| 115 The speaker began the services without much ceremony, but with apparent boldness and sobriety. Prayer was had as usual. This prayer consisted of broken, vain, and frequent repetitions, such as-O Lord, have mercy! O Lord, give us wisdom! O Lord! O Lord! O Lord!-a-hem-a-hem-a-hem-bless the senators and representatives of the people. O Lord, give them wisdom! O Lord,-hem-hem: O Lord-ham-lead us to thee. O Lord, lead us to thee. O Lord lead us to salvation! O Lord, bless us all. Give us wisdom! Give us salvation!-a-a-h-a-m-O Lord! After continuing in this strain for some time, the sound of amen afforded me great relief, as I had suffered materially in hearing these agonizing groans.
Here follows a synopsis of his discourse, and you must judge as to its logic or Scriptural truth.
After making some prefatory remarks, by way of exhortation, telling the audience to seek after knowledge, he read from Daniel, chap. viii. concerning the beast, and the other strange phenomena. He had reference to a chart that was prepared for the purpose of explaining his views more fully, which was hanging behind him. This chart was filled up with various pictures, designed to represent the interpretation of Daniel's vision, and which, he said, was to fulfill prophecy, as the prophet said-"make it plain, and write it upon tables;" hence, said he, we have spread it upon this chart, and now, when prophecy is fulfilled, we need no revelation to know it. He says that the stone spoken of by Daniel, "cut out of the mountain without hands," is Christ in his second coming. The stone referring to Christ! I had myself supposed that this stone referred to the church, as it was to become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth. Christ, when he comes, will appear in person, not as a mountain. He further stated that the secret of the Lord is with them that love him, therefore, put your trust not in the god of this world, but in the God of heaven, for he is able to give us true wisdom. I do not know how much it took of the god of this world, or the wisdom of the world, to prepare this chart. He further says that the God of heaven will hear prayer, and give us wisdom if we will ask him, for human wisdom must fail, and the arm of flesh is not sufficient. Then, thought I, what is the chart or map of the Millerites but an emanation of human wisdom, yet all the mysteries of Daniel's vision are pretended to be explained by it, and not by revelation from God. He states that when prophecy if fulfilled we want no revelation to know it, forgetting, I presume, that Christ said-There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known.-Matt. x. 26. And no one will doubt that Daniel's vision was a mystery. The prophet Amos, too, as well as Christ, differs with this Millerite, for he states-surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.-Amos iii. 7. He quotes Luke 24th to prove that Israel is not to be gathered again; yet he says that God's ministers are to be sent out into all the world, and the gospel must be preached in all nations, to fulfil [fulfill] the promise of Christ, in the 24th of Matthew, and their ministers, he informed us, were the angels that gather God's elect people from the four corners of the earth. I will leave you to judge whether or no his last statement be correct; and whether Israel is to be gathered according to the Scriptures. With one breath he blows hot and with another cold. The main drift of his discourse was to prove that Christ was expected to come every day; and his imperfect references to Scripture rendered it difficult for me to understand what he wanted to explain, in fact I believe he did not know himself, half the time, what he was saying, or what he believed. Daniel's beasts, he says, represents kingdoms, horns power and general rule; the whole referring to the anti-Christian world in the days of the Roman Papacy. The Bible cronology [chronology] of time, according to his rule of interpretation, brings the coming of Christ down to 1843. He speaks of signs preceeding [preceding] his coming, speaks of the eclipse of the sun in 1780, the falling of the stars in 1833, and quotes Joel in support of his position. He says that the host spoken of by Daniel, are saints, because they are trampled under foot, not being permitted to fight, for said he, God's people do not fight. I suppose then Christ and his apostles were not God's people, for Christ told his disciples to sell their coats and buy themselves swords for their own defence [defense] I conclude. Here follows his logic; yet said he one saint shall put a thousand to flight, and two their ten thousands. How this was to be done he did not say, but left his hearers to conjecture (as God's people must not fight). He says, although it is said in the Bible that no man knoweth the hour or the day of the coming of Christ, yet we may know the year. His rule for calculating prophetic time is one day to a thousand years, and vice versa. If this is correct in all cases it may be a thousand years to come before Christ's second advent. Some have said, lo here is Christ and lo there is Christ, but go not after them. That the Quakers believed that Ann Lee was Jesus Christ, and the Mormons
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