The Closing Messages of the Gospel

THESE messages may properly be called judgment messages; because the first announces the time of the judgment, and the third presents a test to the living, (the righteous among whom shall be translated without death,) which is the rule by which the dead shall be judged—the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Eccl. 12:13, 14; Rom. 2:12.

They may also be called advent messages; because they are to be followed immediately by the advent of Christ. Verse 14. And it is evident that those who proclaim them will believe that the advent is at hand. They are the warnings that must precede the advent, therefore the coming of Christ will be the theme of those who preach them.

I have claimed that the Adventists of 1844 announced the first message in fulfillment of this prophecy. They believed that this was the work in which they were engaged, as the following quotations from their writings will show. The Voice of Truth, extra, of December, 1844, referring to Rev. 14, said: "The everlasting gospel, as described in verses 6 and 7, has been preached unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." Again, "No case can be more clearly demonstrated with facts than that this message has been borne to every nation and tongue under heaven, within the few past years."

Eld. J. V. Himes, in a tract on prophecy entitled, Our Specific Work, said: "The proclamation of an everlasting gospel—'The hour of his judgment is come.'—(Rev. 14:6, 7,) is the leading advent proclamation." Of this he further says: "The proclamation above stated has been heard. The world can bear testimony to this. The cry, 'The hour of his judgment come,' sounded through all Chrisendom. The multitudes heard, and scoffed, or trembled."

To show that the preaching of the message was of sufficient extent to fulfill the terms of the prophecy, I give the following quotations.

"J. Litch, in his lecture on Matt. 24, Advent Herald, November 23, 1850, says that 'Joseph Wolfe has visited and proclaimed the gospel of 'the kingdom,' in the four quarters of the globe, to Protestants, Catholics, Mohammedans, Jews, and pagans.'

"The great American movement on this subject, and the diffusion of information with regard to it, within the last ten years, is too well known to need extended remarks in this place. Neither labor nor sacrifice was regarded in the wide and rapid extension of the good news of the kingdom, as far as the English language could make it known. It was sent to the four quarters of the globe, and to the islands of the sea, upon the wings of all the winds."

E. R. Pinney, in his Exposition of Matthew Twenty-four, published in the year 1848, says:

"As early as 1842, second advent publications had been sent to every missionary station in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, both sides of the Rocky Mountains. We find this doctrine in Tartary, about twenty-five years ago, and the time for the coming of Christ to be in 1844. This fact is obtained from an Irish missionary in Tartary, to whom the question was put by a Tartar priest, when Christ would come the second time. And he made answer that he knew nothing at all about it. The Tartar priest expressed great surprise at such an answer from a missionary who had come to teach them the doctrines of the Bible, and remarked 'that he thought everybody might know that who had a Bible.' The Tartar priest then gave his views, stating that Christ, he thought, would come about A. D. 1844. The missionary wrote home a statement of the facts, which was published in the Irish Magazine, in 1821. The commanders of our vessels, and the sailors, tell us they touch at no point where they find this proclamation has not preceded them, and frequent inquiries respecting it are made of them."

The Advent Shield, Vol. I., No. 1, pp. 86, 87, says: "We look upon the proclamation which has been made, as being the cry of the angel who proclaimed, 'The hour of his judgment is come.' Rev. 14:6, 7. It is a sound which is to reach all nations; it is the proclamation of the 'everlasting gospel,' or 'this gospel of the kingdom.' In one shape or other, this cry has gone abroad through the earth wherever human beings are found, and we have had opportunity to hear of the fact. Within the last six years, publications treating on the subject have been sent to nearly every English and American missionary station on the globe; to all, at least, to which we have had access."

The Signs of the Times, for Feb. 14, 1844, says: "A brother, the captain of a vessel now in England, writes his friends that his vessel lay at Newport, in Wales, forty days on account of storms, during which time a continued concourse of individuals thronged him to inquire about the coming of the Lord, having heard that he was an Adventist. Among these were ministers and laymen that received the truth gladly, and embraced it with all their heart."

Eld. R. Hutchinson, Midnight Cry Oct. 5. 1843, says: "I send about 1,500 copies of the Voice of Elijah, [an Advent paper], to Europe every fortnight, besides what I scatter over the Provinces. This I have done regularly for the last five months. The result, eternity will unfold."

Speaking of Eld. Hutchinson. and of his Voice of Elijah, F. G. Brown says: "He has forwarded them to the Canadas, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New Foundland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Constantinople, Rome, etc., etc.

"But it will be asked, Is the news that such a truth is preached a sufficient proclamation to fulfill the prophecy? Rev. 14:6, 7; Matt. 24:14. The answer is, If it was sufficient in the days of the apostles, it is now. That it was then, is clear from Acts 19:8-10, where Paul preached or taught in Ephesus two years, so that all they in Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord Jesus. They could not all have heard a sermon, but they heard the sound of the gospel. In this sense I have no doubt but the gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world."

About eighteen hundred years ago God promised, through his servant, that this message should be proclaimed to the inhabitants of the earth. The generation now living can testify that it has been fulfilled. The promise has been redeemed. What shall we do? Shall we acknowledge the receipt? just as we do with our fellow-men, when they redeem their promises?

There are thousands, and their number is constantly increasing, who profess the faith that the advent of Christ is imminent—that it may occur at any time; and yet they do not refer us to signs and prophecies fulfilled to prove that it is so, because the promises of God have been fulfilled by the appearing of those things which were foretold as taking place before the advent.

To such we say, and to all others. The word of God promises us a message on time, the hour of judgment, before the coming of the Lord; and this was not to be the last warning and message of grace to the world. If that promise has been fulfilled, and if the message of "the third angel," Rev. 14:9, is now being heard, the coming of Christ may be imminent indeed. But if the first of these three proclamations has not yet been heard, all will be compelled to wait for that. The Lord will not come till that is proclaimed; for all his promises must and will be redeemed.