Source Book for Bible Students

“A” Entries

Advent, First, World Preparation for.—The general acquaintance with the Greek language that then existed throughout the East, in consequence of the conquests of Alexander the Great; and the previous translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into that language by the direction of Ptolemy Philadelphus, were no doubt designed, in the providence of God, to prepare the way of the Lord, and to facilitate the spread of the gospel. That state of general peace which existed throughout the Roman Empire under the prosperous reign of Augustus Casar, was peculiarly fitted for the advent of the Prince of Peace.—“Sketches of Church History,” Rev. James Wharey, pp. 16, 17. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1840. SBBS 5.1

Advent, First, World’s Longing for.—The best men in Rome were demanding reformation, and were longing for and predicting a new era. Cicero prophesied: “There shall no longer be one law at Rome, and another at Athens; nor shall it decree one thing today, and another tomorrow; but one and the same law, eternal and immutable, shall be prescribed for all nations and all times, and the God who shall prescribe, introduce, and promulgate this law shall be the one common Lord and Supreme Ruler of all.”-“The Rise of the Mediaval Church,” Alexander Clarence Flick, Ph. D., Litt. D., pp. 42, 43. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909. SBBS 5.2

Advent, First, Hopelessness of Times.—The noblest spirits of the time felt that the state of things was utterly hopeless. Society could not reform itself; philosophy and religion had nothing to offer: they had been tried and found wanting. Seneca longed for some hand from without to lift up from the mire of despair; Cicero pictured the enthusiasm which would greet the embodiment of true virtue, should it ever appear on earth; Tacitus declared human life one great farce, and expressed his conviction that the Roman world lay under some terrible curse. All around, despair, conscious need, and unconscious longing. Can greater contrast be imagined than the proclamation of a coming kingdom of God amid such a world; or clearer evidence be afforded of the reality of this divine message, than that it came to seek and to save that which was thus lost?-“The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah,” Rev. Alfred Edersheim, M. A., D. D., Ph. D., book 2, chap. 11 (Vol. I, pp. 259, 260), 8th edition. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1896. SBBS 5.3

Advent, First, General Expectancy of the Times.—A general expectation existed, not only among the Jews, but throughout the East, founded upon the predictions of the Jewish prophets, that a very extraordinary personage should arise in Judea, about this time, who should establish a kingdom over the whole world. Hence the alarm of Herod, when it was said that Christ was “born king of the Jews;” and the consequent murder of the children of Bethlehem.—“Sketches of Church History,” Rev. James Wharey, p. 16. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1840. SBBS 5.4

Advent, First, Roman Historians on Expectancy of.—The majority [of the Jews] were deeply impressed with a persuasion that it was contained in the ancient writings of the priests, that it would come to pass at that very time, that the East would renew its strength, and they that should go forth from Judea should be rulers of the world.—“The Works of Tacitus,” book 5, par. 13, Oxford Translation, revised. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1863. SBBS 6.1

A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East, that it was fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on some one who should go forth from Judea. This prediction referred to a Roman emperor, as the event showed; but the Jews, applying it to themselves, broke out into rebellion.—“The Lives of the Twelve Casars,” C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Translation by Alexander Thompson, M. D. Philadelphia: Gebbie & Co., 1883. SBBS 6.2

Advent, First, Jewish Historian on Expectancy of.—What did the most elevate them [the Jews] in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how, “about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth.” The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea.—“Wars of the Jews,” Flavius Josephus, book 6, chap. 5, par. 4. SBBS 6.3

Advent, First.—See Seventy Weeks. SBBS 6.4

Advent, Second, Christ’s Purpose to Return.—To this end will Christ come again to receive his people unto himself, that where he is, there they may be also. The Bridegroom’s departure was not upon divorce. He did not leave us with a purpose to return no more. He hath left pledges enough to assure us of the contrary. We have his word, his many promises, his sacraments, which show forth his death till he come; and his Spirit to direct, sanctify, and comfort, till he return. We have frequent tokens of love from him, to show us he forgets not his promise, nor us.—“The Saint’s Everlasting Rest,” Richard Baxter. Philadelphia: H. Cowperthwait, 1828. SBBS 6.5

Advent, Second, Our Lord Eagerly Awaits It.—Our Lord Jesus is now sitting at the Father’s right hand, looking forward with eager expectancy to the day of his return to earth; yet he waits patiently, that men may have the fullest opportunity at this present time. His eye, and the eye of his follower who is in close, intelligent touch with him and his plans, look forward together expectantly to the same day and event. And the expectant heart on earth prays, “Come, Lord Jesus.”-“Quiet Talks About Our Lord’s Return,” S. D. Gordon, p. 163. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 6.6

Advent, Second, Crowning Event of Redemption.—The second coming of Christ is the crowning event of redemption; and the belief of it constitutes the crowning article of an evangelical creed. For we hold that the excellence of faith is according to the proportion of the Lord’s redemptive work which that faith embraces. Some accept merely the earthly life of Christ, knowing him only after the flesh; and the religion of such is rarely more than a cold, external morality. Others receive his vicarious death and resurrection, but seem not to have strength as yet to follow him into the heavens; such may be able to rejoice in their justification without knowing much of walking in the glorified life of Christ. Blessed are they who, believing all that has gone before,-life, death, and resurrection,-can joyfully add this confession also: “We have a great High Priest who is passed through the heavens;” and thrice blessed they who can join to this confession still another: “From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” For it is the essential part of our Redeemer’s priesthood that, having entered in to make intercession for his people, he shall again come forth to bless them.—“Ecce Venit,” A. J. Gordon, D. D., pp. 2, 3. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1889. SBBS 6.7

Advent, Second, a Joyful Hope.—Would it not rejoice your hearts if you were sure to live to see the coming of the Lord, and to see his glorious appearing and retinue? If you were not to die, but to be caught up thus to meet the Lord, and to be changed immediately into an immortal, incorruptible, glorious state, would you be averse to this? Would it not be the greatest joy that you could desire? For my own part, I must confess to you that death, as death, appeareth to me as an enemy, and my nature doth abhor and fear it. But the thoughts of the coming of the Lord are most sweet and joyful to me; so that if I were but sure that I would live to see it, and that the trumpet should sound, and the dead should rise, and the Lord appear before the period of my age, it would be the joyfulest tidings to me in the world. O that I might see his kingdom come! It is the character of his saints to love his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8), and to look for “that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). “The Spirit and the bride say, Come;” “even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:17, 20), come quickly, is the voice of faith, and hope, and love.—“Practical Works,” Richard Baxter, (23 vols.) Vol. XVII, “A Treatise of Death,” pp. 555, 556. Edition 1830. SBBS 7.1

Advent, Second, an Incentive to Godly Living.—Is holy living urged? This is the inspiring motive thereto: “That, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:12, 13. Is endurance under persecution and loss of goods enjoined? This is the language of the exhortation: “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.... For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:35-37. Is patience under trial encouraged in the Christian? The admonition is: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” James 5:8. Is sanctification set before us for our diligent seeking? The duties leading up to it culminate in this: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Is diligence in caring for the flock of God enjoined upon pastors? This is the reward: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly.... And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” 1 Peter 5:2-4. Is fidelity to the gospel trust charged upon the ministry? This is the end thereof: “That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Timothy 6:14. And again: “I charge thee in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the quick and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word.” 2 Timothy 4:1, 2. Space would fail us, indeed, to cite passages of this purport; they so abound that we may say that the key to which the chief exhortations to service and consecration are pitched in the New Testament is: “To the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:13.—“Ecce Venit,” A. J. Gordon, D. D., pp. 8, 9. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1889. SBBS 7.2

Advent, Second, Effect of Receiving the Hope.—To my mind this precious doctrine-for such I must call it-of the return of the Lord to this earth is taught in the New Testament as clearly as any other doctrine in it; yet I was in church fifteen or sixteen years before I ever heard a sermon on it. There is hardly any church that does not make a great deal of baptism, but in all of Paul’s epistles I believe baptism is spoken of only thirteen times, while he speaks about the return of our Lord fifty times; and yet the church has had very little to say about it. Now, I can see a reason for this; the devil does not want us to see this truth, for nothing would wake up the church so much. The moment a man takes hold of the truth that Jesus Christ is coming back again to receive his followers to himself, this world loses its hold on him. Gas stocks and water stocks and stocks in banks and railroads are of very much less consequence to him then. His heart is free, and he looks for the blessed appearing of his Lord, who, at his coming, will take him into his blessed kingdom.—“The Second Coming of Christ,” D. L. Moody, pp. 6, 7. Chicago: F. H. Revell, 1877.* SBBS 8.1

Advent, Second, the Hope of the Church.—The hope of the early Christians is not the hope of the average Christian now. It has become our habit to think of the change which comes at death, or our entrance into heaven, as the crowning point in the believer’s life, and the proper object of our hope. Yet the apostles never speak of death as something which the Christian should look forward to or prepare for. [p. 114] ... SBBS 8.2

The hope of the church, then, is the personal return of her Lord. As Dr. David Brown stated it in his book on the second advent, sixty years ago, “the Redeemer’s second appearing is the very pole-star of the church.” ... SBBS 8.3

It is evident that the early Christians not only looked back to a Saviour who had died for them, but forward to a Saviour who was to come. There were two poles in their conversion. Their faith was anchored in the past in the facts of the death and resurrection of the Lord, and also in the future in the assured hope of his return. It is manifest, therefore, that the second coming of the Saviour occupied a most important place in the gospel which the apostles preached, and which these Christians received. [pp. 118, 119]-Rev. John McNicol, B. A., B. D., in “The Fundamentals,” Vol. VI, chap. 8, pp. 114, 118, 119. Chicago: Testimony Publishing Company. SBBS 8.4

Advent, Second, a Neglected Doctrine.—“ This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven,” is the parting promise of Jesus to his disciples, communicated through the two men in white apparel, as a cloud received him out of their sight. When after more than fifty years in glory he breaks the silence and speaks once more in the Revelation which he gave to his servant John, the post-ascension Gospel which he sends opens with, “Behold, he cometh with clouds,” and closes with, “Surely I come quickly.” Considering the solemn emphasis thus laid upon this doctrine, and considering the great prominence given to it throughout the teaching of our Lord and of his apostles, how was it that for the first five years of my pastoral life it had absolutely no place in my preaching? Undoubtedly the reason lay in the lack of early instruction. Of all the sermons heard from childhood on, I do not remember listening to a single one upon this subject.—“How Christ Came to Church,” A. J. Gordon, D. D., pp. 20, 21. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1895. SBBS 8.5

Advent, Second, Doctrine Emphasized by Religious Leaders of the Past.—The great leaders who have left their impress on the history of the church did not discard this doctrine, but made it a real hope in their own lives. Martin Luther, in the midst of the throes of the Reformation, wrote, “I ardently hope that, amidst these internal dissensions on the earth, Jesus Christ will hasten the day of his coming.” The acute and learned Calvin saw that this was the church’s true hope. “We must hunger after Christ,” he said, “till the dawning of that great day when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of his kingdom. The whole family of the faithful will keep in view that day.” The intrepid soul of John Knox was nerved by this hope. In a letter to his friends in England he wrote: “Has not the Lord Jesus, in despite of Satan’s malice, carried up our flesh into heaven? And shall he not return? We know that he shall return, and that with expedition.” John Wesley believed this same truth, as is shown by his comment on the closing verses of Revelation: “The spirit of adoption in the bride in the heart of every true believer says, with earnest desire and expectation, ‘Come and accomplish all the words of this prophecy.’” It formed the burden of Milton’s sublime supplication: “Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth; put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty; take up that unlimited scepter which thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee. For now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed.” It was the ardent longing of the seraphic Rutherford: “O that Christ would remove the covering, draw aside the curtains of time, and come down! O that the shadows and the night were gone!” It was the prayer of Richard Baxter in the “Saint’s Everlasting Rest:” “Hasten, O my Saviour, the time of thy return. Send forth thine angels and let that dreadful, joyful trumpet sound. Thy desolate Bride saith, Come. The whole creation saith, Come. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” And if we would follow in the steps of these men, we will return to the simple, unmistakable New Testament type of experience, and, with faces uplifted towards the veil, within which the Lord of glory waits, and with hearts all aglow with a personal love for him, we will carry on through all our life and service the same apostolic prayer.—Rev. John McNicol, B. A., B. D., in “The Fundamentals,” Vol. VI, chap. 8, pp. 126, 127. Chicago: Testimony Publishing Company. SBBS 9.1

Advent, Second, Doctrine of All Scripture.—You cannot unthread this doctrine out of the Sacred Book, and have a living Word left. As well unthread the nerves out of the body, and have a living organism left. And you cannot unthread it out of the faith of the church without driving the knife to the heart of thousands of its godliest confessors. Say what men may, one thing stands well attested through the ages, that wherever this belief in the Lord’s literal return has gotten possession of men’s hearts, it has invariably exalted the authority of the Word of God, emphasized all the doctrines of grace, lifted high the cross of Christ, exalted the person and work of the Spirit, intensified prayer, enlarged beneficence, separated believers from the world, and set them zealously at work for the salvation of men.—Thomas Goodwin, D. D.* SBBS 9.2

Advent, Second, Doctrine of, Taught in the Creeds.—The Apostles’ Creed (shorter and older form): “He ascended into heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”-“A History of the Creeds of Christendom,” Philip Schaff, p. 21. SBBS 10.1

The Nicene Creed: “From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”-Id., p. 29. SBBS 10.2

Athanasian Creed: “He sitteth on the right hand of the Father God [God the Father] Almighty. From whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”-“The Creeds of the Greek and Latin Churches,” Henry B. Smith, D. D., and Philip Schaff, D. D., p. 69. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1877. SBBS 10.3

Advent, Second, Its Character.—More marvelous than the scenes at Pentecost, more startling than the fall of Jerusalem, more blessed than the indwelling of the Spirit or the departure to be with the Lord, will be the literal, visible, bodily return of Christ. No event may seem less probable to unaided human reason; no event is more certain in the light of the inspired Scripture. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.” Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7. SBBS 10.4

This coming of Christ is to be glorious, not only in its attendant circumstances, but also in its effects upon the church and the world. Our Lord predicted that he would return “in his own glory, and the glory of his Father, and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26. He will then be revealed in his divine majesty. Once during his earthly ministry, on the mount of transfiguration, there was given to his followers a glimpse of the royal splendor he had for a time laid aside, and in which he will again appear.—Prof. Charles R. Erdman, D. D., in “The Fundamentals,” Vol. XI, p. 89. Chicago: Testimony Publishing Company. SBBS 10.5

Advent, Second, Premillennial.—If any one should say, What great difference does it make whether the coming of Christ be before or after the millennium, I answer, Many vast and most important differences! If his second coming is to be before the millennium, it brings the great hope of the church nearer by a thousand years. It places it at the close of this very age in which we live, and which has run already eighteen hundred years of its course, instead of at the close of a future age which has not yet commenced! It brings the awful judgment of the living wicked nearer by a thousand years, as well as the resurrection of those who sleep in Jesus. SBBS 10.6

It defines the proper object of evangelistic and missionary labor; not to convert the whole world, as is too often taken for granted, but to bear witness to the truth, and to gather out of all nations a people for his name. It places before the church the glorious personal appearing of Christ as the grand and proper object of her hope, her desire, and her expectation.—“A Key to Open the Main Lock of Prophecy,” H. Grattan Guinness, pp. 11, 12. SBBS 10.7

Advent, Second, Fundamental, Literal, Visible, Glorious.—The return of Christ is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. It is embodied in hymns of hope; it forms the climax of the creeds; it is the sublime motive for evangelistic and missionary activity; and daily it is voiced in the inspired prayer: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” SBBS 10.8

It is peculiarly a Scriptural doctrine. It is not, on the one hand, a dream of ignorant fanatics, nor, on the other, a creation of speculative theologians; but it is a truth divinely revealed, and recorded in the Bible with marked clearness, emphasis, and prominence. [p. 87] ... SBBS 11.1

The resurrection of the dead will take place when he returns: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits; then they that are Christ’s at his coming.” ... The time of the return of the Lord will be, furthermore, the time of the reward of his servants.... The real coronation day of the Christian is not at death, but at “the appearing of Christ:” ... “when the Chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.” 1 Peter 5:1-4. [pp. 91-93]-Prof. Charles R. Erdman, D. D., of Princeton Theological Seminary, in “The Fundamentals,” Vol. XI, pp. 87, 91-93. Chicago: Testimony Publishing Company. SBBS 11.2

Advent, Second, a Literal Coming in Glory.—Jesus himself certainly lays claim to an actual reign. He will come as the Son of man in the clouds, and will establish the kingdom which shall absolve all earthly kingdoms (Mark 13:26; 14:62).... SBBS 11.3

The resurrection of Jesus was not that coming again; for he appeared personally only to the disciples.... SBBS 11.4

A complete termination of earthly history is expected.* The Son of man unrecognized on earth shall appear again unmistakably in a glory that shall bring terror to his enemies and perfect redemption to his faithful. Matthew 24:27, 30. The offenses shall be removed from his kingdom, and the chosen shall be gathered and reunited into an eternal community of glory.—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X, art. “Second Advent,” pp. 322, 323. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company. SBBS 11.5

Advent, Second, Not at Death.—“Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Some people say that means death; but the Word of God does not say it means death. Death is our enemy, but our Lord hath the keys of death; he has conquered death, hell, and the grave.... Christ is the Prince of Life; there is no death where he is; death flees at his coming; dead bodies sprang to life when he touched them or spoke to them. His coming is not death. He is the resurrection and the life. When he sets up his kingdom, there is to be no death, but life forevermore.—“The Second Coming of Christ,” D. L. Moody, pp. 10, 11. Chicago: F. H. Revell, 1877.* SBBS 11.6

Advent, Second, Calvin on Rewards at.—Scripture uniformly enjoins us to look with expectation to the advent of Christ, and delays the crown of glory till that period.—“Calvin’s Institutes,” Vol. II, book 3, chap. 25. SBBS 11.7

Advent, Second, Reformers on Approach of.—Commencing immediately from the time of Luther and Zwingle’s first heaven-made discovery of the Antichrist of prophecy being none other than the Roman popes, there was also impressed on them, with all the force and vividness of a heavenly communication, the conviction of the fated time being near at hand, though not indeed yet come, of Antichrist’s final foredoomed destruction, and therewith also of Christ’s kingdom coming, and God’s great prophetic mystery ending.—“Hora Apocalyptica,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. II, pp. 140, 141, part 3, chap. 5, 2nd edition. London: Seeley, Burnside, and Seeley, 1846. SBBS 11.8

Latimer: “St. Paul saith, ‘The Lord will not come till the swerving from faith cometh’ (2 Thessalonians 2:3), which thing is already done and past: Antichrist is already known throughout all the world. Wherefore the day is not far off.”-“Third Sermon on the Lord’s Prayer;” cited in “The Reign of Christ on Earth,” D. T. Taylor, p. 144. Boston: Scriptural Tract Repository, 1882. SBBS 12.1

Ridley: “The world, without doubt-this I do believe and therefore I say it-draws towards an end.”-“Lamentation for the Change of Religion;” cited in “The Reign of Christ on Earth,” p. 145. SBBS 12.2

John Knox: “Has not the Lord Jesus, in despite of Satan’s malice, carried up our flesh into heaven? And shall he not return? We know that he shall return, and that with expedition.”-Letter to the Faithful in London, 1554; cited in “The Reign of Christ on Earth,” p. 151. SBBS 12.3

Luther: “I hope the last day will not be long delayed. The darkness grows thicker around us, and godly servants of the Most High become rarer and more rare. Impiety and licentiousness are rampant throughout the world.... But a voice will soon be heard thundering forth: Behold, the bridegroom cometh. God will not be able to bear this wicked world much longer, but will come, with the dreadful day, and chastise the scorners of his word.”-“The Table Talk or Familiar Discourse of Martin Luther,” pp. 7, 8, translated by William Hazlitt. London: David Bogue, 1848. SBBS 12.4

“Ah! loving God, defer not thy coming.... The Lord be praised, who has taught us to sigh and yearn after that day.... I hope that day is not far off.... The world cannot stand long, perhaps a hundred years at the outside.”-Id., pp. 324, 325. SBBS 12.5

Advent, Second, Cotton Mather on Message of.—The Ruler of the world, returning to us, will send forerunners, who shall show his approach and the speediness of his coming. And before the very great, and very greatly to be dreaded, day of the Lord come, he will send Elias, or men endued with his spirit and power, who with a loud voice shall show themselves sons of thunder concerning the Lord’s hastening to us. It behooveth any servant of God, who would be named a vigilant, and not a drowsy servant, to perform this office of Elias.... SBBS 12.6

But it is not to be wondered at, if there be very few who would believe such a preacher.... For when the Lord shall come, he will find the world almost void of true and lively faith (especially of faith in his coming); and when he shall descend with his heavenly banners and angels, what else will he find, almost, but the whole church like a dead carcass, as it were, miserably putrefied with the spirit and manners and endearments of this world?-Dr. Cotton Mather’s Famous Latin Preface to His “Manuductio ad Ministerium” (Student and Preacher), Deduced into Ordo Verborum, pp. 5-7; with a literal translation on the opposite page, by Mr. Hugh Walford. London: R. Hindmarsh, 1789. SBBS 12.7

Advent, Second, Rapidly Approaching.—The blessedness of Christ’s coming consists, not only in its relieving the believer living on earth, from all the sins and sorrows, the weaknesses and temptations, of his present state, but also in the complete gathering together and reunion of the whole family of God, in the glories of their risen bodies, to dwell together with their Saviour in the heavenly Jerusalem.... At the coming of Christ, the bodies of all the saints are raised, and the whole church of Christ is gathered together. And this glory is rapidly approaching. Believer! lift up your head, and rejoice with a hope full of immortality.—Bickersteth; cited in “Commentary upon the Holy Bible,” Henry and Scott, notes on Daniel 7:15-28. London: The Religious Tract Society. SBBS 12.8

Advent, Second, Not Preceded by a Temporal Millennium.—In Matthew 24 he describes his second personal advent and the great events which shall precede it. He reveals the course of this dispensation and its close. He foretells wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecutions, false prophets, iniquities, apostasies, the preaching of the gospel “as a witness” to all nations, false signs and wonders, desolations, woes, and lastly, the great tribulation, and he closes with the words, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” SBBS 13.1

That these verses describe his personal advent in glory, is certain, and equally certain is it that this comprehensive prophecy contains no allusion whatever to a previous millennium of blessedness and peace.—“A Key to Open the Main Lock of Prophecy,” H. Grattan Guinness, pp. 7, 8. SBBS 13.2

The doctrine of a post-millennial advent is so novel and modern that no Christian church has ever woven it into her creed.—“The Reign of Christ on Earth,” Daniel T. Taylor, p. 423. Boston: Scriptural Tract Repository, 1882. SBBS 13.3

Advent, Second, Nature Awaits.— SBBS 13.4

Sure there is need of social intercourse,
Benevolence, and peace, and mutual aid,
Between the nations in a world that seems
To toll the death-bell of its own decease,
And by the voice of all its elements
To preach the general doom. When were the winds
Let slip with such a warrant to destroy?
When did the waves so haughtily o’erleap
Their ancient barriers, deluging the dry?
Fires from beneath, and meteors from above,
Portentous, unexampled, unexplained,
Have kindled beacons in the skies; and the old
And crazy earth has had her shaking fits
More frequent, and foregone her usual rest.
Is it a time to wrangle, when the props
And pillars of our planet seem to fail,
And nature with a dim and sickly eye
To wait the close of all?
-“The Poetical Works of William Cowper,”
“The Task” (1785), book 2, lines 44-66. SBBS 13.5

Advent, Second, The Response of the Church.—If any say, Where is the promise of his coming, when so many ages are past since this was written? let them know he is not slack to his people, but long-suffering to his enemies. His coming will be sooner than they are aware, sooner than they are prepared, sooner than they desire; but to his people it will be seasonable. The vision is for an appointed time, and will not tarry; he will come quickly. The church joyfully receives Christ’s promise, declaring her firm belief in it, Amen, so it is, so it shall be. And expresses her earnest desire, Even so, come, Lord Jesus.—“Commentary upon the Holy Bible,” Henry and Scott, notes on Revelation 22:20, 21. London: The Religious Tract Society. SBBS 13.6

Advent, Second, Alexander Campbell on Nearness of.—Now the cry is heard in our land, “Come out of her, my people, that you partake not of her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues.” The Lord Jesus will soon rebuild Jerusalem, and raise up the tabernacle of David which have so long been in ruins. Let the Church prepare herself for the return of her Lord, and see that she make herself ready for his appearance.—“The Christian System,” Alexander Campbell, p. 302. Pittsburgh: Forrester and Campbell, 1839.* SBBS 14.1

Advent, Second, Signs of Its Near Approach.—Never did the church witness such a constellation of signs of the near coming of Christ as now. “The branches of the fig tree are full of sap, and the summer is at hand.” Assuredly I am not ignorant that a portion of the church has become gradually weary of the long tarrying, and has fallen into doubt. You also shake your head, and are of the opinion that we have long talked of “the last time.” Well, use this language, and increase the number of the existing signs by this new one. Add that of the foolish virgins, who, shortly before the midnight hour, maintained “the Lord would not come for a long time.”-F. W. Krummacher, cited by A. J. Gordon, D. D., in “Ecce Venit,” p. 200. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1889. SBBS 14.2

Advent, Second, Prophecies of, Fulfilling Now.—2. We believe in the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; that he is very God; and in his substitutionary death, as an atonement for sin; in his bodily resurrection and ascension; and the certainty of his second appearance “without sin unto salvation.” SBBS 14.3

3. We believe that our Lord’s prophetic word is at this moment finding remarkable fulfilment; and that it does indicate the nearness of the close of this age, and of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. SBBS 14.4

4. We believe that the completed church will be translated to be forever with the Lord.—Three of the Eight Resolutions adopted by the Bible Conference on the Return of Our Lord, held in Philadelphia, May 28, 29, 30, 1918; printed in the Christian Herald (New York), June 12, 1918, p. 720. SBBS 14.5

Advent, Second, a Truth for This Age.—Never did a Christian age so greatly need to have its attitude readjusted to the primitive standard as our own,-commerce, so debased with greed of gold; science, preaching its doctrine of “dust thou art;” and Christian dogmatics, often darkening hope with its eschatology of death! The face of present-day religion is to such degree prone downward that, if some Joseph appears, with his visions of the sun, moon, and stars, men exclaim: “Behold, this dreamer cometh.” But they that say such things plainly declare that they do not “seek a country.” SBBS 14.6

There is a tradition that Michael Angelo, by his prolonged and unremitting toil upon the frescoed domes which he wrought, acquired such a habitual upturn of the countenance that, as he walked the streets, strangers would observe his bearing, and set him down as some visionary or eccentric. It were well if we who profess to be Christians of the apostolic school had our conversation so truly in heaven, and our faces so steadfastly set thitherward, that sometimes the “man with the muck-rake” should be led to wonder at us, and to look up with questioning surprise from his delving for earthly gold and glory. SBBS 14.7

Massillon declares that, “in the days of primitive Christianity, it would have been deemed a kind of apostasy not to sigh for the return of the Lord.” Then, certainly, it ought not now to be counted an eccentricity to “love his appearing,” and to take up with new intensity of longing the prayer which he has taught us: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Amid all the disheartenment induced by the abounding iniquity of our times; amid the loss of faith and the waxing cold of love within the church; and amid the outbreaking of lawlessness without, causing men’s hearts to fail them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth,-this is our Lord’s inspiring exhortation: “Look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.”-“Ecce Venit,” A. J. Gordon, D. D., pp. 10-12. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1889. SBBS 15.1

Advent, Second, Moody on Watching for.—We have the same authority for the second coming of Christ that we have for his birth, his death, and his resurrection.... SBBS 15.2

When his coming will be, we don’t know. The true attitude of every child of God is just to be waiting and watching. We can get an idea of what the glory of those mansions will be which he is preparing for us from the length of time he is taking to get them ready. Maybe he is massing his forces for the final victory. “The time of our redemption draweth nigh.”-“Moody at Home,” pp. 176-178. SBBS 15.3

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Stirring Events of Preceding Decades.—Never, perhaps, in the history of man, were the times more ominous, or pregnant with greater events than the present.... As if the signal had gone throughout the world quick as lightning, nations, instead of advancing slowly to regeneration, start at once into life. And from the banks of the Don to the Tagus, from the shores of the Bosporus to Lapland, and, wide Europe being too narrow a field for the spirit of change that now ranges simultaneously throughout the world, from the new states of South America to the hitherto unchangeable China, skirting Africa and traversing Asia, to the extremity of the globe on the frozen north, there are signs of change in every country under heaven.—“The Signs of the Times,” Rev. Alexander Keith, Vol. I, pp. 1, 2, 3rd edition. Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1833. SBBS 15.4

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Prophetic Study in England in Decades Preceding.—The study of prophecy was of a more vague and general character during the early years of the nineteenth century. Such books as Faber’s “Dissertations on the Prophecies,” published in 1806, were mainly taken up with principles apart from any supposed application of them to contemporaneous events, or to such as were coming immediately. But about the year 1812 this study of prophecy took a more definite shape. In that year a book, which was afterwards translated by Mr. Irving, was published by a Spanish Jesuit named Lacunza, under the assumed title of Juan Josafat Ben Ezra, on “The Second Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty.” In this work he argues that the church had never condemned the true doctrine, as he deemed it, of the millennium, but only the errors by which it had been perverted. In the next year appeared Cuninghame’s “Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets,” in which the period of 1260 years mentioned in the Apocalypse was fixed as extending from the edict of Justinian, in 533 a. d., to the French Revolution, being the period during which the celebrated code of Justinian was in force. For the French Revolution became the means of the introduction of the code of Napoleon, by which the previous code was abrogated. Till that epoch the code of Justinian remained the basis of ecclesiastical law. In the ensuing year, Mr. Hatley Frere published his “Combined View of the Christian Prophecies.” This was a book which acquired a great reputation amongst those who afterwards made up the School of Prophecy, which was now in infancy.—“The History and Doctrines of Irvingism,” Edward Miller, M. A., Vol. I, pp. 10, 11. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878. SBBS 15.5

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Agitation of Question in Europe.—The end comes, proven in a thorough and convincing manner from the Word of God and the latest events; invalidating totally all prejudice against waiting for the coming of our Lord, or reckoning of the time; showing plainly how prelate Bengel erred seven years in reference to the great decisive year; for not 1836, but the year 1843, is the terminus, at which the great struggle between light and darkness will be finished, and the long expected reign of peace of our Lord Jesus will commence on earth.—“The End Near,” title page of pamphlet by Leonard Heinrich Kelber. Stuttgart, 1835. SBBS 16.1

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Church of England Clergyman on the Year 1844.—There appears to be no presumption in the attempt to direct the anxious mind to the chronological periods which God has given, and to inquire how far they support these anticipations. SBBS 16.2

I have done so, as have likewise almost all that have gone before me in these studies; and the results of my inquiries, as they run throughout the whole of this work, and as they appear in the chronological chart in my former work, must, by this time, be familiar to the reader. It will be perceived they all point to a very early period, the year 1844; and although it is fashionable to object to the fixing of dates, yet so long as it is said, “Things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,” I see not on what sufficient ground.—“An Historical Exposition of the Prophecies of the Revelation of St. John,” Matthew Habershon, pp. 285, 286. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1841. SBBS 16.3

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Origin of, in America.—What is known as the “Advent Movement” originated with William Miller, who was born at Pittsfield, Mass., Feb. 15, 1782, and died in Low Hampton, N. Y., Dec. 20, 1849. He bore a good reputation as a farmer and citizen, serving under a captain’s commission in the War of 1812, and was a diligent student and a great reader, although he had but a common school education. For some years he was an avowed deist, but, as he said, “found no spiritual rest,” until in 1816 he was converted and united with the Baptists.... SBBS 16.4

At that time very little was heard from pulpit or press respecting the second coming of Christ, the general impression being that it must be preceded by the conversion of the world and the millennium, a long period of universal holiness and peace. As Mr. Miller studied the prophetic portions of the Bible, however, he became convinced that the doctrine of the world’s conversion was unscriptural.... His conclusion was that the coming of Christ in person, power, and glory must be premillennial.... SBBS 16.5

Moreover, as a result of his study of prophetic chronology, he believed not only that the advent was at hand, but that its date might be fixed with some definiteness. Taking the more or less generally accepted view that the “days” of prophecy symbolize years, he was led to the conclusion that the 2300 days referred to in Daniel 8:13, 14, the beginning of which he dated from the commandment to restore Jerusalem, given in 457 b. c. (Daniel 9:25), and the 1335 days of the same prophet (12:12), which he took to constitute the latter part of the 2300 days, would end coincidently in or about the year 1843. The cleansing of the sanctuary, which was to take place at the close of the 2300 days (Daniel 8:14), he understood to mean the cleansing of the earth at the second coming of Christ, which, as a result of his computations, he confidently expected would occur some time between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, the period corresponding to the Jewish year.—“Special Reports: Religious Bodies, 1906,” part 2, p. 11; Bureau of the Census. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. SBBS 16.6

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Reached All Parts.—One or two on every quarter of the globe have proclaimed the news, and agree in the time-Wolff, of Asia; Irwin, late of England; Mason, of Scotland; Davis, of South Carolina; and quite a number in this region are, or have been, giving the cry. And will not you all, my brethren, examine and see if these things are so, and trim your lamps, and be found ready?-“Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ About the Year 1843,” William Miller, Lecture 16, p. 238. Boston: Joshua V. Himes, 1842. SBBS 17.1

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Publications Sent Worldwide.—As early as 1842, second advent publications had been sent to every missionary station in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, both sides of the Rocky Mountains.... The commanders of our vessels and the sailors tell us that they touch at no port where they find this proclamation has not preceded them, and frequent inquiries respecting it are made of them.—“Exposition of Matthew 24,” E. R. Pinney, pp. 8, 9; cited in “The Great Second Advent Movement,” J. N. Loughborough, p. 105. SBBS 17.2

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844, in Orient.—In 1831 Joseph Wolff, D. D., was sent as a missionary from Great Britain to labor among the Jews of Palestine. He, according to his journals, down to the year 1845, proclaimed the Lord’s speedy advent in Palestine, Egypt, on the shores of the Red Sea, Mesopotamia, the Crimea, Persia, Georgia, throughout the Ottoman Empire, in Greece, Arabia, Turkey, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Cashmere, Hindostan, Tibet, in Holland, Scotland, Ireland, at Constantinople, Jerusalem, St. Helena, also on shipboard in the Mediterranean, and in New York City to all denominations. He declares that he has preached among Jews, Turks, Mohammedans, Parsees, Hindoos, Chaldeans, Yesedes, Syrians, Sabeans, to pashas. sheiks, shahs, the kings of Organtsh and Bokhara, the queen of Greece, etc.—“Voice of the Church,” p. 343; cited in “The Great Second Advent Movement,” J. N. Loughborough, p. 101. SBBS 17.3

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; A World-wide Proclamation.—An English writer, Mourant Brock, thus remarks: “It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of the near return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice of warning raised, but also in America, India, and on the continent of Europe. I was lately told by one of our German missionaries that in Wirtemberg there is a Christian colony of several hundreds, one of the chief features of which is the looking for the second advent. And a Christian minister from near the shores of the Caspian Sea has told me that there is the same daily expectation among his nation. They constantly speak of it as ‘the day of consolation.’ In a little publication, entitled ‘The Millennium,’ the writer says that he understands in America about 300 ministers of the Word are thus preaching ‘this gospel of the kingdom;’ whilst in this country, he adds, about 700 of the Church of England are raising the same cry.”-Advent Tracts, Vol. II, p. 135; cited in “Bible Tracts,” Vol. II, “The Three Angels,” J. N. Andrews, pp. 23, 24. Rochester: Advent Review Office, 1855. SBBS 17.4

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Numbers of All Denominations in America.—We have no means of ascertaining the number of ministers, and others, who have embraced the advent faith. We only know that there are several hundred congregations, and a still larger number of ministers, who have publicly professed the faith, besides many who still remain in the churches of the land. Those who have espoused this cause have honestly believed in the coming of the Lord “about a. d. 1843.” And, as honest men, they have kept to their work of sounding the alarm. All peculiarities of creed or policy have been lost sight of, in the absorbing inquiry concerning the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom. Those who have engaged in this enterprise are from all the various sects in the land. Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant, Primitive Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist, Close Communion Baptist and Open Communion Baptist, Calvinistic and Arminian Baptists, Presbyterians, Old and New School Congregationalists, Old and New School Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, etc.—The Advent Shield and Review, May, 1844, Vol. I, p. 90. Boston: Joshua V. Himes. SBBS 18.1

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Children Proclaimed Message.—In this connection we will notice how the Lord wrought to introduce the proclamation in those countries where the law forbade the preaching of anything contrary to the “established church.” Sweden was one of those countries. There the Lord used little children to introduce the work. The first of this manifestation was in the summer of 1843, in Eksjo, southern Sweden. A little girl, only five years of age, who had never learned to read or sing, one day, in a most solemn manner, sang correctly a long Lutheran hymn, and then with great power proclaimed “the hour of his judgment is come,” and exhorted the family to get ready to meet the Lord; for he was soon coming. The unconverted in the family called upon God for mercy, and found pardon. This movement spread from town to town, other children proclaiming the message. The same movement among children was manifest to some extent in Norway and Germany. SBBS 18.2

In 1896, while holding meetings in seventeen different parts of Sweden, I passed through several places where the children had preached in 1843, and had opportunity to converse with those who had heard the preaching, and with men who had preached when they were children. I said to one of them, “You preached the advent message when you were a boy?” He replied, “Preached! Yes, I had to preach. I had no devising in the matter. A power came upon me, and I uttered what I was compelled by that power to utter.”-“The Great Second Advent Movement,” J. N. Loughborough, p. 140. SBBS 18.3

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Experience in Sweden.—In the year 1843, a religious movement occurred among the people in Karlskoga Parish, in Örebro Lan. The leaders in this movement were children and young men, who were called “rapare.” These preached with divine power, and proclaimed before the people, with great decision, that the hour of God’s judgment had come. SBBS 18.4

In the fall of the same year, I, O. Boqvist, then fifteen years of age, with another young man, Erik Walbom, eighteen years of age, became so influenced by this unseen power that we could in no wise resist it. As soon as we were seized by this heavenly power, we commenced to speak to the people, and to proclaim with loud voice that the judgment hour had come, referring them to Joel 2:28-32 and Revelation 14:6, 7. SBBS 19.1

The people congregated in large numbers to listen to us, and our meetings continued both day and night, and a great religious awakening was the result. Young and old were touched by the Spirit of God, and cried to the Lord for mercy, confessing their sins before God and man. SBBS 19.2

But when the priest in the church was apprised of all this, many efforts were put forth to silence us.... We were arrested, and on the following day were placed in custody in #Orebro prison. Here we were associated with thieves in cell 14, as though we had committed some great crime.... SBBS 19.3

Through the sympathy and pleadings of the warden, we were released and permitted to return to our homes. The cruel treatment we had received threw us into a long siege of fever. After a few weeks we were able to resume our preaching, which brought on a fresh out-burst of persecution against us. But this time a prominent parishioner presented our case to King Oscar I, and secured freedom for us.—O. Boqvist, in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Battle Creek, Mich., Oct. 7, 1890; Vol. 67, No. 39, p. 612. SBBS 19.4

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; The Cry as the Seventh Month Came.—Reader, have you heard this astounding “cry,” this last “midnight cry,” which has so suddenly awakened the virgins, who were slumbering and sleeping during the tarrying of the vision? Have you heard it while it has been borne on the wings of the wind to every advent band in the land, and aroused them simultaneously from their slumbers, electrifying them with its startling appeal? If you have not, then it is high time to awake out of sleep, and listen to its solemn notes. The cry has gone forth, that the Lord, “whose goings forth are from everlasting,” is to come in judgment this present month!-The Midnight Cry (New York), Friday, Oct. 11, 1844; Vol. VII, No. 15, p. 113. SBBS 19.5

Note.—When the spring of 1844 did not bring the coming of the Lord, the disappointment was keen. Believers found comfort, however, in the idea of the “tarrying time” in the parable of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom. Some taught that the true ending of the prophetic period marking the cleansing of the sanctuary must be on the “tenth day of the seventh month,” as in the typical cleansing of the sanctuary. This day fell upon October 22 that year. About July this idea seized upon hearts with a compelling force, revived the believers, and what was called “the midnight cry” began.—Eds. SBBS 19.6

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; “The Midnight Cry.”—At first the definite time was generally opposed; but there seemed to be an irresistible power attending its proclamation, which prostrated all before it. It swept over the land with the velocity of a tornado, and it reached hearts in different and distant places almost simultaneously, and in a manner which can be accounted for only on the supposition that God was in it. It produced everywhere the most deep searching of heart and humiliation of soul before the God of high heaven. It caused a weaning of affections from the things of this world-a healing of controversies and animosities, a confession of wrongs, a breaking down before God, and penitent, broken-hearted supplications to him for pardon and acceptance. It caused self-abasement and prostration of soul, such as we never before witnessed.—The Midnight Cry (New York), Thursday, Oct. 31, 1844 (Vol. VII, No. 18, p. 140). SBBS 19.7

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Working for the Children.—Now is the time to lay our children upon the altar. In some cases, mothers have taken their little ones into their closets, and prayed with them, and seen their prayers answered in their conversion. In one house four children, being left at home last Monday evening, held a prayer meeting, and the next morning there was a marked change in their deportment, and they were all rejoicing in the Lord. One of the children, when she came downstairs, said, “Father, we held a prayer meeting last night, and we all got religion.” May the Lord help the parents to cherish the tender plants, and seek the watering of the Spirit.—The Midnight Cry, Friday, Oct. 11, 1844 (Vol. VII, No. 15, p. 117). SBBS 20.1

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Putting Away Sin.—We feel sensible of our many imperfections. Whilst we have contended for what we believe to be truth, we can see that pride of opinion and self have arisen. When new truths have been presented, we have been slow to receive them; we have been asleep during the tarrying of the vision, and we have not labored with that ardor we should have done, had we so fully realized the nearness of the judgment. We have been slow of heart to believe all that Moses and the prophets have spoken, and all our labors and toils appear to us as nothing; and that at best we have been but unprofitable servants. We can therefore only offer the prayer of the publican,-God be merciful to us sinners. SBBS 20.2

We feel that we are now making our last appeal, that we are addressing you through these columns for the last time. In this crisis we must stand alone. If any are hanging upon our skirts, we shake them off. Your blood be upon your own heads. We ask forgiveness of God and all men, for everything which may have been inconsistent with his honor and glory; and we desire to lay ourselves upon his altar. Here we lay our friends and worldly interests, and trust alone in the merits of Christ’s atoning blood, through the efficacious and sanctifying influence of God’s Holy Spirit, for pardon and forgiveness and acceptance at the Father’s mercy-seat. May the blessing of God rest upon all of us; and that we may all meet in God’s everlasting kingdom, is the prayer of your unworthy servant, J. V. Himes. SBBS 20.3

The above was written in Boston, with the expectation that this would be the last paper. I heartily join in the prayer and confession expressed by Bro. H.—N. Southard, editor of the Midnight Cry, Saturday, Oct. 12, 1844 (Vol. VII, No. 16, p. 128). SBBS 20.4

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; When the Time Passed.—My own conviction still is, the Lord is at the door. For the event of his coming I, through grace, shall quietly and patiently wait. But I must add, that I have now no confidence in any definite point of time in the future. I shall, through grace, endeavor to “watch and keep my garments,” believing that the Lord will now “come as a thief.”-George Storrs, in the Midnight Cry, Oct. 31, 1844 (Vol. VII, No. 18, p. 138). SBBS 20.5

We have been mistaken in a belief to which we thought ourselves conducted by the Word and Spirit and Providence of God. But the Word stands sure, however we may err: and the promise is true: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” The Lord will lead his obedient children. We have an unwavering trust that he will cause our disappointment and trial to work together for our good. We shall humbly watch the providences of God, and we know he will vindicate his truth and faithfulness. Let him be honored, though we may be humbled.—Id., Editorial, p. 140. SBBS 20.6

As many of our brethren and sisters have disposed of their substance, and given alms, agreeable to Luke 12:33, in the confident expectation of the speedy coming of the Lord, I wish to have immediate provision made for the comfort and wants of all such persons, and families, by the advent brethren.—J. V. Himes, in the Midnight Cry, Oct. 31, 1844. SBBS 21.1

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; On Wm. Miller’s Prophetic Date.—Professor Bush, in writing to Mr. Miller, said: “In taking a day as the prophetical time for a year, I believe you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high names of Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Faber, Scott, Keith, and a host of others, who have long since come to substantially your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods mentioned by Daniel and John do actually expire about this age of the world; and it would be strange logic that would convict you of heresy for holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominently in the notices of these eminent divines.” “Your results in this field of inquiry do not strike me as so far out of the way as to affect any of the great interests of truth or duty.”-“A Brief History of William Miller,” 4th edition, p. 200. Boston: Advent Christian Publication Society, 1915. SBBS 21.2

Note.—William Miller’s correspondent was Prof. George Bush, the Presbyterian commentator, professor of Hebrew at the University of New York. SBBS 21.3

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; Prophetic Date Correct, Some See Mistake as to Event.—Since the tenth day of the seventh month has passed, and we are disappointed in not seeing our Lord, it seems necessary to define our position again. This we most cheerfully do. But first please indulge us a few moments, in expressing our great disappointment in not seeing our Lord at the time expected. We did believe that he would come at that time; and now, though we sorrow on account of our disappointment, yet we rejoice that we have acted according to our faith. We have had, and still have, a conscience void of offense, in this matter, towards God and man. God has blessed us abundantly, and we have not a doubt but that all will soon be made to work together for the good of his dear people, and his glory. SBBS 21.4

We cheerfully admit that we have been mistaken in the nature of the event we expected would occur on the tenth day of the seventh month; but we cannot yet admit that our great High Priest did not on that very day, accomplish all that the type would justify us to expect. We now believe he did.—The Voice of Truth, Nov. 7, 1844, Joseph Marsh, editor; cited in the Advent Review, Auburn, N. Y., August, 1850. SBBS 21.5

Note.—Some thus began to see that, while the position that the 2300 years ended in 1844 was absolutely sound, they had misapprehended the event that was then to take place. Others began to get hold of the fact that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not this earth, as they had supposed, but the antitypical sanctuary, or temple, in heaven above. In his “Great Second Advent Movement,” page 193, J. N. Loughborough says: SBBS 21.6

“Hiram Edson, of Port Gibson, N. Y., told me that the day after the passing of the time in 1844, as he was praying behind the shocks of corn in a field, the Spirit of God came upon him in such a powerful manner that he was almost smitten to the earth, and with it came an impression, ‘The sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven.’ He communicated this thought to O. R. L. Crosier, and they together carefully investigated the subject. In the early part of 1846 an elaborate exposition of the sanctuary question from a Bible standpoint, written by Mr. Crosier, was printed in the Day Star, a paper then published in Canandaigua, N. Y. In that lengthy essay it was made to appear that the work of cleansing the sanctuary was the concluding work of Christ as our high priest, beginning in 1844 and closing just before he actually comes again in the clouds of heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords.”-Eds. SBBS 21.7

Advent, Second, Movement of 1844; O. R. L. Crosier on the Sanctuary in Heaven.—The sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of 2300 days is also the sanctuary of the new covenant, for the vision of the treading down and cleansing, is after the crucifixion. We see that the sanctuary of the new covenant is not on earth, but in heaven.... SBBS 22.1

But as we have been so long and industriously taught to look to the earth for the sanctuary, it may be proper to inquire, by what Scriptural authority have we been thus taught? I can find none. If others can, let them produce it. Let it be remembered that the definition of sanctuary is “a holy or sacred place.” Is the earth, is Palestine, such a place? Their entire contents answer, No! Was Daniel so taught? Look at his vision. “And the place of his sanctuary was cast down.” Daniel 8:11. This casting down was in the days and by the means of the Roman power; therefore, the sanctuary of this text was not the earth, nor Palestine.—From an article on “The Sanctuary,” by O. R. L. Crosier, in the Day Star Extra, 1846; reprinted in the Advent Review, Auburn, N. Y., September, 1850; Vol. I, No. 3. SBBS 22.2

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; Rise of Seventh-day Adventists.—After the passing of this period [1844], many believers in the doctrine gave up the hope of Christ’s early advent, and others set new times. Some, however, reviewing the facts of history and prophecy, were confirmed in the belief that no mistake had been made in the fixing of the date of the fulfilment of the 2300 days, and were convinced also that the advent movement, rising spontaneously in many lands, was of God. As they further investigated the subject, it seemed to some that, while there had been no mistake in regard to the time, there had been error in interpreting the character of the event; that the sanctuary to be cleansed was not this earth, but the sanctuary in heaven, where Christ ministered as high priest; and that this work of cleansing, according to the Levitical type, was the final work of atonement, the beginning of the preliminary judgment in heaven which is to precede the coming of Christ, as described in the judgment scene of Daniel 7:9, 10, which shows an “investigative judgment” in progress in heaven, while events are still taking place on earth. SBBS 22.3

Further study of the subject of the “sanctuary” convinced them that the standard of this investigative judgment was to be the law of God as expressed in the ten commandments which formed the code that was placed in the ark of the covenant in the earthly sanctuary, a type of the heavenly sanctuary. The fourth precept of this law commanded the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, and they found nothing in Scripture commanding or authorizing the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. SBBS 22.4

The passage in Revelation 14:6-14, particularly that portion beginning with the phrase “the hour of his judgment is come,” they interpreted as a representation of the final work of the gospel; and understood that, with the coming of this “judgment” (in 1844, as they believed), a movement was imperative to carry to every nation and tongue a warning against following tradition, and a call to men to follow the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. They further believed that when this final message had been carried to all the world, Christ would come to reap the harvest of the earth. SBBS 22.5

As the result of these convictions, a few persons in New England, formerly First-day Adventists, began in 1845 and 1846 to observe the seventh day of the week, and to preach the doctrines which now constitute the distinctive tenets of the Seventh-day Adventists.... In 1849 they began the publication of a paper at Middletown, Conn. Later they established their headquarters at Rochester, N. Y., but in 1855 transferred them to Battle Creek, Mich., and in 1903 to Washington, D. C. At a conference held in Battle Creek in October, 1860, the name “Seventh-day Adventist Denomination” was for the first time formally adopted as the official designation of the denomination, and three years later a general conference was organized at that place, under that name.—“Special Reports: Religious Bodies, 1906,” part 2, pp. 21, 22; Bureau of the Census. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910. SBBS 22.6

The Sabbath was first introduced to the attention of the Adventist people at Washington, N. H. A faithful Seventh-day Baptist sister, Mrs. Rachel D. Preston, from the State of New York, having removed to this place, brought with her the Sabbath of the Lord. Here she became interested in the doctrine of the glorious advent of the Saviour at hand. Being instructed in this subject by the Adventist people, she in turn instructed them in the commandments of God, and as early as 1844 nearly the entire church in that place, consisting of about forty persons, became observers of the Sabbath of the Lord. The oldest body of Sabbath keepers among Seventh-day Adventists is therefore at Washington, N. H.... SBBS 23.1

From this place several Adventist ministers received the Sabbath truth during the year 1844. One of these was Elder T. M. Preble, who has the honor of first bringing this great truth before the Adventists through the medium of the press.—“History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week,” J. N. Andrews, pp. 505, 506, 3rd edition, 1887. SBBS 23.2

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; Sabbath Agitation in 1844.—Many persons have their minds deeply exercised respecting a supposed obligation to observe the seventh day.—Editorial in the Midnight Cry, New York, Sept. 5, 1844. SBBS 23.3

We last week found ourselves brought to this conclusion: There is no particular portion of time which Christians are required by law to set apart as holy time. If this conclusion is incorrect, then we think the seventh day is the only day for the observance of which there is any law.—Id., Sept. 12, 1844 (Vol. VII, No. 10, p. 76). SBBS 23.4

Note.—In his “Great Second Advent Movement,” J. N. Loughborough says of the agitation of the Sabbath question in the times following: SBBS 23.5

“The attention of the Adventists as a body was called to the Sabbath question by an essay on the subject from T. M. Preble, dated Feb. 13, 1845, and published in the Hope of Israel, Portland, Maine, Feb. 28, 1845. After showing the claims of the Bible Sabbath, and the fact that it was changed to Sunday by the great apostasy, he remarks: ‘Thus we see Daniel 7:25 fulfilled, the little horn changing “times and laws.” Therefore it appears to me that all who keep the first day for the Sabbath are the pope’s Sunday-keepers and God’s Sabbath-breakers.’ SBBS 23.6

“Soon after this there appeared in print an article from J. B. Cook, in which he showed that there is no Scriptural evidence for keeping Sunday as the Sabbath, and he used this terse expression: ‘Thus easily is all the wind taken from the sails of those who sail, perhaps unwittingly, under the Pope’s Sabbatic flag.’ SBBS 23.7

“Although Sabbath keeping by these two men was of short duration, they had set a ball rolling that could not easily be stopped. The catch phrases, ‘pope’s Sunday keepers,’ ‘God’s commandment breakers,’ and ‘sailing under the pope’s Sabbatic flag,’ were on the lips of hundreds who were eager to know the truth of this matter. Elder Joseph Bates, of Fairhaven, Mass., had his attention thus arrested, and he accepted the Sabbath in 1845. SBBS 23.8

“His experience was on this wise: Hearing of the company in Washington, N. H., that were keeping the Sabbath, he concluded to visit that church, and see what it meant. He accordingly did so, and on studying the subject with them he saw they were correct, and at once accepted the light on the Sabbath question. On returning to New Bedford, Mass., he met, on the bridge between New Bedford and Fair Haven, a prominent brother, who accosted him thus, ‘Captain Bates, what is the news?’ Elder Bates replied, ‘The news is that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God.’ ‘Well,’ said the man, ‘I will go home and read my Bible, and see about that.’ So he did, and when next they met, this brother had accepted the Sabbath truth and was obeying it.”-Pages 250, 251. SBBS 23.9

In The Review and Herald, March 29, 1864, Vol. XXIII, the following statement by T. M. Preble is quoted: “I have once been an observer of the seventh-day Sabbath. This was from about the middle of the year 1844 to the middle of 1847.” SBBS 24.1

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; J. B. Cook’s Sabbath Essay.—Every enactment relative to the religious observance of the first day originated with the Pope, or Potentates of Rome, and those who in this matter sympathize with them; but every enactment that ever originated in heaven, relative to the keeping of the Sabbath, confines us to the seventh day. The seventh day is “the Sabbath of the Lord our God.” SBBS 24.2

My space will not allow me to adduce the historic testimony; but the above I solemnly believe is the exact truth. From the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries we trace the efforts of the man of sin to set aside “the Lord’s day,” and introduce the first day-the day on which the European nations had been accustomed to idolize the sun. Let Scripture testify; and let us throw off the last rag of “the mother of harlots.” ... SBBS 24.3

Paul met his disciples on the first part of the first day,-answering to our Saturday night,-preaching all night “till break of day,” and then “departed,” or set off on his journey. If he had met them on our Sunday night, it would have been the Jewish second day. Then he did not keep the first day as a Sabbath. Those who dream that he did, only give evidence that they are so far “drunk with the wine” of papal Rome. My feelings were inexpressible when I saw this. The truth I must confess. SBBS 24.4

This is the true testimony. Thus easily is all the wind taken from the sails of those who sail, perhaps unwittingly, under the Pope’s Sabbatic flag.—Article on “The Sabbath,” by J. B. Cook, in “Advent Testimony” (1845); reprinted in the Advent Review, Auburn, N. Y., August, 1850. SBBS 24.5

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; Sir Isaac Newton on Last Reform Movement.—For as the few and obscure prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming were for setting up the Christian religion, which all nations have since corrupted; so the many and clear prophecies concerning the things to be done at Christ’s second coming, are not only for predicting but also for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness.—“Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John,” Sir Isaac Newton, part II, chap. 1, p. 252. London: J. Darby and T. Browne, 1733. SBBS 24.6

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; John Wesley on.—These three denote great messengers of God with their assistants; three men who bring messages from God to men.... Happy are they who make the right use of these divine messages.—“Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament,” John Wesley, on Revelation 14:6-9. Philadelphia: John Dickens, 1791. SBBS 24.7

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; Early View of the Three Messages.—“Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.” This interesting prophecy seems now to be receiving its accomplishment, and will probably continue to be fulfilled with increasing clearness during the remainder of the period into which we have entered.... SBBS 24.8

The flight of the second angel to declare the fall of Babylon seems to be still future, and by consequence also the preaching of the third angel.... SBBS 25.1

The going forth of the second and third angels being thus future, it does not become us to form conjectures as to the manner in which this vision shall be accomplished, whether by the preaching of living ministers, or by the louder and more awful voice of the divine judgments, accomplishing the fall of Babylon, and proclaiming aloud the awful punishment awaiting the worshipers of the beast.... SBBS 25.2

The foregoing view of the flight of the three angels was written in the year 1812; and I still adhere to it [edition of 1817].—“A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets of the Apocalypse,” William Cuning-hame, Esq., pp. 256-258, 4th edition. London: Thomas Cadell, 1843. SBBS 25.3

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; Former Russian Government on Seventh-day Adventists.—The Seventh-day Adventists in Russia show a splendid, live, and active work. The movement continues to take in new districts in the European and Asiatic Russias. They reveal a determinate zeal in their missionary efforts to win souls. The whole organization is primarily a missionary one.... Every church member must help forward the third angel’s message.... SBBS 25.4

The Seventh-day Adventists’ doctrine is very rational. Adventists do not believe in traditions, nor the sacraments of the church, nor the church hierarchy.... According to the doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventists, the Old and New Testaments are the only fountain of knowledge. It is the doctrine for the rule of life.—Official Publication by the Russian Government, 1911, on the Teaching and Work of Seventh-day Adventists; translation by J. T. Boettcher, missionary in Russia; quoted in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Nov. 13, 1911, p. 1, and the General Conference Bulletin, 1913, p. 87. SBBS 25.5

Note.—This book issued by the Russian government and containing 101 pages, was based on most thorough inquiry and observation by special agents of the government, who attended conferences while in session and studied methods. As a result, new regulations were formed, aimed to prevent local and union conference organization, all as part of the plan of discouraging religious propaganda, save that of the state church. In consequence a new campaign of banishment and imprisonment of evangelistic workers began, which ended only when the state church itself was overthrown in the political revolution of 1916.—Eds. SBBS 25.6

Advent, Second, Message of Revelation 14; Seventh-day Adventist Teaching, and the Work of Mrs. E. G. White.—Of course, these teachings [of the founders of the denomination] were based on the strictest doctrine of inspiration of the Scriptures. Seventh-day Adventism could be got in no other way. And the gift of prophecy was to be expected, as promised to the “remnant church,” who had held fast to the truth. This faith gave great purity of life and incessant zeal. No body of Christians excels them in moral character and religious earnestness. Their work began in 1853, in Battle Creek, and it has grown until now they have thirty-seven publishing houses throughout the world, with literature in eighty different languages, and an annual output of $2,000,000. They have now seventy colleges and academies, and about forty sanitariums; and in all this Ellen G. White has been the inspiration and guide. Here is a noble record, and she deserves great honor. Did she really receive divine visions, and was she really chosen by the Holy Spirit to be endued with the charism of prophecy? or was she the victim of an excited imagination? Why should we answer? One’s doctrine of the Bible may affect the conclusion. At any rate, she was absolutely honest in her belief in her revelations. Her life was worthy of them. She showed no spiritual pride and she sought no filthy lucre. She lived the life and did the work of a worthy prophetess, the most admirable of the American succession.—The Independent, New York, Aug. 23, 1915, in notice of the death of Mrs. White. SBBS 25.7

Advent, Second, Statement of Belief in, by Bible Conference, 1918.—1. We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, one and final Word of God; and, therefore, is our only authority. SBBS 26.1

2. We believe in the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; that he is very God; and in his substitutionary death, as an atonement for sin; in his bodily resurrection and ascension, and the certainty of his second appearance “without sin unto salvation.” SBBS 26.2

3. We believe that our Lord’s prophetic word is at this moment finding remarkable fulfilment; and that it does indicate the nearness of the close of this age, and of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. SBBS 26.3

4. We believe that the completed church will be translated to be for-ever with the Lord. SBBS 26.4

6. We believe that all human schemes of reconstruction must be subsidiary to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, because all nations will be subject to his rule. SBBS 26.5

8. We believe that the truths embodied in this statement are of the utmost importance in determining Christian character and action in reference to the pressing problems of the hour.—From the “Statement of Belief” adopted by the Bible Conference on the Return of Our Lord, held in Philadelphia, May 28-30, 1918; cited in “Light on Prophecy,” authorized report of the Philadelphia Conference, pp. 12, 13. SBBS 26.6

Advent, Second.—See Dark Day; Falling Stars; Robes, Ascension; Seven Churches, 493; Signs of the Times. SBBS 26.7

Adventists, First-day, see Advent, 22, 23; Seventh-day, see Advent, 22-26. SBBS 26.8

Ahasuerus.—See Medo-Persia, 309. SBBS 26.9

Alani.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, 440. SBBS 26.10

Alaric.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, 437, 444; Seven Trumpets, 499, 501, 502. SBBS 26.11

Alboin.—See Papacy, 348; Rome, 452, 454. SBBS 26.12

Alcasar, Jesuit, Author of Preterist Method of Interpretation.—See Antichrist, 30. SBBS 26.13

Alcohol.—See Health and Temperance. SBBS 26.14

Alemanni.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, 438, 440. SBBS 26.15

Alexander the Great.—See Advent, 5; Daniel, 133; Greece, 184-189; Medo-Persia, 311; Rome, 433. SBBS 26.16

Alexander, of Russia.—See Eastern Question, 148. SBBS 27.1

Anabaptists.—See Religious Liberty, 413. SBBS 27.2

Anglo-Saxons.—See Rome, Its Barbarian Invaders, 441. SBBS 27.3

Anthony, St.—See Monasticism, 314. SBBS 27.4

Antichrist, Vicar of Christ.—The apostle John, ... speaking of the apostasy, the coming of which he predicts, styles it the “Antichrist.” And we have also said that the Papacy, speaking through its representative and head, calls itself the “Vicar of Christ.” The first, “antichrist,” is a Greek word; the second, “vicar,” is an English word; but the two are in reality one, for both words have the same meaning. Antichrist translated into English is vice-Christ, or vicar of Christ; and vicar of Christ, rendered into Greek, is Antichrist-Antichristos. If we can establish this-and the ordinary use of the word by those to whom the Greek was a vernacular, is decisive on the point-we shall have no difficulty in showing that this is the meaning of the word “Antichrist,” even a vice-Christ. And if so, then every time the Pope claims to be the vicar of Christ, he pleads at the bar of the world that he is the Antichrist.—“The Papacy Is the Antichrist,” Rev. J. A. Wylie, p. 2. Edinburgh: George M’Gibbon. SBBS 27.5

Antichrist, Meaning of.—The term is a composite one, being made up of two words, “anti” and “Christ.” The name is one of new formation, being compounded, it would seem, for this very enemy, and by its etymology expressing more exactly and perfectly his character than any older word could. The precise question now before us is this, What is the precise sense of “anti” in this connection? ... SBBS 27.6

To determine this, let us look at the force given to this prefix by writers in both classic literature and Holy Scripture. First, the old classic writers. By these the preposition [Greek word, transliterated “anti”] is often employed to designate a substitute. That is, in fact, a very common use of it in the classic writers. For instance, [Greek words, transliterated “anti-basilileus”], he who is the locum tenens of a king, or as we now should say, viceroy, [Greek word, transliterated “anti”] having in this case the force of the English term “vice.” He who filled the place of consul was [Greek word, transliterated “anthupatos”], proconsul. He who took the place of an absent guest at a feast was styled [Greek word, transliterated “antideipnos”]. The preposition is used in this sense of the great Substitute himself. Christ is said to have given himself as an [Greek word, transliterated “antilutron”], a ransom in the stead of all. SBBS 27.7

Classic usage does not require us to give only one sense to this word, and restrict it to one who seeks openly, and by force, to seat himself in the place of another, and by violent usurpation bring that other’s authority to an end. We are at liberty to apply it to one who steals into the office of another under the mask of friendship; and while professing to uphold his interests, labors to destroy them.... SBBS 27.8

It is clear that Antichrist, as depicted by our Lord and by his apostle John, is to wear a mask, and to profess one thing and act another. He is to enter the church as Judas entered the garden-professedly to kiss his Master, but in reality to betray him. He is to come with words of peace in his mouth, but war in his heart. He is to be a counterfeit Christ-Christ’s likeness stamped on base metal. He is to be an imitation of Christ,-a close, clever, and astute imitation, which will deceive the world for ages, those only excepted who, taught by the Holy Spirit, shall be able to see through the disguise and detect the enemy under the mask of the friend.—Id., pp. 12, 13, 17, 18. SBBS 27.9

“The vicegerent of Jesus Christ,” which, by a singular concurrence, meant the same as the obnoxious term [Greek word, transliterated “Antichristos”]. “Antichrist,” originally signifying a “pro-Christ,” or “deputy Christ,” ... or “a false Christ,” who assumed his authority and acted in his stead.—“A New Analysis of Chronology,” Rev. William Hales, D. D., Vol. II, p. 505. SBBS 28.1

The meaning of St. John’s description of the Antichrist is ably set forth by Bishop Westcott in the Speaker’s Commentary on St. John’s Epistles. He there says, in words that contain the key of the question: “It seems most consonant to the context to hold that ‘Antichrist’ here describes one who, assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Christ.” That this is the true meaning of St. John’s description of the Antichrist has been pointed out by Elliott, L#ucke, Professor Rothe, and other able commentators, and, indeed, should be obvious to any one who studies the context of the passages. Wrong teaching about the person and work of Christ has ever been Satan’s great weapon against him. A comparison of all the passages where the word “Antichrist” occurs (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; and 2 John 7) shows that the antichristian spirit, which in St. John’s day animated the false but professedly Christian teachers of whom he speaks, took the form of corrupting the truth of the gospel with regard to the person and office of Christ.... SBBS 28.2

It is clear therefore that the term “deny” in these passages is not used in the infidel sense of denying the existence of God and Christ, but is applied to those who, while professing Christianity, corrupt the doctrine “as the truth is in Jesus,” and so prove false to Christ. Such teachers of apostasy are said by St. John to “deny” the Lord, and, by implication, to deny the Father also.... SBBS 28.3

In the above quoted passage, therefore (chap. 4:3), St. John, as Bishop Westcott shows, speaks of these false Christian teachers and corrupters of the truth of Christ as constituting the personification of “the spirit of the Antichrist” which was working in mystery in his day. Just so the successive heads of the papal apostasy constitute the personification of the spirit of the Antichrist in its open development and manifestation in that gigantic system of corruption of the truth of Christ which is represented by the Pope of Rome.—“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A., pp. 223-225. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. SBBS 28.4

Antichrist, Newman on.—All the offices, names, honors, powers which it [the church] claims depend upon the determination of the simple question, “Has Christ, or has he not, left a representative behind him?” Now, if he has, all is easy and intelligible. This is what churchmen maintain; they welcome the news; and they recognize in the church’s acts but the fulfilment of the high trust committed to her. But let us suppose for a moment the other side of the alternative to be true; supposing Christ has left no representative behind him. Well then, here is an association which professes to take his place without warrant. It comes forward instead of Christ and for him; it speaks for him, it develops his words, it suspends his appointments, it grants dispensations in matters of positive duty; it professes to minister grace; it absolves from sin; and all this of its own authority. Is it not forth-with according to the very force of the word “Antichrist”? He who speaks for Christ must either be his true ambassador or Antichrist; and nothing but Antichrist can he be, if appointed ambassador there is none. Let his acts be the same in both cases, according as he has authority or not, so is he most holy or most guilty. It is not the acts that make the difference, it is the authority for those acts. The very same acts are Christ’s or Antichrist’s according to the doer; they are Antichrist’s if Christ does them not. There is no medium between a vice-Christ and Antichrist.—John Henry Newman, in an article, “The Protestant Idea of Antichrist,” in the British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review, October, 1840, pp. 430-432. SBBS 28.5

Note.—This article was printed about a year before Newman joined the Church of Rome.—Eds. SBBS 29.1

Antichrist, Bishop of Rome.—Since the Bishop of Rome has erected a monarchy in Christendom, claiming for himself dominion over all churches and pastors, exalting himself to be called God, wishing to be adored, boasting to have all power in heaven and upon earth, to dispose of all ecclesiastical matters, to decide upon articles of faith, to authorize and interpret at his pleasure the Scriptures, to make a traffic of souls, to disregard vows and oaths, to appoint new divine services; and in respect to the civil government, to trample underfoot the lawful authority of magistrates, by taking away, giving, and exchanging kingdoms, we believe and maintain that it is the very Antichrist and the son of perdition, predicted in the Word of God under the emblem of a harlot clothed in scarlet, seated upon the seven hills of the great city, which has dominion over the kings of the earth; and we expect that the Lord will consume it with the spirit of his mouth, and finally destroy it with the brightness of his coming, as he has promised and already begun to do.—Article 31 of the Confession of Faith adopted in 1603 in the Synod held at Gap, under Henry IV, of France. SBBS 29.2

Antichrist, Views Concerning, in the Sixteenth Century.—At the time the Fathers of Trent assembled, there was a bitter and obstinate war declared against the authority, the institutions, the sacraments, the dogmas, the moral teaching, the discipline of the church, in the name of Scripture. The innovators found in our sacred books [the Scriptures] that the Pope was Antichrist, and the Church of Rome the harlot of Babylon, and her traditions “old wives’ fables,” and the priesthood the common property of all Christians, and faith alone sufficient for salvation, etc.—“Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent,” [1545-1563], Rev. A. Nampon, S. J. (R. C.), pp. 103, 104. Philadelphia: Peter F. Cunningham, 1869. SBBS 29.3

Antichrist, Wycliffe on.—He [Wycliffe] spoke and wrote against the worldly spirit of the Papacy, and its hurtful influence. He was wont to call the Pope Antichrist, “the proud, worldly priest of Rome.”-“History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Dr. Augustus Neander, sec. 2, div. 1, par. 2. SBBS 29.4

Antichrist, the Little Horn.—After studying the picture of Antichrist in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Thessalonians, one easily recognizes the “man of sin” in Daniel 7:8, 11, 20, 21, where the prophet describes the “little horn.”-The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, art. “Antichrist,” p. 560. SBBS 29.5

Antichrist, Rome’s Effort to Avoid the Application of.—So great a hold did the conviction that the Papacy was the Antichrist gain upon the minds of men, that Rome at last saw she must bestir herself, and try, by putting forth other systems of interpretation, to counteract the identification of the Papacy with the Antichrist. SBBS 29.6

Accordingly, towards the close of the century of the Reformation, two of the most learned doctors set themselves to the task, each endeavoring by different means to accomplish the same end, namely, that of diverting men’s minds from perceiving the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Antichrist in the papal system. The Jesuit Alcasar devoted himself to bring into prominence the preterist method of interpretation, ... and thus endeavored to show that the prophecies of Antichrist were fulfilled before the popes ever ruled at Rome, and therefore could not apply to the Papacy. On the other hand, the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the papal power by bringing out the futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies refer properly, not to the career of the Papacy, but to that of some future supernatural individual, who is yet to appear, and to continue in power for three and a half years. Thus, as Alford says, the Jesuit Ribera, about a. d. 1580, may be regarded as the founder of the futurist system in modern times. SBBS 29.7

It is a matter for deep regret that those who hold and advocate the futurist system at the present day, Protestants as they are for the most part, are thus really playing into the hands of Rome, and helping to screen the Papacy from detection as the Antichrist. It has been well said that “futurism tends to obliterate the brand put by the Holy Spirit upon popery.” More especially is this to be deplored at a time when the papal Antichrist seems to be making an expiring effort to regain his former hold on men’s minds.—“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A., pp. 16, 17. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. SBBS 30.1

Antichrist, Militz on.—Important in this regard is particularly his tract, De Antichristo, which has been preserved by Matthias of Janow in his larger work.... Under the “abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24) he [Militz] finds signified corruption in all the parts of the church. The apostasy of the Jewish nation from divine truth appears to him an antetype of the fall of the secularized church from evangelical truth. Antichrist, he supposes, is not still to come, but has come already.—“History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Neander, sec. 2, div. 2, par. 4. SBBS 30.2

Antichrist, the Papacy.—The word “antichrist” signifies one who puts himself in the place of Christ, and in opposition to him; and because the authority of Christ is resisted in this world in many different ways, it is said in the Word of God that “there are many antichrists;” and the Christian church has been taught by Holy Scripture that, before the course of this world is brought to a close, some apostate power would arise, which, from its proud and impious deeds, would bear that awful name, “The Antichrist.” SBBS 30.3

It is not fitting for private persons to speak confidently of what will be: and I confine myself to what has been, and to what is. SBBS 30.4

In one of my letters it is shown that the Pope of Rome, at his first inauguration, sits “in the temple of God,” and upon the altar of God; and is there worshiped as God. SBBS 30.5

It is also shown that at his coronation he requires himself to be styled “Ruler of the World.” Thus, on those solemn occasions, he sets himself in the place of Christ; and this is one attribute of Antichrist.... SBBS 30.6

Again: it is very observable that almost all the ancient Latin poets, speaking, as it were, with one voice, and ranging over a period of five hundred years, have described Rome as the seven-hilled city, and thus seem to have identified it with the city on the seven mountains, the queen of the earth in the age of the Apocalypse, in which city, if Christian prophecy be true, the antichristian power will appear. SBBS 30.7

Judging therefore from the past and from the present, I do not shrink from affirming that the Roman Papacy has rendered it impossible to doubt that in divers ways it has placed and does place itself in the room of Christ, and in opposition to him; and must therefore, as far as these acts of usurpation are concerned, in Scripture language, be called Antichristian.—“Sequel to Letters to M. Gondon, on the Destructive Character of the Church of Rome,” Chr. Wordsworth, D. D., pp. 251-254. London: Francis & John Rivington, 1848. SBBS 30.8

Antichrist, Teaching of the Waldenses Concerning.—Two hundred and fifty years before Wycliffe stood forth as the champion of Protestant truth; three hundred years before Huss and Jerome confronted the Council of Constance; four hundred years before Luther published his ninety-five theses in Wittemberg, the Waldenses wrote their treatise on Antichrist, a copy of which is contained in Leger’s folio volume, dated a. d. 1120. That treatise, whose doctrine is the same as their catechism date a. d. 1100, and was the doctrine they faithfully maintained century after century, thus begins, “Antichrist es falseta de damnation aterna cuberta de specie de la Verita, ... appella Antichrist, O Babylonia, O quarta Bestia, O Meretrix, O home de pecca, filli de perdition [Antichrist is falsehood, eternally condemned, covered with an appearance of truth, ... called Antichrist, the Babylon, the fourth beast, the harlot, the man of sin, the son of perdition].”-“History Unveiling Prophecy,” H. Grattan Guinness, D. D., pp. 90, 91. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. SBBS 31.1

Antichrist, Lord Cobham on.—The year following that of the martyrdom of Huss and Jerome [1416], witnessed the burning of Lord Cobham, at Smithfield. When brought before King Henry V and admonished to submit himself to the Pope as an obedient child, this was his answer: “As touching the Pope, and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor service, forasmuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great Antichrist, the son of perdition, the adversary of God, and an abomination standing in the holy place.”-Id., pp. 102, 103. SBBS 31.2

Antichrist, The Popes Constitute a Composite Picture of.—An experiment was recently tried in America of taking a photograph of a number of faces in succession, belonging to the same class of persons, say, of musicians, for example. The faces were taken in the same position, one likeness being superimposed, as it were, upon the other; and thus a composite photograph or general portrait was produced, compounded out of the principal features of them all. Just so, if we look down the long list of popes, and read of their personal lives, their public actions, their official words, their persistent persecutions, their arrogant pretensions, their sanction of false miracles, their instigation of wholesale massacres, their approval of the horrors of the Inquisition, together with that topstone of blasphemous pride, the claim to infallibility, we plainly recognize in the general portraiture thus obtained the very features of the representative person foretold by the prophets. His mouth has spoken “very great things;” he has been the invader of God’s prerogatives; he has appeared in the character of the lawless one, claiming to be above all law; he has been the persecutor of those who are faithful to “the testimony of Jesus;” and his manifestation has been accompanied by “lying wonders.” Thus, by fulfilling these prophecies, and by putting himself, and the Virgin, and the saints, and the priesthood in the place of Christ, and so acting against Christ, he has shown himself to be, what the name implies, The Antichrist.-“Daniel and the Revelation,” Rev. Joseph Tanner, B. A., p. 265. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1898. Antichrist, Historical Interpretation of.—Historical interpreters hold that the great fourfold prophecy of the “little horn” of the fourth beast in Daniel 7, the “man of sin” spoken of by St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, the “Antichrist” referred to by St. John in his epistles, and the “beast” of the Revelation under its seventh head revived, relates to a power terrible for mischief to the church of Christ, which was to begin to be manifested on the scene of the world at the remarkable crisis of the break-up of the old Roman Empire under the invasions of the Goths, and which was to continue in existence until annihilated by the coming of Christ,-in other words, that the true fulfilment of the Antichrist is to be found in the papal power, as represented by its dynastic head, the Pope for the time being-a power which began to rise into prominence at the very crisis predicted for the appearance of the Antichrist, and has exhibited all its foretold characteristics.—Id., pp. 12, 13. SBBS 31.3

Antichrist, Early Catholic Fathers on (Its Rise to Follow the Division of the Roman Empire).— SBBS 32.1

Tertullian (About A. D. 160-240) SBBS 32.2

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hinders must hinder, until he be taken out of the way.” What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins)? “And then shall be revealed the wicked one.”-“On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” chap. 24; “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. III, p. 563. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1885. SBBS 32.3

The very end of all things threatening dreadful woes-is only retarded by the continued existence of the Roman Empire.—“Apology,” chap. 32; “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. III, p. 43. SBBS 32.4

Lactantius (Early in the Fourth Century A. D.) SBBS 32.5

The subject itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take place; except that while the city of Rome remains, it appears that nothing of this kind is to be feared. But when the capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street, which the Sibyls say shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world? It is that city, that only, which still sustains all things.—“Divine Institutes,” book 7, chap. 25; “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VII, p. 220. SBBS 32.6

Cyril of Jerusalem (A. D. 318-386) SBBS 32.7

What temple then? He means the temple of the Jews which has been destroyed. For God forbid that it should be the one in which we are! [He means the church itself.—Editors.]-“Catechetical Lectures,” sec. 15, On 2 Thessalonians 2:4; “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VII, p. 108. New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1895. SBBS 32.8

But this aforesaid Antichrist is to come when the times of the Roman Empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of the world is now drawing near. There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts perhaps, but all about the same time; and after those an eleventh, the Antichrist, who by his magical craft shall seize upon the Roman power; and of the kings who reigned before him, “three he shall humble,” and the remaining seven he shall keep in subjection to himself.—Id., p. 109. SBBS 32.9

Ambrose (A. D.—398) SBBS 33.1

After the failing or decay of the Roman Empire, Antichrist shall appear.—Quoted in “Dissertations on the Prophecies,” Bishop Thomas Newton, D. D., p. 463. London: William Tegg & Co. SBBS 33.2

Chrysostom (A. D.—407) SBBS 33.3

When the Roman Empire is taken out of the way, then shall he [the Antichrist.—Eds.] come. And naturally. For as long as the fear of this empire lasts, no one will willingly exalt himself, but when that is dissolved, he will attack the anarchy, and endeavor to seize upon the government both of man and of God.—Homily IV, On 2 Thessalonians 2:6-9; “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. XIII, p. 389. New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1889. SBBS 33.4

Jerome (d. about A. D. 420) SBBS 33.5

He that letteth is taken out of the way, and yet we do not realize that Antichrist is near.—“To Ageruchia,” Letter 123, as barbarians were invading the empire; “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VI, p. 236. SBBS 33.6

Gregory I (Pope, A. D. 590-604) SBBS 33.7

Whosoever calls himself, or desires to be called, Universal Priest, is in his elation the precursor of Antichrist, because he proudly puts himself above all others. Nor is it by dissimilar pride that he is led into error; for as that perverse one wishes to appear as God above all men, so whosoever this one is who covets being called sole priest, he extols himself above all other priests.—Letter to Emperor Maurice, against assumption of title by Patriarch of Constantinople, “Epistles of St. Gregory the Great,” book 7, epis. 33; “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. XII, p. 226. SBBS 33.8

Antichrist, Failure of Some to Recognize.—The great Joseph Mede long ago remarked that “the Jews expected Christ to come when he did come, and yet knew him not when he was come, because they fancied the manner and quality of his coming like some temporal monarch with armed power to subdue the earth before him. So the Christians, God’s second Israel, looked [expected that] the coming of Antichrist should be at that time when he came indeed, and yet they knew him not when he was come; because they had fancied his coming as of some barbarous tyrant who should with armed power not only persecute and destroy the church of Christ, but almost the world; that is, they looked for such an Antichrist as the Jews looked for a Christ.” (Mede’s Works, p. 647.)-“Daniel and His Prophecies,” Charles H. H. Wright, D. D., “Introduction,” p. xvi. London: Williams and Norgate, 1906. SBBS 33.9

Antichrist, English Reformers on.—The subject is however so important, the times so critical, and the views of the early Reformers and founders of our English Church on the point in question so often overlooked, if not misrepresented, that it seems to me desirable that the truth about it should be fully and plainly stated.... SBBS 33.10

1. Tyndale. (Martyred a. d. 1536.) SBBS 33.11

“Now, though the Bishop of Rome and his sects give Christ these names, ... yet in that they rob him of the effect, and take the significations of his names unto themselves, and make of him but an hypocrite, as they themselves be-they be the right Antichrists, and ‘deny both the Father and the Son; for they deny the witness that the Father bare unto the Son, and deprive the Son of all the power and glory that his Father gave him.”-“Tyndale’s Works.” Vol. II, p. 183, Parker ed. SBBS 33.12

2. Cranmer. (Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533; martyred 1555.) SBBS 34.1

“But the Romish Antichrist, to deface this great benefit of Christ, hath taught that his sacrifice upon the cross is not sufficient hereunto, without another sacrifice devised by him, and made by the priest; or else without indulgences, beads, pardons, pilgrimages, and such other pelfry, to supply Christ’s imperfection: and that Christian people cannot apply to themselves the benefits of Christ’s passion, but that the same is in the distribution of the Bishop of Rome; or else that by Christ we have no full remission, but be delivered only from sin, and yet remaineth temporal pain in purgatory due for the same; to be remitted after this life by the Romish Antichrist and his ministers, who take upon them to do for us that thing which Christ either would not or could not do. O heinous blasphemy, and most detestable injury against Christ! O wicked abomination in the temple of God! O pride intolerable of Antichrist, and most manifest token of the son of perdition; extolling himself above God, and with Lucifer exalting his seat and power above the throne of God!”-Preface to Defence, etc., in “Works of Archbishop Cranmer,” Vol. I, pp. 5-7, Parker edition. SBBS 34.2

3. Latimer. (Bishop of Worcester, 1535-1539; martyred 1555.) SBBS 34.3

“‘Judge not before the Lord’s coming.’ In this we learn to know Antichrist, which doth elevate himself in the church, and judgeth at his pleasure before the time. His canonizations, and judging of men before the Lord’s judgment, be a manifest token of Antichrist. How can he know saints? He knoweth not his own heart.”-Third Sermon before Edward VI, in “Works of Bishop Latimer,” Vol. I, pp. 148, 149, Parker edition. SBBS 34.4

4. Ridley. (Bishop of Rochester, 1547, and of London, 1550-1553; martyred 1555.) SBBS 34.5

“The see [of Rome] is the seat of Satan; and the bishop of the same, that maintaineth the abominations thereof, is Antichrist himself indeed. And for the same causes this see at this day is the same which St. John calleth in his Revelation ‘Babylon,’ or ‘the whore of Babylon,’ and ‘spiritually Sodoma and Agyptus,’ ‘the mother of fornications and of the abominations upon the earth.’”-Farewell Letter, in “Works of Bishop Ridley,” p. 415, Parker edition. SBBS 34.6

5. Hooper. (Bishop of Gloucester, 1551-1554; martyred 1555.) SBBS 34.7

“If godly Moses and his brother Aaron never acclaimed this title [to be God’s vicar and lieutenant] in the earth, doubtless it is a foul and detestable arrogancy that these ungodly bishops of Rome attribute unto themselves to be the heads of Christ’s church.... SBBS 34.8

“Because God hath given this light unto my countrymen, which be all persuaded (or else God send them to be persuaded), that [neither] the Bishop of Rome, nor none other, is Christ’s vicar upon the earth, it is no need to use any long or copious oration: it is so plain that it needeth no probation: the very properties of Antichrist, I mean of Christ’s great and principal enemy, are so openly known to all men that are not blinded with the smoke of Rome, that they know him to be the beast that John describeth in the Apocalypse.”-Declaration of Christ, chap. 3, in “Early Writings of Bishop Hooper,” pp. 22-24, Parker edition. SBBS 34.9

6. Philpot. (Archdeacon of Winchester; martyred 1555.) SBBS 34.10

“I doubt not but you have already cast the price of this your building of the house of God, that it is like to be no less than your life; for I believe (as Paul saith) that God hath appointed us in these latter days as sheep to the slaughter. Antichrist is come again; and he must make a feast to Beelzebub his father of many Christian bodies, for the restoring again of his kingdom. Let us watch and pray, that the same day may not find us unready.—Letter to Robert Glover, in “Writings of Archdeacon Philpot,” p. 244, Parker edition. SBBS 34.11

7. Bradford. (Prebendary of St. Paul’s, 1551; martyred 1555.) SBBS 35.1

“This word of God, written by the prophets and apostles, left and contained in the canonical books of the Holy Bible, I do believe to contain plentifully ‘all things necessary to salvation,’ so that nothing, as necessary to salvation, ought to be added thereto.... In testimony of this faith I render and give my life; being condemned, as well for not acknowledging the Antichrist of Rome to be Christ’s vicar-general, and supreme head of his Catholic and universal church, here and elsewhere upon earth, as for denying the horrible and idolatrous doctrine of transubstantiation, and Christ’s real, corporal, and carnal presence in his Supper, under the forms and accidents of bread and wine.—Farewell to the City of London, in “Writings of Bradford,” p. 435, Parker edition. SBBS 35.2

8. Homilies of the Church of England. (Authorized, 1563.) SBBS 35.3

“He ought therefore rather to be called Antichrist, and the successor of the Scribes and Pharisees, than Christ’s vicar or St. Peter’s successor.”-“Homilies,” Part 3, Homily of Obedience, p. 114. Cambridge: Corrie, 1850. SBBS 35.4

“Neither ought miracles to persuade us to do contrary to God’s word; for the Scriptures have for a warning hereof foreshowed, that the kingdom of Antichrist shall be mighty ‘in miracles and wonders,’ to the strong illusion of all the reprobate. But in this they pass the folly and wickedness of the Gentiles.”-“Homilies,” Part 3, Homily Against Peril of Idolatry, p. 234. SBBS 35.5

9. Jewel. (Bishop of Salisbury, 1559-1571.) SBBS 35.6

“Many places of the Holy Scriptures, spoken of Antichrist, seemed in old times to be dark and doubtful; for that as then it appeared not unto what state and government they might be applied: but now, by the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome, to them that have eyes to see, they are as clear and as open as the sun.”-“Defence of the Apology,” Vol. IV, p. 744. SBBS 35.7

Note.—This section is found in the first edition of Rev. E. B. Elliott’s “Hora Apocalyptica,” Appendix IV, pp. 548-552.—Eds. SBBS 35.8

Antichrist.—See Advent, Second, 11, 12; Apostasy; Little Horn, 285; Papacy, 340, 349; Papal Supremacy, 359; Pope; Popery; Reformation, 411; Rome, 440; Sabbath, 473; Seven Churches, 493; Ten Kingdoms, 555; Two Witnesses, 570, 572. SBBS 35.9

Antiochus.—See Greece, 193, 194. SBBS 35.10

Apostasy, The Great, Quick Development of.—One hundred years after the death of the apostle John, spiritual darkness was fast settling down upon the Christian community; and the Fathers, who flourished toward the commencement of the third century, frequently employ language for which they would have been sternly rebuked, had they lived in the days of the apostles and evangelists.—“The Ancient Church,” William D. Killen, D. D., period 2, sec. 2, chap. 5 (p. 418). London: James Nisbet & Co., 1883. SBBS 35.11

Apostasy, The Great, Primitive Aspect Changed.—In the interval between the days of the apostles and the conversion of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed its aspect. The Bishop of Rome-a personage unknown to the writers of the New Testament-meanwhile rose into prominence, and at length took precedence of all other churchmen. Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of divine institutions. Officers for whom the primitive disciples could have found no place, and titles which to them would have been altogether unintelligible, began to challenge attention, and to be named apostolic.—Id., Preface to original edition, pp. xv, xvi. SBBS 36.1

Apostasy, The Great, Multiplying Rites.—It is certain that to religious worship, both public and private, many rites were added, without necessity, and to the offense of sober and good men. The principal cause of this I readily look for in the perverseness of mankind, who are more delighted with the pomp and splendor of external forms and pageantry, than with the true devotion of the heart, and who despise whatever does not gratify their eyes and ears. But other and additional causes may be mentioned, which, though they suppose no bad design, yet clearly betray indiscretion. SBBS 36.2

First, There is good reason to suppose the Christian bishops multiplied sacred rites for the sake of rendering the Jews and the pagans more friendly to them. For both these had been accustomed to numerous and splendid ceremonies from their infancy, and had no doubts that they constituted an essential part of religion. And when they saw the new religion to be destitute of such ceremonies, they thought it too simple, and therefore despised it. To obviate this objection, the rulers of the Christian churches deemed it proper for them to be more formal and splendid in their public worship. SBBS 36.3

Secondly, The simplicity of the worship which Christians offered to the Deity, gave occasion to certain calumnies, maintained both by the Jews and the pagan priests. The Christians were pronounced atheists, because they were destitute of temples, altars, victims, priests, and all that pomp in which the vulgar suppose the essence of religion to consist. For unenlightened persons are prone to estimate religion by what meets their eyes. To silence this accusation, the Christian doctors thought they must introduce some external rites, which would strike the senses of people; so that they could maintain that they really had all those things of which Christians were charged with being destitute, though under different forms.—“Ecclesiastical History,” Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, book 1, cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, sec. 1 (Vol. I, p. 171). London: Longman & Co., 1841. SBBS 36.4

Apostasy, The Great, Adopting Heathen Philosophy.—The Christian church came early, after the days of the apostles, under the influence, not merely of the Greek language, but of the philosophy of the Greeks. The tendency in this direction was apparent even in the times of the apostles. It was against this very influence that Paul so often and earnestly warned the early Christians: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and not after Christ.” “Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely so called, which some professing, have erred concerning the faith.” “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” ... It was not long before the Grecian philosophy had become dominant and controlling. Their schools of literature, and especially of theology, were Grecian schools. Grecian philosophers became their teachers and leaders.—“The Gospel of Life in the Syriac New Testament,” Prof. J. H. Pettingell, p. 9. SBBS 36.5

Apostasy, The Great, in the Fourth Century.—In the course of the fourth century two movements or developments spread over the face of Christendom, with a rapidity characteristic of the church; the one ascetic, the other ritual or ceremonial. We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own.—“Development of Christian Doctrine,” John Henry Cardinal Newman, p. 373. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1906. SBBS 37.1

Apostasy, The Great, Adopting Pagan Rites.—Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon worship to an evangelical use, and feeling also that these usages had originally come from primitive revelations and from the instinct of nature, though they had been corrupted; and that they must invent what they needed, if they did not use what they found; and that they were moreover possessed of the very archetypes, of which paganism attempted the shadows; the rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class.—Id., pp. 371, 372. SBBS 37.2

Apostasy, The Great, Ritual of Roman Paganism.—They [Roman pagans, 4th century] are delighted, in fact, with gold and jewels and ivory. The beauty and brilliancy of these things dazzle their eyes, and they think that there is no religion where these do not shine. And thus, under pretense of worshiping the gods, avarice and desire are worshiped.... The more ornamented are the temples and the more beautiful the images, so much the greater majesty are they believed to have; so entirely is their religion confined to that which the desire of men admires. SBBS 37.3

These are the religious institutions handed down to them by their ancestors, which they persist in maintaining and defending with the greatest obstinacy. Nor do they consider of what character they are; but they feel assured of their excellence and truth on this account, because the ancients have handed them down; and so great is the authority of antiquity that it is said to be a crime to inquire into it. And thus it is everywhere believed as ascertained truth.—“Divine Institutes,” Lactantius, book 2, chap. 7; “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. VII, p. 50. SBBS 37.4

Apostasy.—See Antichrist; Babylon, 65; Papacy, 331. SBBS 37.5

Apostles’ Creed.—See Advent, Second, 10. SBBS 37.6

Apostolic Christianity, Contrasted with Medieval.—Apostolic Christianity spread as the religion of the poor; medieval Christianity as the religion of the rich. The apostolic church was democratic in its origin and institutions. Far otherwise was the church of the eighth and ninth centuries, in which the monarchical ideas of the empire had superseded the republican order of its first founders. SBBS 37.7

Such a change of views could not fail to make itself felt in the circumstances of both church and state, nor could it fail to influence the conduct and practice of churchmen. The higher ecclesiastics were now considered as alone constituting the church, as alone able to express its voice. A marvelous importance was attached to the conversion of kings and princes, an example of which had already occurred at the conversion of Constantine. The great mass of Christians-the Christian populace, as it were-disappear from view; the spiritual aristocracy of monks and bishops alone becomes prominent. The feelings and wishes of the people are never considered, or are ignored; the interests and wishes of kings and princes are religiously observed. The church has become an institution for the great and the rich; the history of Christianity, a history of the relation of bishops to princes, and princes to bishops, of the Papacy to the empire, and the empire to the Papacy.—“The See of Rome in the Middle Ages,” Rev. Oswald J. Reichel, B. C. L., M. A., pp. 142, 143. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1870. SBBS 37.8

Arian, Application of the Term.—Arian: In theology, one who adheres to the doctrines of Arius and his school. Arius was a presbyter of the church of Alexandria in the fourth century. He held that the Son was begotten of the Father, and therefore not coeternal nor consubstantial with the Father, but created by and subordinate to the Father, though possessing a similar nature. The name Arian is given in theology not only to all those who adopt this particular view of the nature of Christ, but also to all those who, holding to the divine nature of Christ, yet maintain his dependence upon and subordination to the Father in the Godhead. As a class the Arians accept the Scriptures as a divinely inspired and authoritative book, and declare their doctrines to be sustained by its teachings.—The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, Vol. I, art. “Arian,” p. 308. New York: The Century Company. SBBS 38.1

Arianism.—See Papal Supremacy, 359; Rome, 452, 455. 457. SBBS 38.2

Arians.—See Rome, 445, 446, 453, 455, 456. SBBS 38.3

Armageddon, The Geographical Meaning of the Word.—Armageddon, the great battlefield where occurred the chief conflicts between the Israelites and their enemies. The name was applied to the table-land of Esdraelon in Galilee and Samaria, in the center of which stood the town of Megiddo, on the site of the modern Lejjun.—Encyclopedia Americana, art. “Armageddon.” SBBS 38.4

Megiddo was the military key of Syria; it commanded at once the highway northward to Phonicia and Cole-Syria and the road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the Euphrates.... The vale of the Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battlefields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of Southwestern Asia have been decided.... It was regarded as a predestined place of blood and strife; the poet of the Apocalypse has clothed it with awe as the ground of the final conflict between the powers of light and darkness.—“Egypt in Asia,” George Cormack, p. 83. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1908. SBBS 38.5

Armageddon, Forebodings of.—I was educated in the school of a king who was, before all things, just; and I have tried, like him, always to preach love and charity. I have always mistrusted warlike preparations, of which nations seem never to tire. Some day this accumulated material of soldiers and guns will burst into flames in a frightful war that will throw humanity into mourning on earth and grieve our universal Father in heaven.—Queen Alexandra, of Britain. SBBS 38.6

Today all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon.—E. Alexander Powell, F. R. G. S., in Everybody’s Magazine (New York), November, 1909, p. 692. SBBS 39.1

Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon earth than it is now. Never was preparation for war so tremendous and so sustained. Never was striking power so swift and so terribly formidable.... Almost can the ear of imagination hear the gathering of the legions for the fiery trial of peoples, a sound vast as the trumpet of the Lord of hosts.—Harold F. Wyatt, in Nineteenth Century and After (London); quoted in the Literary Digest (New York), May 6, 1911, p. 606. SBBS 39.2

Armageddon, Thought of as the War Broke.—In the clash of the two great European organizations,-the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente,-we have all those wild features of universal chaos which the writer of the Apocalypse saw with prophetic eye as ushering in the great day of the Lord.—In an article, “Armageddon-and After,” by Oulis, in the Fortnightly Review (London), October, 1914, p. 549. SBBS 39.3

It may be that these events will quickly usher in the return of Christ to gather his saints together from the four quarters of the earth.... Many see in the events preceding and accompanying this terrible cataclysm of war the signs of our Lord’s near return. If so, blessed will that servant be whom his Lord when he cometh shall find giving “their food in due season” to those fellow servants who have been put in his charge.—Message of the Church Missionary Society (Church of England) to its Missionaries, in the Church Missionary Review, November, 1914. SBBS 39.4

Armageddon, The Spirit That Stirs the World.—The whole of Asia is in the throes of rebirth. At last we may see these three-the yellow race, the Indian race, and the Arab-Persian Mohammedan race. And all that is making for the Armageddon.—Dr. N. H. Marshall, in Contemporary Review (London), September, 1909, p. 315. SBBS 39.5

A new spirit is abroad in the East. It arose on the shores of the Pacific when Japan proved that the great powers of Europe are not invulnerable. North and south and west it has spread, rousing China out of centuries of slumber, stirring India into ominous questioning, reviving memories of past glory in Persia, breeding discontent in Egypt, and luring Turkey onto the rocks.—Nineteenth Century and After, May, 1913. SBBS 39.6

It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there were some mischievous influence at work, which troubles and excites every part of it.—Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, in House of Commons, Nov. 27, 1911. SBBS 39.7

In these last ten years, a strange breath has passed over the Asiatic world.—North American Review, September, 1914. SBBS 39.8

Artaxerxes, Seventh Year of.—Sir Isaac Newton, the great mathematician and scientist, made an analysis of Greek and other records bearing witness to 457 b. c. as the seventh year of Artaxerxes. For the famous discoverer of the law of gravitation was an earnest student of prophecy, and of that greatest of all sciences-the science of salvation. In his work on the prophecies of Daniel, he gives various independent lines of proof for the date 457 b. c. as the seventh year of SBBS 39.9

Artaxerxes, whence the prophetic period was to be reckoned. Reference to three of these lines of evidence must suffice: SBBS 40.1

1. Newton shows that soon after an anniversary of his accession, Xerxes began to march his army over the Hellespont into Europe, “in the end of the fourth year of the seventy-fourth Olympiad,” which ended in June, 480 b. c. Newton continues: SBBS 40.2

“In autumn, three months after, on the full moon, the sixteenth day of the month of Munychion, was the battle of Salamis, and a little after that an eclipse of the sun, which, by the calculation, fell on October 2. His [Xerxes’] sixth year, therefore, began a little before June, suppose in spring, An. J. P. [Julian period] 4234 [b. c. 480], and his first year consequently in spring, An. J. P. 4229 [b. c. 485], as above. Now he reigned almost twenty-one years, by the consent of all writers. Add the seven months of Artabanus, and the sum will be twenty-one years and about four or five months, which end between midsummer and autumn, An. J. P. 4250 [b. c. 464]. At this time, therefore, began the reign of his successor, Artaxerxes, as was to be proved.”-“Observations upon the Prophecies,” Sir Isaac Newton, part 1, chap. 10. SBBS 40.3

2. Again, Newton takes the writings of Africanus, a Christian of the third century: SBBS 40.4

“The same thing is also confirmed by Julius Africanus, who informs us out of former writers that the twentieth year of this Artaxerxes was the one hundred fifteenth year from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus in Persia, and fell in with An. 4, Olympiad 83 [the fourth year of the eighty-third Olympiad ¹]. It began, therefore, with the Olympic year, soon after the summer solstice, An. J. P. 4269 [b. c. 445]. Subduct nineteen years, and his first year will begin at the same time of the year An. J. P. 4250 [b. c. 464], as above.”-Ibid. SBBS 40.5

3. Another of Newton’s arguments in proof of the date, the last that we have space to refer to, is based on testimony as to the death of Artaxerxes. It will be more easily followed if we quote more fully than Sir Isaac Newton does from the original authority cited; and indeed the story is an interesting one apart from its contribution to chronology. It is from the “History of the Peloponnesian War,”-really a contest between Sparta and Athens,-written by Thucydides. Writing of the winter season of 425-424 b. c., he says: SBBS 40.6

“During the ensuing winter, Aristides, son of Archippus, one of the commanders of the Athenian vessels which collected tribute from the allies, captured at Eion, upon the [river] Strymon, Artaphernes, a Persian, who was on his way from the king [Artaxerxes] to Sparta. He was brought to Athens, and the Athenians had the dispatches which he was carrying, and which were written in the Assyrian character, translated.... The chief point was a remonstrance addressed to the Lacedamonians by the king, who said that he could not understand what they wanted.... If they meant to make themselves intelligible, he desired them to send to him another embassy with the Persian envoy. Shortly afterward the Athenians sent Artaphernes in a trireme [galley] to Ephesus, and with him an embassy of their own; but they found that Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, had recently died; for the embassy arrived just at that time.”-“History of the Peloponnesian War,” Thucydides, book 2, par. 50; Jowett’s Translation, p. 278. SBBS 40.7

As all this happened “during the winter,” it is evident that the envoys from Greece on the way to Artaxerxes’ court in Persia, and the embassy from Persia announcing the king’s death, met in Ephesus (in Asia Minor) in the early months of 424 b. c.; and that the death of Artaxerxes must have occurred toward the end of 425 b. c. Sir Isaac Newton shows that his precise reign was thirty-nine years and three months. Counting this time back from the end of 425 b. c., the beginning of his reign comes in the latter half of 464 b. c., just as we have seen by other witnesses, and the seventh year of his reign would be 457 b. c. SBBS 41.1

This is but a rough calculation, based on an estimate of the reasonable time elapsing in the journeying of the embassies. It is related to the exact chronology of Ptolemy’s Canon only as the “log” reckoning of a ship is related to the sure observation by the sun or stars in determining the ship’s position. But it is interesting as showing how fragmentary details of chronological history join in confirming an important date in prophecy. SBBS 41.2

The testimony of the Olympiads agrees with that of Ptolemy’s Canon in fixing the year period within which Artaxerxes began to reign. And just where the testimony of history is uncertain-as to the season of the year-the voice of Inspiration speaks. SBBS 41.3

The year in which the great commission was granted to Ezra to restore and build Jerusalem was 457 b. c.—“The Hand of God in History,” W. A. Spicer, pp. 57-60. SBBS 41.4

Artaxerxes, Seventh Year of, Season When It Began.—While, according to the principle of the canon, the reign of Artaxerxes is reckoned as beginning with the first day of the year 284 of the Nabonassarean era, we only know from it that the actual commencement of the reign was sometime in the course of that year. SBBS 41.5

Now the time of the year when he began to reign seems determinable from Ezra and Nehemiah. It appears from Nehemiah 1:1 and 2:1, that in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, and consequently in the other years of his reign, the first Hebrew month, Nisan (March-April), came after the ninth, Chisleu (November-December). Consequently the date of his accession must have been sometime between Nisan and Chisleu. And from Ezra 7:7-10 it follows that in the seventh, and therefore in the other years of his reign, the fifth month, Ab (July-August), came after the first, or Nisan. Therefore the accession of Artaxerxes was somewhere between the latter end of July and the former part of November, i. e., somewhere about the summer ² of 464 b. c.—“Fulfilled Prophecy,” Rev. W. Goode, D. D., F. S. A., pp. 212, 213, 2nd edition. London: James Nisbet & Co., 1891. SBBS 41.6

Artaxerxes, Seventh Year of, Date of.—Now, what is the testimony of the canon to the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when the decree to Ezra went forth? Ptolemy, of course, knew nothing of the Christian era and the reckoning of years before Christ and after Christ. He began with the era of Nabonassar. Of the origin of this system, Dr. Hales (“Chronology,” Vol. I, p. 155) says: SBBS 41.7

“Nabonassar [king of Babylon], having collected the acts of his predecessors, destroyed them, in order that the computation of the reigns of the Chaldean kings might be made from himself. It began, therefore, with the reign of Nabonassar, Feb. 26, b. c. 747.” SBBS 41.8

That day was the Egyptian Thoth, or New Year. It begins the year 1 of Ptolemy’s Canon, which thenceforward numbers off the years, 1, 2, 3, etc., straight on through history, telling in what year of Nabonassar’s era each king began to reign, always counting full years from New Year to New Year. The canon does not deal with parts of years. It is like a rigid measuring rule, just three hundred sixty-five days long, laid down over history, marking the years and numbering them from that first New Year. Knowing the starting-point, Feb. 26, 747 b. c., it is but a matter of computation, or measuring, to tell in what year of our modern reckoning a given year of the canon falls. SBBS 42.1

According to Ptolemy, the year in which Artaxerxes began to reign was the two hundred eighty-fourth year of the canon. This year 284, according to our calendar, began Dec. 17, 465 b. c. ³ SBBS 42.2

But according to the rule of Ptolemy, this means only that somewhere between Dec. 17, 465, and Dec. 17, 464, the king came to the throne. At whatever time in the year a king came to the throne, his reign was counted from the New Year preceding. To illustrate: If we were following that plan now of recording the reigns of kings,-by years only, not counting parts of years,-and a king should come to the throne in July, 1913, the year of his accession would be set down as beginning with the New Year, Jan. 1, 1913, for in the year then opening he began to reign. That was Ptolemy’s method. Dr. Hales (“Chronology,” Vol. I, p. 171) states the rule: SBBS 42.3

“Each king’s reign begins at the Thoth, or New Year’s Day, before his accession, and all the odd months of his last year are included in the first year of his successor.” ... SBBS 42.4

Therefore, inasmuch as the canon shows only that Artaxerxes began his reign sometime in the Nabonassean year beginning Dec. 17, 465 b. c., and ending Dec. 17, 464, the question is, At what time of the year did he come to the throne? With this answered, we can readily determine the seventh year of Artaxerxes, as the Scripture would reckon it from the time when he actually began to reign. And here Inspiration itself gives the answer. SBBS 42.5

The record of Nehemiah and Ezra fully establishes the fact that Artaxerxes began his reign at the end of the summer, or in the autumn. Nehemiah 1:1; 2:1; Ezra 7:7-9. ⁴ His first year, therefore, was from the autumn of 464 b. c. to the autumn of 463 b. c., and his seventh year was from the autumn of 458 b. c. to the autumn of 457 b. c. SBBS 42.6

Under Ezra’s commission the people began to go up to Jerusalem in the spring of that year, 457 b. c. (in the first month, or April), and they “came to Jerusalem in the fifth month” (August). Ezra 7, 8, 9. Ezra and his associates soon thereafter “delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors on this side the river: and they furthered the people, and the house of God.” Ezra 8:36. SBBS 42.7

With this delivery of the commissions to the king’s officers, the commandment to restore and to build had fully gone forth. And from this date, 457 b. c., extend the 70 weeks, or 490 years, allotted to the Jewish people. “Seventy weeks are determined [cut off] upon thy people and upon thy holy city, ... from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:24, 25. SBBS 43.1

This 490-year period, measuring from 457 b. c. to 34 a. d., touches at its close the years of the public ministry and crucifixion of Christ, and the turning of the apostles to the Gentiles. SBBS 43.2

At the same date, 457 b. c., necessarily began the longer period of 2300 years, from which the shorter period was “determined,” or cut off. And this long prophetic period was to reach to “the time of the end,” to “the cleansing of the sanctuary,” the beginning of the closing ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, preparatory to his second coming in glory.—“The Hand of God in History,” William A. Spicer, pp. 44-49. SBBS 43.3

Artaxerxes.—See Ptolemy’s Canon; Seventy Weeks, 518, 519. SBBS 43.4

Ascension Robes.—See Robes, Ascension, 424. SBBS 43.5

Athanasian Creed.—See Advent, Second, 10. SBBS 43.6

Atonement.—See Azazel. SBBS 43.7

Attila.—See Rome, 443, 444, 452; Seven Trumpets, 499, 504, 505; Temporal Power of the Pope, 550. SBBS 43.8

Augustus.—See Rome, 433, 434. SBBS 43.9

Azazel, a Supernatural Being.—The name of a supernatural being mentioned in connection with the ritual of the day of atonement (Leviticus 16). After Satan, for whom he was in some degree a preparation, Azazel enjoys the distinction of being the most mysterious extrahuman character in sacred literature.—The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. II, art. “Azazel,” p. 365. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1903. SBBS 43.10

Azazel, Representing the Source of Evil.—Far from involving the recognition of Azazel as a deity, the sending of the goat was, as stated by Nahmanides, a symbolic expression of the idea that the people’s sins and their evil consequences were to be sent back to the spirit of desolation and ruin, the source of all impurity.—Id., p. 366. SBBS 43.11

Azazel, a Name for the Devil.—8. Scapegoat. See different opinion in Bochart. Spencer, after the oldest opinions of the Hebrews and Christians, thinks Azazel is the name of the devil, and so Rosenmuller, whom see. The Syriac has Azzail, the “angel (strong one) who revolted.”-“The Comprehensive Commentary of the Holy Bible,” edited by William Jenks, D. D., note on Leviticus 16:8, p. 410. Brattleboro, Vt.: Fessenden & Co., 1835. SBBS 43.12

Azazel, Satan.—The command to present two goats to Jehovah for a sin offering (Leviticus 16:5), and to cast lots on them, one for Jehovah, the other for Azazel (verse 8), requires us to take Azazel as a spiritual personality, in contrast to Jehovah, who must be thought of as dwelling in the wilderness, the habitation of demons and impure beings (Matthew 12:43; Luke 11:24), inasmuch as the goat devoted to Azazel is sent into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:11, 21). Thus he must belong to the kingdom of evil spirits, and that not as a subordinate demon, for he is here put in contrast to Jehovah, but can only be the ruler of the kingdom of the demons or their head, that evil spirit who is afterward called Satan.—“Biblical Archaology,” Johann F. K. Keil, Vol. II, p. 43. SBBS 43.13

Azazel, Another Name for Satan.—The use of the preposition implies it [that Azazel is a proper name]. The same preposition is used on both lots, La-Yehovah, La-Azazel, and if the one indicates a person, it seems natural the other should. Especially, considering the act of casting lots. If one is Jehovah, the other would seem for some other person or being; not one for Jehovah, and the other for the goat itself. SBBS 44.1

What goes to confirm this is, that the most ancient paraphrases and translations treat Azazel as a proper name. The Chaldee paraphrase and the targums of Onkelos and Jonathan would certainly have translated it if it was not a proper name, but they do not. The Septuagint, or oldest Greek version, renders it by [Greek word] [apopompaios], a word applied by the Greeks to a malign deity, sometimes appeased by sacrifices. SBBS 44.2

Another confirmation is found in the Book of Enoch, where the name Azalzel, evidently a corruption of Azazel, is given to one of the fallen angels, thus plainly showing what was the prevalent understanding of the Jews at that day. SBBS 44.3

Still another evidence is found in the Arabic, where Azazel is employed as the name of the evil spirit. SBBS 44.4

In addition to these, we have the evidence of the Jewish work Zohar, and of the Cabalistic and Rabbinical writers. They tell us that the following proverb was current among the Jews: “On the day of atonement, a gift to Sammael.” Hence Moses Gerundinensis feels called to say that it is not a sacrifice, but only done because commanded by God. SBBS 44.5

Another step in the evidence is when we find this same opinion passing from the Jewish to the early Christian church. Origen was the most learned of the Fathers, and on such a point as this, the meaning of a Hebrew word, his testimony is reliable. Says Origen: “He who is called in the Septuagint [Greek word, transliterated “o apopompaios”], and in the Hebrew Azazel, is no other than the devil.” SBBS 44.6

Lastly, a circumstance is mentioned of the emperor Julian, the apostate, that confirms the argument. He brought as an objection against the Bible, that Moses commanded a sacrifice to the evil spirit. An objection he never could have thought of, had not Azazel been generally regarded as a proper name. SBBS 44.7

In view, then, of the difficulties attending any other meaning, and the accumulated evidence in favor of this, Hengstenberg affirms, with great confidence, that Azazel cannot be anything else but another name for Satan.—Observations on Leviticus 16:8, in “Redeemer and Redeemed: an Investigation of the Atonement and of Eternal Judgment,” Charles Beecher, pp. 67, 68. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1864. SBBS 44.8

Azazel, a Personal Being.—The meaning of Azazel is much disputed; it is, of course, a subject closely connected with the inquiry into the origin of the custom [of setting apart one goat for Azazel]. It is at least certain that, as Azazel receives one goat while Yahwe [Jehovah] receives the other, both must be personal beings.—Encyclopedia Biblica, a Dictionary of the Bible, edited by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M. A., D. D., and T. Sutherland Black, M. A., LL. D., art. “Azazel.” New York: The Macmillan Company, 1899. SBBS 44.9