Life of Ahmad — Page 228
CLAIMS TO BE THE MESSIAH as as 228 Bible, including the creation of the world, the stupendous fall of man, the birth of Christ, and his death and resurrection, none occupies the space or receives such attention as the Second Coming. 'The statement concerning the Second Coming of Christ', he adds, 'occurs in the New Testament once in every twenty verses. ' Then he says: 'Oh! if he do not come, it is the withering and the blight and the overthrow; All Scripture goes down pell-mell into the abyss of untruth and unreality, or is whirled away like fallen leaves of a dying tree and scattered on the windy blast. ' Some Christians, however, have taught themselves to think, perhaps tired of waiting, that his coming only means acceptance of him by conversion by the witness of the spirit or by the acknowledgement of his reign over the Church. But the Rev. W. E. Blackstone very rightly refutes this idea: 'There are a portion of the Israelites in the present day,' He says, 'Who style themselves "reformed" or "liberal". They likewise spiritualise the Old Testament prophecies and have therefore ceased to look for any literal Messiah. That even Jews should thus join with Gentiles in "spiritualising" Scriptures is a marvellous sign of the times in which we live. (When the son of Man cometh