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Love for Christ’s Coming
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of children to their parents.
Malachi 4:5, 6
. Barriers of pride and
reserve were swept away. Heartfelt confessions were made. Ev-
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erywhere were souls pleading with God. Many wrestled all night
in prayer for the assurance that their sins were pardoned, or for the
conversion of relatives or neighbors.
All classes, rich and poor, high and low, were anxious to hear
the doctrine of the second advent. The Spirit of God gave power to
His truth. The presence of holy angels was felt in these assemblies,
and many were daily added to the believers. Vast crowds listened in
silence to the solemn words. Heaven and earth seemed to approach
each other. Men sought their homes with praises on their lips, and
the glad sound rang out upon the still night air. None who attended
those meetings could ever forget those scenes of deepest interest.
The Message Opposed
The proclamation of a definite time for Christ’s coming called
forth great opposition from many of all classes, from the minister
in the pulpit to the most Heaven-daring sinner. Many declared
that they had no opposition to the doctrine of the second advent;
they merely objected to the definite time. But God’s all-seeing eye
read their hearts. They did not wish to hear of Christ’s coming to
judge the world in righteousness. Their works would not bear the
inspection of the heart-searching God, and they feared to meet their
Lord. Like the Jews at the time of Christ’s first advent they were
not prepared to welcome Jesus. They not only refused to listen to
the plain arguments from the Bible but ridiculed those who were
looking for the Lord. Satan flung the taunt in the face of Christ that
His professed people had so little love for Him that they did not
desire His appearing.
“No man knoweth the day nor the hour” was the argument most
often brought forward by rejecters of the advent faith. The scripture
is: “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of
heaven, but my Father only.”
Matthew 24:36
. A clear explanation of
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this text was given by those who were looking for the Lord, and the
wrong use of it by their opponents was clearly shown.
One saying of the Saviour must not be made to destroy another.
Though no man knoweth the day nor the hour of His coming, we are