THE COURAGE OF DESPERATION.
By Editor
SAYS the Prophetic News, edited by Rev. M. Baxter:— More mysterious than ever is the unbroken continuance of European peace up to the present month of September, 1893, notwithstanding the indications furnished by Daniel’s Dates that a great European war might be expected to break out not later than the present autumn, so as to change the existing Twenty-three Kingdoms or States inside Cæsar’s Roman Empire territories into the confederacy of Ten Kingdoms prefigured by the ten-horned wild beast of Dan. 7: 24. Mr. Baxter has set dates, times without number, for the close of this dispensation, the appearance of antichrist, the destruction of existing European governments, and various other events clustering around the end. Times without number he and his followers have been disappointed. But with a courage born of desperation he plunges madly on in the darkness of the fog evolved by his own principles of interpretation, only to suffer disappointment again. One of the greatest manifestations of antichrist has been before him for hundreds of years, clearly portrayed in prophecy, but he does not know it. The ten horns of Daniel 7 were developed between the years of A. D. 356 and 476, but he cannot see it. The Lord has said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man,” but this seems of little weight with him. He believes that we must know definitely when these things occur, that they must develop through certain channels; and, holding to these erroneous principles, his great endeavor is to force God’s word to sustain them. But it will never do it. God has a message to give to the world. In harmony with the words of Christ, that message will not be a definite time message. It is a message calling men back to the worship of the true God, the faith as it is in Christ, and the observation of all God’s commandments. Until this message goes to the world, God will hold the winds of universal strife. This he has declared in his word. There may be slight outbreaks of war, but there will be no universal war till the message of God is given to the world, as outlined in Rev. 14: 6-12. Mr. Baxter is said to have great courage to still pose as an interpreter of prophecy, in the face of all his disappointments. He has, but it is the courage of desperation. We pity those who are so blinded. We pity even more those who are longing for the right way, but who are led by the blind in a way they know not. We entreat them to turn to the Lord and his word.