form and void, and after that it shall wholly become a Sabbath.”

Henry D. Ward says: “This view of the course of time in six days of a thousand years, appears not to have been confined to the Jews. The Chaldeans, according to Plutarch, believed in a struggle between good and evil for the space of 6000 years; and then Hades is to cease, and men are to be happy, &c.”

Prof. Bush, speaking of this ancient tradition says: “At the same time it is but fair to admit that as there is nothing in the Scriptures which directly contradicts it, the tradition may be well founded.”

In a volume of the German Bible, in the British Museum in the autograph of Melanchthon, in German, is found the following most interesting statement:—

“THE PROPHECY OF THE PROPHET ELIAS.”

This world endures six thousand years, then it will be burned. Two thousand years it is waste; two thousand years the law of Moses; two thousand years the day of Messiah. And because of our sins, which are many and great, the years will be lessened (i. e., of the last period), and will not have their full measure.

“Written in the year 1557 after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Virgin Mary; and in the year from the creation of the world, 5519.

“From this number is to be seen that this very inflammable world is not very far from its end. May the only blessed Son of God, Jesus Christ in this bitter distress, mercifully keep, govern and save with his protection his poor little flock. Written by the hand of Phillip 1557.” [Translation made by Prof. C. L. Loos in 1868.]

The above date for the age of the world is from the commonly received chronology of Usher. But this chronology, though generally correct, is at fault on the period of the judges. The apostle Paul gives about one hundred and thirty years more than is given by Usher, which would bring the 6000 year period about this time. The extreme of the disputed time would all expire in ten or fifteen years more. The prophetic periods reaching near to the end have all run out. All the signs given as a basis for faith in the near coming are now fulfilled. We are therefore shut up to the conclusion that the crowning events of the whole world’s history will come in the present generation. Though the definite year is not revealed, yet a bound is fixed beyond which it cannot pass. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the immutable word which has fixed this bound cannot fail. After giving the signs to be witnessed by the last generation (Matt. 24: 29–35), he says, “Verily I say unto you, THIS GENERATION SHALL NOT PASS till all these things be fulfilled.”

If the generation is to be reckoned from the first sign in 1780, when the sun was supernaturally darkened, then verily the generation can last but a few years at most. There are but few persons left on the earth who were old enough at that time to be witnesses of that sign. And these are fast passing away.

The oldest person in America is now in his one hundred and twenty-fourth year. He is a colored man in Tennessee. The following interesting account of this man may not be out of place in this connection:—

“THE OLDEST MAN IN AMERICA.”

“Dr. A. A. Davidson, of Mayfield, Kentucky, writes as follows to the Louisville Courier-Journal:—

“Seeing an extract from the Newport News in your paper concerning the death of ‘Aunt Hannah,’ colored, who was one hundred and twenty-two years old, has induced me to write you the following:—

“On the farm of Dr. Scott, on the head-waters of Forkydeer river near Milan, Gibson County, Tenn., there lives an old negro named Fortune Snow, who is in his one hundred and twenty-fourth year.¹ In June, 1872, I went to see him; and I will tell you what I saw when I got to the house. I met an old snaggle-toothed gentleman sixty-five years old, who told me his ‘grandpap’ was in the house, and he soon came tripping down the stairs as nimble as a fifteen-year-old boy. He told me he was twenty-five years old when the Revolutionary war began. He belonged to Capt. Snow, who served during the war under General Marion; was born in South Carolina, and fought through the war under his master in nearly every battle. Yet he never has received a pension from the ‘best government the world ever saw.’”

“He said when he was about ninety years old he went totally blind and remained so two years. His hair, which was as white as wool, all came out. Subsequently his eyesight returned, and a new growth of hair came out, which is now about gray. He enjoys fine health. On examination with the ophthalmascope and otoscope, I found his sight and hearing to be good. He opened his Bible at the eighth chapter of Revelations and read the chapter distinctly without glasses. He goes hunting, and shoots squirrels and birds without glasses. He is very religious, and believes strongly in the ‘good God’ who preserved his life through the ‘old war’ and reads his Bible very constantly. He is the father of thirteen children, the oldest of whom would be over one hundred years if living, and he is living with his youngest child, who is fifty-three years old.

“Old Fortune said he was never sick in his life, and never took a dose of medicine from a doctor. He never has the toothache, and has not an unsound tooth in his mouth, nor any other kind.

“He moved from South Carolina to Alabama where he lived fifty-three years, then came to Tennessee. Captain Snow, at his death, gave Mr. Chapman, his son-in-law, $500 to support old Snow the balance of his life; and Mr. Chapman lived on for forty-seven years, and died, and left old ‘Nig’ still living.

“I have been precise in giving his location, so that any one who doubts this may go and see him. Hundreds of people go to see him, and he is always glad to see company, and talks fluently and readily.

“He certainly is the last of the Revolutionists. He is about five feet six inches, weighs about one hundred and fifteen pounds, and is very black.”

But if this view of the generation should not be considered the true one, take any other view extant, and still we must come to the same conclusion, namely, that the end is near, even at the door. When the signs are fulfilled, then all the warnings against looking for it too soon are removed, for the danger now is in putting it off. So we now are warned against putting far away the day, and saying, “The Lord delayeth his coming.” “The wise shall understand.” Dan. 12: 10. Those who are awake to the subject will “discern the signs of the times.” “And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Rom. 13: 11.

“Yes, he will come, no longer fear, Though earth and hell assail: His word attests the moment near, And that can never fail.”

“Not many years their round shall run, Not many mornings rise, Ere all its glories stand revealed To our admiring eyes.”

M. E. CORNELL.

Battle Creek, Mich., Nov. 19, 1874.