The  Conference  sent  forth  a  Circular  Address,  signed  by
the  chairman  and  the  secretaries,  which  was  an  able  and,
broad  spirited  appeal  to  all  Christians  to  consider  the  great  >
question  of   the  last  things.     Our  readers  will  appreciate
these  selections  therefrom:  ,

"Though  in  some  of  the  less  important  views  of  this
momentous  subject  we  are  not  ourselves  agreed,  particu- ,
larly  in  regard  to  fixing  the  year  of  Christ's  second  advent,  ,
yet  we  are  unanimously  agreed  and  established  in  this  all-
absorbing  point,  that  the  coming  of  the  Lord  to  judge
the  world  is  now  specially  'nigh  at  hand.'

"We  are  also  agreed  and  firmly  persuaded,  that  the  pop-
ular theory  of  a  thousand  years,  or  more,  of  the  spiritual
and  invisible  reign  of  Christ  'in  this  present  eyil  worjd,'
where  death  reigns  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord  in  His  ,
glory,  is  altogether  unscriptural,  and  naturally  tending  to
comfort  sinners  in  their  evil  ways,  and  to  dishearten  the
faithful;  inasmuch  as  it  takes  away  heavenly  and  eterpal  ,
promises  from  the  latter,  only  to  convert  them  to,  the  tem-
poral use  of  the  former,  should  they  live,  as  they  hope,  to


98  ADVENT  CHRISTIAN   HISTORY

witness  and  enjoy  millennial  bliss  in  the  conversion  of
themselves  and  of  the  world.
"We  are  also  agreed,  that  at  the  very  commencement  of
the  millennium  the  Lord  will  come  in  the  glory  of  His  Fa-
ther, and  all  the  saints  with  Him,  and  that  the  sinners  then
remaining  alive  and  ungodly  will  be  slain  by  the  sword  of
the  Lord,  or  'taken'  and  'cast  alive,  with  the  beast  and  the
false  prophet,  into  a  lake  of  fire  burning  with  brimstone,'
instead  of  being  all  converted  to  the  obedience  of  the
Gospel.
