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Hope of the Church
[From the The Review and Herald, June 10, 1852.]
As I have of late looked around to find the humble followers
of the meek and lowly Jesus, my mind has been much exercised.
Many who profess to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ
are becoming conformed to this world and seek more earnestly the
applause of those around them than the approbation of God. They
are cold and formal, like the nominal churches from which they but
a short time since separated. The words addressed to the Laodicean
church describe their present condition perfectly. (See
Revelation
3:14-20
.) They are “
neither cold nor hot
“, but “
lukewarm
“. And
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unless they heed the counsel of the “faithful and true Witness,” and
zealously repent and obtain “gold tried in the fire,” “white raiment,”
and “eye-salve,” He will spew them out of His mouth.
The time has come when a large portion of those who once
rejoiced and shouted aloud for joy in view of the immediate com-
ing of the Lord, are on the ground of the churches and the world
who once derided them for believing that Jesus was coming, and
circulated all manner of falsehoods to raise prejudice against them
and destroy their influence. Now, if any one longs after the living
God, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and God gives him
to feel His power, and satisfies his longing soul by shedding abroad
His love in his heart, and if he glorifies God by praising Him, he is,
by these professed believers in the soon coming of the Lord, often
considered deluded, and charged with being mesmerized or having
some wicked spirit.
Many of these professed Christians dress, talk, and act like the
world, and the only thing by which they may be known is their
profession. Though they profess to be looking for Christ, their con-
versation is not in heaven, but on worldly things. “What manner of
persons” ought those to be “in all holy conversation and godliness,”
who profess to be “looking for and hasting unto the coming of the
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