'of them to show that he understands the I typology of Scripture?" THE "CRITICS" T h i s ignorance AND PREJUDICE' and ignoring of prophesy on the part of the "critics," is due to the bit- ter antagonism they feel toward the supernatural. Those two branches of Biblical science involve the supernatural, jjrhey are standing miracles, to be read and known by all men, clearly demon- strating the signature of God in Holy Scripture, and disclosing His finger pointing to the future. To admit this would be fatal to the whole body of this false criticism. Therefore no Scriptures are so repugnant to the "critics" as Daniel and Revelations, and no doctrines as the Lord's Second Coming and His Millennial reign. Yet God has put His special approval on those two books, opening the latter with a benediction on them who observe it, and closing it with a curse on them who pervert it. A NEARBY On a recent Sunday morn- EXAMPLE ing, in a nearby city and an orthodox pulpit, the minister discredited the authority of the Apocalypse. He intimated that the study of prophesy tends to make fanatics. Peter called prophesy "a light shining in a dark place whereunto we do well to take heed" (2 Pet. 1:19). The effort was made to show that the Apocalypse- is not an inspired treatise predictive of the last things and the coming of the Lord, but history written in .high colored imagery symbolizing contemporaneous events and persons. To establish this position he cast sus- picion on its right to A place in the Ganon, on the ground that its apostol- icity was questioned in the early church. A fact, however, that vindicates that right, since its place was won by fairly running the gauntlet of severe criti- cism. He disputed its right to ITS place in the Canon as the latest apos- Begin the day with God; Kneel down to Him in prayer; Lift up thy heart to His abode, And seek His love to share. Open the Book of God, And read a portion there, That it may hallow all thy thoughts, And sweeten all thy care. Go through the day with God, What'er thy work may be;
tolic writing, and would have fixed its' date in the sixties rather than where it ' belongs, j in the nineties, of the first century, A. D. By so locating the book in the Neronian period, he would take it as descriptive of the persecution and political agitation under Nero. But the imagination that can see in the times of Nero a condition in any possible degree commensurate to John's descrip- tion, is wilder than that attributed to the Seer himself. Now to justify this change of date our critic contrasted the style and subject matter of the Apoc- alypse with those of the Gospel of John. Men, he claimed, were more imagina- tive in their earlier writings and more sober and philosophical in maturer years. A rule easily disputable in the case of men who, have really contributed to the thought of the world. John, therefore, must (?) have written the imaginative Apocalypse many years be- fore he produced the sober, philosoph- ical gospel. Quite consistently with the purpose, but unhappily for the force of this argument, Paul was cited, and a contrast drawn between his first epis- tles, those to Thessalonica, which deal, like the Revelations, with the Lord's coming and the antichrist, and his later closely reasoned letters to the Romans and the Galatians, for Paul was a stripling of some fifty or more summers when he wrote the Thes- salonians and had only six years in which to reach the mature sobriety of Romans. But it is as Sir Robert has said, such inen have no apprehension of God's purpose as imbedded and re- vealed in His inspired Word. "A little knowledge" of the unfolding scheme in prophesy and type would prove "a dan- gerous thing" to the current "criti- cism." We shall still hold our book to be "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass"; and not the imagination of John's IMMATURE APOSTLESHIP. Where'er thou art, at home, abroad, He is still near to thee. Converse in mind with God; Thy spirit heavenward raise; Acknowledge every good bestowed, And offer grateful praise. Conclude the day with God; Thy sins to Him confess; Trust in the Lord's atoning blood,' And plead His righteousness.
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