A Present to His Royal Highness - The Prince of Wales — Page 39
39 One, and God had in different parts of the world revealed to many tidings of the approach of the Saviour of the world; so that by the beginning of the nineteenth century both in Europe and in Asia men of diverse races and religions had begun to expect the Promised One and many began to utter warnings such as, “Behold, the Promised One is nigh, arise and prepare, lest he find you asleep. ” Such men appeared in England also, and one of these of Edward Irving, a minister of the Presbyterian Church. He began to preach in London in 1821, and within three months the number of his hearers rose from 50 to 1,500, among whom could be counted men like Brougham, Canning, Mackintosh and Wilberforce. He preached that within twenty years Jerusalem would be swept clean of all iniquity, and that the Millennium was at hand. His disciple, Mr. Baxter, relates that once during prayer he unconsciously and involuntarily uttered the words “The hour of the coming of the Messiah is nigh and at his coming the living saints will be gathered together and the dead saints will be brought to life. ” This Edward Irving was the founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church. Similarly, the Adventists have been waiting for the Messiah since the beginning of the 19th century and have clung to their belief in the face of persecutions, and some of them are still engaged in propagating their views in America and other parts of the world. Besides these, hundreds of thousands of Christians and Jews believe that this is the time appointed for the coming of the Messiah and they have written books and published literature on the subject. Among the Muslims also the belief was current that the