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

This-was literally ,the Lose with the Jewish church,
after she came out of the wilderness ; and every appearance
seems to betoken the like s irit in the church at
the present day. 0 that we couli be wise, and learn, ,
by the example set us by the Jews, that pride and selfsufficiency
are always before a fall!
I know the objector wilI say, How can it be he, that
the church is spreading her banners over a large portion
of the world, sending her missionaries and the Bible into
every nook and comer of the habitable globe, conquering
and to conquer ; and, at the same time, growing
more and more impure herself, becomina haughty, selfrighteous,
and ungrateful, corrupt and Pukewarm in her
faith and practice, idolatrous in her worship, and cold and
indifferent to her iimt love This, say they, is paradoxical.
1 answer, Paradoxical as it may seem, it is no less
tnie. Have I not shown that the Jews were thus paradoxical,
wben they entered the promised land Do
not the description Solomon hath given us of the church
in his Sonm the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians
and ~alatyah, and the history of the church in the
days of Constantine, all go to show, that when the
church has been most prospered in her worldly standing
with the nations, with whom she may come in contact,
she has the more deeply corrupted herself
This does not argue that she ought not to spread her
banners, send her missionaries, translate and circulate
Bibles, educate the rising generabon, establish her moral
societies, and do all, and every work, which God in his
word has commanded ; but it argues that the church is
imperfect, and that, in times of prosperity, she ought to
consider,
1st. Her proneness to idolatry, her liability to selfrighteousness,
her excessive love for the world, the
temptations on every hand.
2dly. She ought to consider that adversity is set over
against prosperi that her faith ma be tried, her
motives si~cd, Ee body purified, anB the sanctuary
cleansed.
3d. She ought to consider that the deeigns of God
!a''