p. 116 | THE SECOND ADVENT by F. G. Brown

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Dec 9, 1852

THE SECOND ADVENT.

By F. G. Brown

[The following article is from the pen of F. G. Brown, published in the Midnight Cry of 1843. It shows the sweet, melting Spirit that was so richly poured out on those who stood in defense of those truths which waked up the Advent body, and called them out from the world and the churches.]

"It has been said that none but the weak-minded embrace our views. This I deny. However, it is ordinarily the common people that receive the truths of the gospel, and I am willing to be ranked among them. God has made religious truth for this class, and not for philosophers exclusively. Had he deposited truth where the learned and the scientific alone could have discovered it, how few could have ever become acquainted with the way of life and salvation. How surprised I am, that we have all along been soaring to high after truth, just as though we were so many astronomers, seeking for some new world in the far-off heavens, a discovery of which is essential to a perfect knowledge of the material universe. Why truth, and all the truth necessary for our good here, may be found by any mind that will stoop low enough to pick it up. Cold reason will never find out God unto perfection—philosophy, unaided, could never trace the path to heaven for a single soul; and if the philosopher would enter there himself, he has got to come down from his giddy hight, and enter thither by the same narrow, humble way, with the most untutored mind. The Christian scheme abases the pride of the wise. How common it is for us, when endeavoring to instruct such in regard to the plan of salvation, to present before their minds the simplicity of the gospel plan; and on the other hand, how natural is it for them to stumble at it, because they can discover none of man's wisdom in it. 'The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom,' &c. Now, if these first, and, to the carnal heart, most humbling principles of our religion, are recognized and enforced by us in the great work of regeneration, they ought always to be kept in view in the investigation of all truths that affect our state after conversion. How much are any of us in advance of the Corinthian Christians, to whom Paul said, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, &c.

I do not despise learning, nor do I pretend to more than ordinary ability in discovering the truth of God's word. I think I have sought to let the Bible speak in its own simple tongue. Still, I now see that I have sometimes erred in daring to try its doctrines by my own poor reason alone. Now, the Bible talks to me in the simplest strains, as though it took it for granted that I am just what I confess myself to be—a poor, ignorant sinner. I still aver that I read in it the doctrine of the glorious Advent of my Saviour immediately at hand—and I solemnly maintain before High Heaven, that by the united agency of the Word and the Spirit, I have been taught this precious and sublime truth. God has seemed, too, to show me all the other great truths that cluster around it: he has shown me just the condition of the world, the church, and the ministry, until my soul could no longer bear the sight. He has given me a view of his holy law, with bold and impious man for 6000 years trampling it under his feet—and shown me, as never before, the blood of his Son spurned and rejected, until Justice and Love have seemed to rend the heavens in their cry for the immediate and sudden destruction of a guilty world. Never before have I had fellowship with Christ in his sufferings—never have I felt before as though I could weep my soul away at the feet of Jesus, as I have seen the indignity heaped upon him while he was on his mission of mercy to earth, and the manner in which his offers of love have been treated while he has been seated on the mediatorial throne. Oh, how can my soul any longer submit to his suffering further indignities from graceless, wicked man? And here I might ask, why is it that God has given us, and that without any effort on our part, just such views of his law, of the love of Christ—in a word, just such views of all truth, as reasoning before hand, it would appear that we ought to have, in order to qualify us to sound the midnight cry. Why has he been so particular as to make his Word blaze with instruction, not upon one point only, the doctrine of the Second Advent, but

on all those points that are remotely connected with it?

Much is said about having charity for those who do not think with us; and certainly we ought to exercise it toward all who are humble seekers after truth, but to none who are willfully ignorant of it. We ought to have just such charity for them as we do for impenitent sinners, of whom there are two classes—one that seems half disposed to be Christians, and the other determined not to be Christians at all. I believe that to be a Second Advent believer, it is just as necessary that the aid of the sovereign and gracious power of God should be called in, as in the act of conversion. The cases are very analogous. Why, says the sinner, I do not see proofs of the inspiration of the Scriptures:—Another says, I do not see conversion and future punishment taught there; and another, I do not understand what you mean by experiencing religion. But soon, perhaps, God's Spirit begins to move, conscience is alarmed, the sinner is convicted, he is converted—he is in a new world. He says, I have awoke from a dream; why did you not arouse me, and cry in my ear—destruction?

Just so as to this doctrine. I know not why I was opposed to it, nor why I did not see the proofs of it before. I am glad that I am converted; and it would be as difficult to convince me that it is not of God, as to convince a young convert by argument, that all that he professed to experience when first converted, is not of God. As I have said once, so I say again, it may be God's purpose to select only a portion of his servants to give the cry, while he keeps it a secret to others. Hence, our opponents ought to have charity for us, for we may be doing God's will:—for one, I am solemnly persuaded that I am.

As to an 'abusive spirit,' I candidly think that the other side need to be cautioned a little more than ourselves. I will not be abusive—it has never been my disposition to be; but can I do otherwise than to speak of things just as God, without any effort or desire of mine, has shown them to me? Ought not our brethren to allow that God may have shown us the condition of the world and the church in a light in which they themselves do not see it?"