Meeting in New York by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 24, 1878

Meeting in New York.

By Editor

As the programme for the day sessions of the Conference to be held in New York, October 30, 31, and November 1, 1878, the following subjects are announced: Christ's second coming: Is it personal and visible? Is it pre-millennial? The first resurrection. The rapture of the church. Times of the Gentiles. The kingdom and the church. The present age and development of antichrist. The gathering of Israel. The judgment. History of the doctrine of the pre-millennial coming of Christ. The coming of the Lord in its relation to Christian doctrine. The blessed hope as a motive to holy living and active labor.

To those approving the call of the Conference, Bishop Vail of Kansas makes the following address:—

DEAR BRETHREN IN CHRIST : When from any cause some vital doctrine of God's word has fallen into neglect or suffered contradiction and reproach it becomes the serious duty of those who hold it not only strongly and constantly to reaffirm it, but to seek by all means in their power to bring back the Lord's people to its apprehension and acceptance. The precious doctrine of Christ's second personal appearing has, we are constrained to believe, long lain under such neglect and misapprehension. In the word of God we find it holding a most conspicuous place. It is there strongly and constantly emphasized as a personal and imminent event, the great object of the church's hope, the powerful motive to holy living and watchful service, the inspiring ground of confidence and the sorrows and sins of the present evil world, the event that is to end the reign of Death, cast down Satan from his throne, and establish the kingdom of God on earth. So vital indeed is this truth represented to be that the denial of it is pointed out as one of the conspicuous signs of the apostasy of the last days. Now, while casting no word of reproach upon those who may differ from us, we cannot be insensible to the fact that there has been a sad decline in our time from the clear, vivid, ardent faith of the early church in regard to this doctrine. Very many Christians have been taught to think of the coming of Christ as equivalent to their own death; others regard it as synonymous with the gradual diffusion of Christianity. Many, satisfied with this present world, have little desire for the return of the absent Lord, while here and there are those who boldly speak of such an event as only a "fascinating dream" destined never to be realized. But while we lament all this and can but regard it as an alarming symptom of the present state of religion, it is an occasion of the profoundest gratitude that there has within the last few years been such a powerful and widespread revival of this ancient faith. Looking over the church of God in all its branches, and listening to the clear and decisive testimony that is coming up in such volumes from teachers and pastors, expositors and lay-workers, evangelists and missionaries, it can but appear to us that after the long sleep of the church the wise are at last rising up and trimming their lamps in preparation for the coming of the bridegroom. In view of these facts it has seemed desirable that those who hold to the personal pre-millennial advent of Jesus Christ, and who are "looking for that blessed hope," should meet together in conference, as our honored brethren in England have recently done, to set forth in clear terms the grounds of their hope, to give mutual encouragement in the maintenance of what they believe to be a most vital truth for the present times, and in respond to our Lord's "Behold I come quickly," to voice the answer by their prayers and hymns and testimony, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."