A Presbyterian Minister upon the Second Advent.
[I HAVE just read an excellent little tract upon the second advent by Rev. E. P. Marvin, Presbyterian minister, Lockport, N. Y. Outside of professed Adventists, I have never seen a better statement of the subject. We prize it not only for the good words which it contains, but because we are glad to know that ministers in other denominations are waking up to this glorious subject. May the Lord bless this tract to the good of many. Believing that the readers of the SIGNS will appreciate it, I send it for publication. D. M. CANRIGHT.] As the first appearing of Christ was the great and blessed hope of the old dispensation, so his second appearing is the great and blessed hope of the new. As that was the supreme event of the past, so this is the supreme event of the future. His second appearing “without sin unto salvation,” in its manifested grandeur and glory, will contrast amazingly with his first appearing, in sorrow and shame to put away sin. He came once to be “despised and rejected of men.” He will come again “to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe.” He came once as a servant of servants; he will come again as the King of kings. He came once as a lamb; he will come again as a lion. He came once as a man; he will come again as God. He came first as a light to lighten the Gentiles; he will come again as a “flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came first as a suffering Saviour; he will come again as an awful judge. The world saw him last on a cross; it will see him next on a throne. The world saw him last crowned with thorns; it will see him next crowned with glory. Through all eternity we shall look back upon the first and second advents of Christ as the supreme events in the history of time. “That day” is the great central subject of unfulfilled prophecy. On that day the only king who has a right to reign, will receive his crown and his kingdom; his people will be glorified, and the groanings of creation will cease. The New Testament points us forward to his second appearing more frequently than it points us backward to his first appearing. The subject is met several hundred times in the New Testament. One verse of about every twenty-five contains such a reference. Peter devotes a large portion of two epistles to this theme, and tells us that Paul spoke of these things in all his epistles. No other theme is used more frequently to stimulate the church to fearless witness bearing, patient suffering, heavenly-mindedness, and to universal diligence. No other theme is used more frequently to arouse a deluded and slumbering world. It is held forth in the New Testament everywhere, as the very pole-star of the church. But the eye of the church has not always been clearly and steadily fixed upon this ever brightening star of hope. The apostolic church, for three centuries, was all alive to this hope. Tertullian calls it “the common doctrine of the whole church.” Mosheim, though a disbeliever in the doctrine, acknowledges its general prevalence in the early church. Says the commentator Hodge, “The second advent of Christ so clearly predicted by himself and his apostles, was the object of long-cherished expectation to all the early Christians. So general was this expectation that Christians were characterized as “those who love His appearing.” Says Mr. Barnes, “The earnest expectation of the coming of the Lord Jesus became one of the marks of early Christian piety.” The church, secularized by Constantine and corrupted by the Romish Hierarchy, was too well pleased to reign as kings and priests without Christ, and that “blessed hope” was obscured. Origen, the first great rationalizer and Universalist, labored to rob the church of pre-millennial faith. During the great Reformation of the sixteenth century and the times of the English Commonwealth, this hope was again revived. Then followed a season in which the doctrine of his personal appearing and reign passed somewhat into neglect and contempt. Mr. Whitby, who was an Arian, wrote against pre-millennialism, and introduced the idea of the spiritual reign of Christ for a thousand years, which he confessed as a new hypothesis. This mystical view which postpones his appearing for at least a thousand years, and relaxes that constant watchfulness enjoined by the Scriptures, has prevailed widely for one hundred and fifty years. But this neglected and glorious doctrine, which is related to almost every other doctrine of the Scriptures and almost every duty of life, is reviving again throughout all Christendom. Most of the great symbols of the church, ancient and modern, are pre-millennial; none of them are post-millennial. The founder of Methodism was probably a pre-millennialist. The prayer-book of the Church of England is clearly pre-millennial. The last article in the Westminster Confession of Faith is absolutely incompatible with any other view. The marginal references used by the American Bible Society are pre-millennial in their bearing. They cannot be made otherwise without wresting the Scriptures. Lange’s Commentary on Revelation is pre-millennial. Dean Alford, one of the greatest scholars and critics of the age, says in his Greek Testament (a work which continues unparalleled): “The majority of writers, both in number and in learning and research, adopt the pre-millennial advent, following, as it seems to me, the plain, undeniable sense of the sacred text of the book itself. I have again and again raised my earnest protest against evading the plain sense of words, and spiritualizing in the midst of plain declarations of fact. That the Lord will come in person to our earth; that his risen elect will reign here with him and judge; that during that blessed reign the power of evil will be bound and the glorious prophecies of peace and truth on earth find their accomplishment; this is my firm persuasion, and not mine alone, but that of multitudes of Christ’s waiting people, as it was that of his primitive apostolic church, before controversy blinded the eyes of the Fathers to the light of prophecy.” Some tell us that they see no interest or practical importance in it. I will select from the multitude, some specimen passages to show what interest the New Testament writers felt in this subject, and what use they made of it:— Does the spirit of slumber come over you, and do you long for livelier emotions and a more wakeful spirit? Read and ponder the Saviour’s repeated account of the awful condition of the infatuated world, the electric suddenness of his appearing, and the thrilling admonitions to unceasing watchfulness. “At midnight the cry was made!” “Watch therefore,” etc. “Therefore let us not sleep,” etc. “Let your loins be girded about,” etc. Do you need motives to diligence in the service of the Lord? Read the parables that set forth your duties in his absence, and your proportionate reward when he comes. Talents are committed to you for use in his absence. Diligence on your part will secure a plaudit and a reward when he comes. Pounds are delivered to you with the injunction, “Occupy till I come.” When he returns your reward is proportioned to your fidelity. “Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me.” The apostolic church, in its unequaled missionary zeal, was inspired largely by this “blessed hope.” The most solemn and emphatic admonitions to preachers are enforced by the coming of the Lord. “I charge thee therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season.” “When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”