1841 William Miller Evidence from Scripture & History - A2Z.org

136 LECTURE IX.
mrs that had rushed into his visible kingdom during r
time of prosperity that the church had experienced in ib
Ephesian state, or apostolic age, yet now the time had
come, when that candlestick must be removed, and the
next age of the church or candlestick be set ilp ; and the
same means used by God to purify the silver would
purge out the dross, so that the kin dom would a
cleansed of its worldly, hypocritica& and false pm Fin war be
10, Fear none of those things which thou shalt euffer."
The true child of God need not fear to suffer for
Christ's sake, for the sufferings of this present evil world
will work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. Behold, the devil shall cast some of
you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have
tribulation ten da s." The devil in this verse means Pagan
Rome. see Lev. xii D,17, " And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the deviln And
the drngon was wroth with the woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments
of God, and have the testimorr of Jesus
Ch.sV9 How exlctly was this pro hecy fuldbd in the
days of Nero, Domitian, and other ioman empmra, and
how faithful has history been to record the ten prsecuhons
between the da s of John's prophecy and the emperor
Constantine! fn these ten pereecutions of the Roman
government, in the text called ten days, we learn by
the history of those days the church suffered a great diminution
in numbers by uptasy and fear; yet those
that remained steadfast made up in graces what they lmt
in nunrbers; and it was truly a time of trial, for many
were cast into prison, and nlany suffered torture and
death, rather than to otier uucrificcs to their P a p pds.
'Be tllou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crow11 of life!' Yes, my brethren, ifaw can believe the
history of tlrose days, many of tl~c dear diwiplcs of Christ
were faitl~f'ul unto death, ~ n lrnve ~ l long enjoyed the
cmwn of life prornisetl in this proplrccy.
1 I, Ile tllnt hat11 an c:w, lo! l~iln llenr what the Spirit
~aitl~ to tlrc ct~urctrea Ilc tlr:tl ovcrcomrth rhnll not bo
hurt ot'the aecond deatlr." IItve, then, we find eome of
those chanrctem who will have part in the first rewrtec-