The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

402 Interpretation in post-Reformation Times.that it gave birth to the Reformation ; that it has been since confirmed by theevents of several centuries, and elaborated and defended by an unbroken seriesof learned and unanswerable works. In vain do the waves of controversy rageagainst this stately rock. It has stood for ages, and is destined to remain till thelight of eternity shall break upon the scene. The historic interpretation is no dreamof ignorant enthusiasts. It is no speculation of fanciful, ill-balanced minds. It hasgrown with the growth of generations ; it has been built up by the labors of menof many nations and ages. It has been embodied in solemn confessions of theProtestant Church. It forms a leading element int he testimony of martyrs andreformers. Like the prophets of old, these holy men bore a double testimony -a testimony for the truth of God, and a testimony against the apostasy of Hisprofessing people. The providential position which they occupied, the workthey accomplished, gave singular and special importance to their testimony ;and this was their testimony, and nothing less, that Papal Rome is theBabylon of prophecy, drunken with the blood fo saintsand martyrs ; and that its head, the Roman pontiff, is thepredicted “man of sin,” or antichrist.To reject this testimony of God’s providential witnesses on a matter of suchfundamental import, and to prefer to it the counter-doctrine advocated by theapostate, persecuting Church of Rome, is the error and guiltof modern futurism.And that futurism is self-condemned. Futurism is literalism, and literalismin the interpretation of symbols is a denial of their symbolic character. It is anabuse and degradation of the prophetic word, and a destruction of its influence. Itsubstitutes the imaginary for the real, the grotesque and monstrous for the soberand reasonable. It quenches the precious light which has guided the saints forages, and kindles a wild, delusive marsh-fire in its place. It obscures the wisdomof Divine prophecy ; it denies the true character of the days in which we live ;and while it asserts the nearness of the advent of Christ in the power and gloryof His kingdom, it at the same time destroys the only substantial foundation forthe assertion, which is prophetic chronology, and the stage now reached in thefulfilment of the predictions of the apostasy.But in spite of the injurious effetcs of these false interpretations, “thefoundation of God stands sure” ; none can cancel the prophecies which He haswritten in His holy word, and none can deny or destroy the mighty and far-reachingresults which their true interpretation has already accomplished in the world. Ithas given us, and this is its glory, it has given us the REFORMATION. It hasbroken the irons chains of superstition and despotism, and lifted nations from thedepths of their abasement. It has reared a temple whose walls no enemy can ruin.It has reopened, it has given back to the world, that book whose teachingshave led millions into the way of life and peace.And the sacred light of these prophecies is still guiding the Church [Assembly]of God across the wide ocean of her dangerous way. Those steadfast stars ofprophecy which lighted of old the persecuted Waldenses through the darkness ofthe middle ages, which lighted the progress of the Lollards and the Bohemiansbefore the Reformation, which lighted the noble reformers through gloom and