LETTER IV. PREFATORY REMARKS-CLOSING UP OF THE DOOR OF MERCY-MILLENNIUM-THE CHRONOLOGY
DEAR BRO. HIMES: Your letters, both from Portland and Boston, were received last Saturday, when on my way to Dresden, where I have lectured four days.MWV1 236.1
We had a good time. The Lord was there. Day after to-morrow I begin a course of lectures at Fort Ann. The next week I go north, where I have three places, which will take three weeks at least. I do not know what to say to you about coming to Massachusetts again. I have more business on hand than two men like me could perform. I must lecture twice every day. I must converse with many-answer a host of questions-write answers to letters from all points of the compass, from Canada to Florida, from Maine to Missouri. I must read all the candid arguments, (which I confess are not many,) that are urged against me. I must read all the “slang” of the drunken and the sober; and since “hard cider” has become so popular, these publications are not few. The polar star must be kept in view, the Chart consulted, the compass watched, the reckoning kept, the sails set, the rudder managed, the ship cleaned, the sailors fed, the voyage prosecuted, the port of rest to which we are destined understood, the watchman to answer the call, “Watchman, what of the night?”MWV1 236.2
CLOSING OF THE DOOR OF MERCY-MILLENNIUM.MWV1 236.3
Yours, and brother Litch’s articles on the closing of the door of mercy, are good. All that I can do in addition, would be to bring a few passages of scripture as proof that in the end of the world there must be a little time to gather the wicked from the just, to separate the bad from the good.MWV1 236.4
1. The parable of the Tares. Matthew 13:37-42. “He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Take notice, the tares and the wheat grow together until the harvest, verse 30. The harvest is the end of the world. Now let me ask, Can this scripture be true, and at the same time brother Cambell’s and Dowling’s views of the millennium be fulfilled? Every unprejudiced mind must answer, No. Before, or at the end of the world, he gathers out of his kingdom all that do iniquity or offend; and at the end of the world they are burnt. They must grow together until the harvest, and “the harvest is the end of the world.” Where, then, can Mr. D. or C. find a place for their millennium?MWV1 237.1
Again; see Matthew 13:47-50: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Take notice, the net is the gospel; it gathers good and bad. In the end of the world it is drawn ashore, full of good and bad. They then sit down and gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away. After they have drawn the net ashore, they cannot take more fish. Now must come a little time to separate the good from the bad. “So shall it be in the end of the world.” Where can there be a time when all the fish are good? If there is such a time, surely before they get to shore they must fall from grace. Will brothers Cambell and Dowling admit this?MWV1 237.2
Again; Revelation 14:15-19: “And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God.” The earth is first reaped, and the precious fruit gathered in. Then, before the angel having power over fire can burn the world, and execute that purpose of God, the vine must be harvested, and cast into the wine-press of the wrath of God, and the last battle be fought. In my opinion, when this last bloody battle begins, the earth will have been reaped, the good fruit will then be gathered, and the vine [kingdoms and combinations of earthly men] destroyed, and carried away, and no place found for them on earth. Here we see a little time will be necessary to execute this last work of God’s vengeance on the earth. “For by pestilence, famine, and the sword, will God plead with all flesh.” Some say the time is too short now for all this to be done before 1843. But we ought to remember that God has said, “A short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” Romans 9:28. And if the destruction of Jerusalem was a type of the end of the world, as we generally believe it was, then this would all be performed in two or three years, at most. To say positively when the door will be shut, I cannot; for I do not know how much time may be included in the words “when the seventh trump begins to sound.” That the seventh trump has begun to sound, I have little or no doubt; and how long beginning to sound may last, whether one month, six months, or a year, I cannot tell. At any rate, it will do us no harm to be ready. God says, Revelation 10:7, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” And Paul tells us, in his epistle to the Ephesians 3:4-9, “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”MWV1 238.1
What the mystery of God is, which God hath revealed to his holy prophets and apostles-that it is the gospel preached unto the Gentiles. Then “time shall be no longer,” means gospel time, and “the mystery of God shall be finished,” means the preaching of the gospel to the world shall be completed. This agrees with Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”MWV1 239.1
Every one can judge for himself how long time “the seventh trumpet beginning to sound” may be. Mr. Cambell, and those who believe in a temporal millennium, must suppose it to last more than a thousand years, in order to be consistent with themselves, and then it would only begin to sound. And this would be a short work, too! Can any man, with a sound mind, believe in a doctrine so full of absurdities? I, for myself, can never believe it.MWV1 239.2
THE CHRONOLOGY. As it respects the Chronology I sent you, no fault can be found, except in two or three places: the time of Joshua and Samuel, and the length of the administration of the Judges. Our chronology, by Usher, fixes the time of the Judges only about three hundred and thirty years. Paul, in Acts, says it was four hundred and fifty years. They have one text, from which I expect they draw some conclusions; but they do not follow that 1 Kings 6:1. This says four hundred and eighty years after the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Now let us see how they abide by this. Forty years in wilderness, thirty years for Joshua and Elders before their bondage in Mesopotamia. Twenty-one years under Samuel certain, and perhaps more. Forty years under Saul, forty years under David, and four years of Solomon, making in all but the Judges one hundred and seventy-five years, leaving three hundred and five years for Judges. Usher has about three hundred and sixty, or three hundred and sixty-five. Now it is morally certain he cannot agree with the text in 1 Kings 6:1. I should prefer Paul’s account to Usher’s; for Usher and others agree with neither. I agree with Paul, and the Bible account of the Judges, which you will see exactly harmonize. No doubt the would-be masters and teachers will criticize and grumble. But if they will not follow the Bible, it is no reason why we should hide the truth from the perishing sinner. Brother Dowling will undoubtedly fret some; for he has forestalled himself on the six thousand years. But I think brother Cambell will look at it candidly. I may be mistaken; but if he knows that a number of worthy and learned divines have examined and come to the same conclusion, I think he will treat it with candor.MWV1 240.1
WILLIAM MILLER.
Low Hampton, Aug. 12, 1840.