' Became a Premillenniali^l
Friends have asked me to print the story of my conversion to premillennial During the first years of my
it does me no good." But did God
t a k e i n p u t
t i ng that book
m a k e a m i s
truth / Scripture* ministry, the subject had never oecu- That it had a right there was as clear pied my attention. There was a vague a s the inspiration of John's Gospel or and indefinite idea in my mind that, the Epistle to the Romans, and, after after a long interval probably many all, might it not be my fault that it thousands of years, there would be a w a s g0 meaningless? general resurrection and a general Convicted and condemned at the bar judgment; but even then there was no 0 f my own conscience, I opened the thought of our Lord's personal return b o o k ; a n d r e a d i t s t r a i g ' h t through at a to the earth. It was supposed that at s i n g i e sitting. My mind was engaged some place perhaps in the air all and interested to an unusual degree, would, together or one by one, hear the a n d m y m i n d w a s a r r e s t e d b ft a * at ' sentence that must fix their eternal des- m e n t i n the very beginning: "Blessed tiny Apart from this, no serman had is h e t h a t readeth, and they that hear ever been preaehed in my hearing about the word of this prophecy, and keep the coming of the .Lord. No allusion those things which are written there- was ever made to it in the course of i n , " E ev. 1:3. It struck me that the my imperfect theological training. No H oly Spirit had said nothing about book concerning it had ever ben read, understanding it; but, "Blessed is he In my boyhood people had heard, even that readeth " in the distant and obscure part of the E n o u g h w a s k n o w n a b ( m t t h South where my mother lived that Mr p h e c i e s i n al t o r e m e m b e r t P hat Miller of ivew England, had fixed t he Book of Daniel and the Book of upon the day of Christ's appearing, Revelation bear a close resemblance and it caused considerable excitement. t o e a c h o t h a n d s o t h e f o r m e r fc But the day passed without any un- w a 8 r e a d w i t h i n t e n g e i n t e r e s t a n d usual occurrence, and those who looked then the latter book again, at one time for His coming were regarded as a n d i n a n h o n r o r tw s 0 _ ' I t w a s , actually crazy. t h a t i n D a n i e l t h e 8 i r i t o f G o d " a n n f ° U r ; P , a i n s s o m e of the symbols, as the M l , " edited by Mr. D. N Lord, of g r o a t i m a of Jfebuehadneezar and the New York, was taken, but his articles f o u r W l l d b e a s t r e p r e s e „ t i n g the four on eschatology were skipped in reading. raight w o r i d r s T h f g In fact, the entire theme was utterly ] i t t ]e M h t pathway through distasteful to me, and even offensive, the Book "of Revelation My eyes were closed and my heart T h e n i t o e c u r r e d t o m e t o c o m m e n e e sealed to the plain testimonies of God's w i t h t h e 0 , d T e s t a m e n t prophets, and Word, and the plain references to the t he whole of the New Testament, with second coming were either passed over, a ] e a d u i n h a n d m ^ r k i n or at least they made no impression e a n d y e / g e t h a t bears upon whatever At last a morning came t h e f u t u r e o f t h e c h u r e h a n d * « when it became necessary to read the T h a t t h e r e w e r e m a n Q t h e r h e c i eB Book of Revelation in family worship. b c f o r e r e a e h i t h e of ¿ a i £ h w a 8 It lias always Deen my naDit to as- a n k n o w n t o me in my ignorance, but semble the members of my household t h e f o u r t e r / h % t a a d ' t h e immediately after breakfast for read- t w e l v e m i n o r p r o p h £ t s , together with ing the Scriptures and prayer, each one t h e e n t i r e N e w Testament, were care- reading a verse m turn. On that par- f u ] , a n d p r a y e r f n n P r o b . ticular morning, discovering that the a b l a m o n t h / in F t h e i nves tiga- Book of Revelation was before us, some t i a n d n o t a l s i l e h u m a n b o o k other place m the Bible was found and c o m m e n t n o r exposition of any sort when the family went out of the study, w a s touched the question was put to my conscience H a v i gathered n p t h e m a r k e d p a s . and heart, "Why did you omit the last a n d b h t t h ^ m t o g e t h e r , three book uoa nas given u s ?" rne repiy e o n c i u s i o n g were definitely reached. made to myself was, "Because I do not F i r s t J e s u s C h r i s t i s £ b 9 c k t o understand it. The book is so full of t h i s w o r ] d a s t r u ] b o d i ] v strange beasts and mysterious symbols, s ( m a l l a g H e w a s b o r n i n B e t h l e h e m i n t o t h e c a n o n o f *
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs