Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 42
42 Messiah have been fulfilled,- but since most Christians are in error as to the manner of his coming, therefore they carry on their expectations further, vainly hoping that Jesus will come in the manner in which they wish it- Their calculations 'are right, and they do not fail to see the fulfilment of the signs of the advent, but it is the manner and object of the advent that they fail to recognise. Individual attempts to calculate the time of the advent of the Messiah were made as early as the commencement of the eighteenth century, but no general cry was raised at the time. The erroneousness of these views was pointed out by later cal- culations, and by a careful interpretation of the prophecies and the enumeration of the signs fixed for the coming of the Messiah, it was shown that the Messiah must come in 1868. These views found a general acceptance and the fixed hour was anxious-, ly waited for, hut it passed away without any change in the clouds. It was a great shock not only to the advocates of this opinion but also to the public generally, but the belief remained -. ''& rooted with ,the. same firmness as before, and the failure was ascribed to errors in calculating the actual date. The "Millennial, Dawn" was published in 1889, and improving upon the earlier, calculations, it showed that the sixth thousand, after Adam at the end of which it was necessary that the Messiah should come; ended in 1873. It further showed by calculations based on Biblical. prophecies which we need not repeat here, that 1873 was the year of the coming of the Messiah, that from that time up to 1914 he would gather his saints and that then his king- dom would be firmly established so as to be seen by all men, but that until that time he was not to be recognised but by the chosen few. It also held that the mistake of the previous calcu- lators did not lie so much in errors in calculations as in failing