THE KING’S BUSINESS
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don’t believe, do you, that the Lord Jesus will come in a way that He shall be seen with our physical eye?” I replied, “ It does not make a parti cle of difference what I believe, the only question is what God says, and God says, ‘Every eye shall see Him’.” The coming of Christ plainly pre dicted in the Scriptures is an entirely different sort of coming from that which Pastor Russell assures us took place in October, 1874. Fourth. In the next place, Jesus Christ is coming again with great publicity. We read in Matthew 24: 26, 27, R. V., “ If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, He is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east; and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man.” Every little while some one appears in some ob scure corner of the earth and sets himself forth as the Christ come again. Now it is Schweinfurth; again it is Dora Beekman in Minnesota, and then it is Prince Michael in Detroit, Michigan; then it is Tead in Chi cago; still again Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy in Concord; again the Bab in Persia; still again Mrs. Annie Besant’s pet boy, “ The Star of the East.” But all of these “ inner chamber” Christs and obscure corner Christs are a humbug long since pre dicted and exploded. They would have no power over any one if peo ple were not ignorant of their Bibles. Some years ago a young friend of mine who was assisting B. Fay Mills in his work, came to me and asked me if it might not be possible that the Christ had already come and was here and waiting to manifest Him self. I knew what he meant: at that time B. Fay Mills was much carried away with Prof. Herron. I knew that this young man was wondering
sonal return of our Lord?” He re plied, “ No, I do not.” Then I asked him, “What do you do with Acts 1:11, ‘This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven’ ?” He replied, “ This simply sets forth a certainty that He will come but not that He will come personally and bodily.” But the Greek words do not admit of any such interpretation. The words trans lated “ So come in like manner” have and can have hut one meaning, liter ally translated they mean “ Thus in the manner which.” They never de scribe mere certainty; they always and necessarily describe manner, they cannot mean anything else, and God sent His own heavenly messengers to tell us that as Jesus was seen going up bodily and visibly that He would come again in the very j manner in which He was seen going. Again in Hebrews 9:28, R. V., we read, “ So Christ having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear the second time.” Now the Greek word translated “ shall appear” in this passage means “ shall be seen.” The first meaning given in the best Greek Lexicon of the New Testament to the word is “ to see with the eyes,” and that is what this passage means, that Jesus “ shall be seen with the eyes” the second time,” that He shall come visibly and bodily. We read again in Revelation 1 :7, “ Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him; and they also which pierced Him; and all kin dreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” Some years ago I was nreaching one morning in the Moody Church in Chicago on the Second Coming, of Christ. One, who was not merely a disciple,- but an apostle of Pastor Russell and his Millennial Hawn vagaries was in the audience. He came to me at the close of the address and said, “ Mr. Torrey, you
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