ANXIOUS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 12, 1878

In this state of mind the Watchman, of Boston, confesses itself to be, in its issue of Nov. 7, 1878. But anxious about what? The answer to this question will surprise the reader, if he is susceptible of such an emotion. It says:—

“We confess that we look with some anxiety upon the spread of the views represented at the so-called Prophetic Conference held in New York last week.”

What is there to cause anxiety in these views? Were they not mainly this, that the coming of Christ is to be pre-millennial, personal, and visible, and that his coming is near? And does not the Bible plainly teach these views? Certainly. And the Watchman acknowledges its conviction on these points by hastening to add:—

“Of course we believe in the second coming of Christ as strongly as any one can.”

“Of course”! That is too plainly scriptural to be denied without denying the Bible. So “of course” we believe that; and we believe it too, “just as strongly as any one can.” Then the Watchman believes it just as strongly as the members of the Conference, just as strongly as any Adventist; nevertheless it has some anxiety about having such views spread abroad! It further says:—

“Nor would we dogmatize as to the time, holding that the great event may occur at any moment. [Put in a whole line of exclamation points here.] Nevertheless we have a decided conviction, based, we think, on God’s word, that the Heavens must retain our Lord many ages yet.”

It may come at any moment, but cannot come for many ages! according to the Watchman’s decided convictions! But of course it believes “in the second coming of Christ as strongly as any one can”! Truly the Watchman is entitled to the palm as the prince of somnambulists.

The reasons why it is so anxious about these views, as we gather from the article, are briefly these:—

1. Just as likely as not somebody, by-and-by, will fix the time and prepare an ascension robe! Well, nobody ever did yet put on an ascension robe, and it will be time enough to have anxiety about them when they do. Some have foolishly set times in these later years, it is true; but this has not destroyed the truth; and nothing would tend more directly to remedy this evil than to have religious teachers and religious papers take a right view of this question, instead of throwing it away altogether, as most of them do.

2. If these views obtain, men will despair of the conversion of the world; and this, the Watchman declares, is one of the absurdities for which it cannot account, in “an age which has seen the conversion of the Sandwich Islands, of Madagascar, of the South Sea, of the Karens, of the Teloogoos, an age which has seen the destruction of the pope’s temporal power, and which has seen the doors of China and Japan thrown open to the heralds of the cross.”

Very fine as rhetorical periods, but how much real progress do these declarations indicate? From our distant point of observation we cannot tell. But in view of these, the Watchman thinks it very absurd not to suppose that Christianity is about to triumph over the world.

There is something else to consider: What is the religious condition of our own country, where Christianity is put under the most favorable circumstances and seen in its best light? Let the Watchman itself answer. From the same number of the paper which contains the article we are reviewing, we give the article found in another column entitled, “Fiat Religion.” Read that and then judge of the prospect on the Watchman’s own showing. It there admits that “our Christianity in modern times” is cursed with a “fiat religion” which is worth no more than a piece of paper upon which is stamped, “This is a dollar,” of no intrinsic value, and containing no promise to pay. Such religion, so largely prevailing among professors, it admits is a fraud and a sham.

Suppose, now, that all heathendom was converted to the condition of the United States, how near would the world then be to being converted? Take Cincinnati for an example, in the very bosom of our continent. A letter to the Christian Union based on a sermon by Mr. Wendt of the First Unitarian church of that city, gives the following statistics: Population, 250,000; Catholics, 65,000; foreign Protestants, 20,000; Jews, 7,000. Members of English-speaking Protestant churches, 12,000! To represent the number, young and old, brought more or less under the influence of the English-speaking Protestant churches, it is supposed that this actual membership of 12,000 might be multiplied by five, which would give 60,000. But even this liberal estimate leaves nearly 100,000 who have no church relationship, and who are beyond the direct influence of the gospel.

What a picture is this! Nearly half the inhabitants of that favored city utterly godless in their lives, and half of the remainder Roman Catholics and Jews!

But further, the Cincinnati Gazette recently prepared a careful estimate of the numbers attending service at the various Protestant churches in that city, and they amounted to 12,487; while at the same hour, Sunday evening, there are frequently 15,000 persons at the four hill-top resorts, or beer gardens, to say nothing of the hundreds of concert halls, theatrical performances, and beer saloons in all parts of the city. And while the average evening audience in the very largest and finest churches in the city is from 75 to 100 persons, from 3,000 to 5,000 persons are reveling in music, beer, and tobacco smoke in any one of these sinful hill-top pleasure resorts. And Cincinnati is not an exception. As she is, so are other cities. But the Watchman is anxious, fearing it will injure this state of things to have the Lord’s coming preached. No; the only thing that could arouse the masses would be to have a united cry raised from pulpit and press, to warn the world of this impending event.

In view of the facts named above, it is exasperating to see men, presumably sensible in other respects, fall into ecstasies over the conversion of the world because the pope has lost his temporal power, and Japan and China permit missionaries to come within their domain. Mr. Moody was right when he said that the world was like a ship just going upon the breakers, and the most we can do is to rescue a few from the coming wreck; and this doctrine of the Lord’s soon-coming, so far from paralyzing missionary effort, is the only thing which will arouse men to that degree of earnestness and consecration which will make their ministrations effectual in saving souls.

3. Another point on which the Watchman scares badly is this: This doctrine will make infidels. The same cry, we doubt not, has been raised against every movement in the path of religious progress and reform. But where are some of the infidels made by this doctrine? Show us some who once believed in the Bible and Christianity who will avow that they are now opposed to these things because the doctrine of Christ’s second coming has been preached. No such can be found; and it is time that these wind-inflated bugbears should collapse.

One can but notice how strikingly these opponents of the Lord’s coming are fulfilling the words of the apostles; for Paul says that they will be crying, Peace and safety—yes, reveling in the idea of the world’s conversion—when sudden destruction comes upon them; 1 Thess. 5:3; and Peter says that right in the last days, men will coolly inquire, as they are doing all over the land to-day, Where is the promise of his coming? If the Lord cannot come so long as persons can be found who have “decided convictions” that he cannot come for ages yet, then he never can come; for that class will always be found; and they will be in the majority at the moment when the Saviour actually appears. But majorities cannot save them then. Truth alone will avail.