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The Great Controversy 1888
the great truth of Christ’s soon coming in power and glory was exten-
sively proclaimed. And this not among dissenters and non-conformist
only. Mourant Brock, an English writer, states that about seven hun-
dred ministers of the Church of England were engaged in preaching
this “gospel of the kingdom.” The message pointing to 1844 as the
time of the Lord’s coming was also given in Great Britain. Advent
publications from the United States were widely circulated. Books and
journals were republished in England. And in 1842, Robert Winter, an
Englishman by birth, who had received the Advent faith in America,
returned to his native country to herald the coming of the Lord. Many
united with him in the work, and the message of the Judgment was
proclaimed in various parts of England.
In South America, in the midst of barbarism and priestcraft, La-
cunza, a Spaniard and a Jesuit, found his way to the Scriptures, and
thus received the truth of Christ’s speedy return. Impelled to give the
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warning, yet desiring to escape the censures of Rome, he published
his views under the assumed name of “Rabbi Ben-Israel,” representing
himself as a converted Jew. Lacunza lived in the eighteenth century,
but it was about 1825 that his book, having found its way to London,
was translated into the English language. Its publication served to
deepen the interest already awakening in England in the subject of the
second advent.
In Germany the doctrine had been taught in the eighteenth century
by Bengel, a minister in the Lutheran Church, and a celebrated Biblical
scholar and critic. Upon completing his education, Bengel had devoted
himself to the study of theology, “to which the grave and religious
tone of his mind, deepened and strengthened by his early training and
discipline, naturally inclined him. Like other young men of thoughtful
character, before and since, he had to struggle with doubts and diffi-
culties of a religious nature, and he alludes, with much feeling, to the
‘many arrows which pierced his poor heart, and made his youth hard
to bear.’” Becoming a member of the consistory of Wurtemberg, he
advocated the cause of religious liberty, urging “that all reasonable
freedom be accorded those who felt themselves bound, on grounds
of conscience, to withdraw from the established church.” The good
effects of this policy are still felt in his native province.
It was while preparing a sermon from
Revelation 21
for “Advent
Sunday” that the light of Christ’s second coming broke in upon Ben-