Great Religious Awakening
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know at least the approach of His coming, as one knows the approach
of the summer by the fig tree putting forth its leaves?
Matthew 24:32
.
Are we never to know that period, whilst He Himself exhorteth us
not only to read Daniel the prophet, but to understand it? and in that
very Daniel, where it is said that the words were shut up to the time
of the end (which was the case in his time), and that ‘many shall run
to and fro’ (a Hebrew expression for observing and thinking upon
the time), ‘and knowledge’ (regarding that time) ‘shall be increased.’
Daniel 12:4
. Besides this, our Lord does not intend to say by this, that
the approach of the time shall not be known, but that the exact ‘day
and hour knoweth no man.’ Enough, He does say, shall be known by
the signs of the times, to induce us to prepare for His coming, as Noah
prepared the ark.”—Wolff, Researches and Missionary Labors, pages
404, 405.
Concerning the popular system of interpreting, or misinterpreting,
the Scriptures, Wolff wrote: “The greater part of the Christian church
have swerved from the plain sense of Scripture, and have turned to
the phantomizing system of the Buddhists, who believe that the future
happiness of mankind will consist in moving about in the air, and sup-
pose that when they are reading Jews they must understand Gentiles;
and when they read Jerusalem, they must understand the church; and
if it is said earth, it means sky; and for coming of the Lord they must
understand the progress of the missionary societies; and going up to
the mountain of the Lord’s house, signifies a grand class meeting of
Methodists.”—Journal of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, page 96.
During the twenty-four years from 1821 to 1845, Wolff traveled ex-
tensively: in Africa, visiting Egypt and Abyssinia; in Asia, traversing
Palestine, Syria, Persia, Bokhara, and India. He also visited the United
States, on the journey thither preaching on the island of Saint Helena.
He arrived in New York in August, 1837; and, after speaking in that
city, he preached in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and finally proceeded
to Washington. Here, he says, “on a motion brought forward by the
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ex-President, John Quincy Adams, in one of the houses of Congress,
the House unanimously granted to me the use of the Congress Hall for
a lecture, which I delivered on a Saturday, honored with the presence
of all the members of Congress, and also of the bishop of Virginia,
and of the clergy and citizens of Washington. The same honor was
granted to me by the members of the government of New Jersey and