Prophecy Fulfilled

The Jews fulfilled the scriptures in condemning and putting Christ to death. Between thirty and forty prophecies were fulfilled in the life and death of the Son of God. In these the Jews could see no light, yet they could understand the signs of the weather. In the evening, they would say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red; in the morning, It will be foul weather, for the sky is red and lowering. Because they could discern the signs that pertained to their worldly interest, and could not discern the signs of the times, the Saviour said to them, "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Christ came in a different manner from what they expected, and so they were unprepared to receive him. The prophet describes the two advents as fellows: "He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel."

We have but to open our eyes, to see on every hand the signs of Christ's second advent, as clearly as the Jews might have seen the signs of his first advent. The apostle gives the following plain description of professed Christian people in the last days: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables," We have reached the time when this is fulfilled before our eyes. The celebrated C.H. Spurgeon will not be accused of having any sympathy with the Adventists or their views; yet he bears the following pointed testimony to the present fulfillment of the apostle's predictions:—

"It is, I think, a matter for very deep regret that this is not an age in which Christian people want to be edified. It is an age in which they like to have their ears tickled, and delight to have a multiplicity of anecdotes and of exciting matter; but they little care to be well instructed, in the sound and solid doctrines of the grace of God. In the old Puritanic times, sermons must have been tiresome to the thoughtless, but now-a-days I should think they are more tiresome to the thoughtful. The Christian of those days wanted to know a great deal of the things of God; and provided that the preacher could open up some point of Christian practice to make him holier and wiser, he was well satisfied, though the man was no orator, and might lead him in no fields of novel speculation. Christians did not want a new faith but, having received the old faith, they wished to be well rooted and grounded in it, and, therefore, sought daily for an illumination, as well as for a quickening; they desired, not only to have the emotions excited, but also to have the intellect richly stored with divine truth, and there must be much of this in every church, if it is built up. No neglect of an appeal to the passions, certainly; no forgetfulness as to what is popular and exciting; but with this, we must have the solid bread corn of the kingdom, without which God's children will faint in the weary way of the wilderness."