THE APPROACHING END OF THE AGE VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY, PROPHECY, AND SCIENCE. BY H. GRATTAN GUINNESS, F.R.G.S. Αμήν ἔρχου, κύριε Ἰησοῦ. EIGHTH EDITION, COMPLETING FOURTEENTH THOUSAND. WITH NEW APPENDIX INCLUDIng replies to CRITICISMS PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. HE volume now presented to the Christian public, consists THE as will be observed, of four parts: the first is commended to the candid consideration of those who have not yet received the truth of the premillennial advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second and third take that truth as proved and granted, and address themselves especially to those who, holding premillennial views, are still looking for the manifestation of Antichrist, prior to the visible advent of Christ, those who adopt a literal interpretation of the Apocalyptic prophecies, including their chronological features-in other words, to the futurist school of prophetic interpreters. The fourth and last part, which consists of an investigation into the system of times and seasons presented in the word and works of God, contains not a few original observations and discoveries, which, if the author mistakes not, throw fresh light on the whole subject of Scripture prophecy, and which he thinks will be found of interest to all students of the prophetic word, as well as, he trusts, to all lovers of the Bible. Perhaps, he cannot better introduce the book to the reader, than by giving a brief outline of its history. Imbued by education with the ordinary view, that a gradual improvement in the present state of things was to be expected till all the world should be converted, and a spiritual kingdom of God be universally established on earth, and that no return of Christ was to be looked for till the day of judgment at the end of the world, the author no sooner began to study the Scriptures independently than he perceived, that this view obliged him to interpret in a forced and non-natural manner a vast variety of apparently clear and simple passages, both in the Old and New Testaments. Unable to rest satisfied with doing this, he was led to read a variety of works, both for and against premillennial views, especially that most able treatise ever penned against them, entitled "Christ's Second Coming, will it be Premillennial ?" by Dr. David Brown, of Aberdeen. Unable to reach any decision satisfactory to himself by this study of prophetic works, the author nearly twenty years ago laid them all aside, and very carefully and critically read through the entire Bible, marking, studying and considering every passage bearing on the subject, with a view to collect the full testimony of the Word of God respecting it. This plan he would earnestly commend to those who may be in doubt as to the truth on this fundamental point. It completely set his own mind at rest, and his views have never been shaken since. That a premillennial advent of Christ is clearly predicted in the Word of God, the writer never afterwards doubted, or hesitated to preach; but the pressing claims of incessant evangelistic labours for many years, forbad his looking further into prophetic subjects. A fuller acquaintance, acquired by personal observation, with the condition of the Greek and other professing Christian Churches of Syria, Egypt, and Turkey, and of the effects of Mohammedan rule in the East, and also with the Papal system as developed in France and Spain, and with the Continental infidelity to which it has given rise, subsequently led the author to a careful study of the history of the Mohammedan and Papal powers, and of the prophecies of Scripture believed by many to relate to them. This resulted in a deep conviction that THOSE POWERS OCCUPY IN THE WORD of God, as prROMINENT A PLACE AS THEY HAVE ACTUALLY HELD IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. The remarkable events of the years 1866-70, especially the outbreak of the Franco-German war, which put a stop to evangelistic efforts which the author had been for some time making in Paris, led him not only still further to consider the question of modern fulfilment of prophecy, but to prepare a work on the subject, which he intended to have published under the title of "Foretold and Fulfilled." This work advocated the Protestant or historic system of interpreting the symbolic prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse, and in doing so had necessarily to consider the question which lies at the base of the different views of unfulfilled prophecy taken by Christians the true meaning of the chronological statements contained in symbolic prophecy, i.e., whether they are literal or whether they are figurative. In studying the masterly and exhaustive treatise of the Rev. T. R. Birks on this subject,* # 66 "First Elements of Sacred Prophecy, including an examination of several recent Expositions, and of the Year-day Theory," by the Rev. T, R. Birks, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. |