Memoirs of William Miller - Sylvester Bliss

and other seventy also, to go two and two into
every city in Judea, and into private houses, if
possible, to persuade men that the kingdom of God
had come nigh unto them. He endued them with
power from on high to work miracles, in
confirmation of the truth of their proclamation.
And what was the effect? We cannot exactly tell.
We know some things which it did not do. It did
not convert many of their political rulers, none of
their literati, none of the lawyers or Scribes; not
one, as we can learn, of all the priests, and none of
the principal sects, believed... Some few years
afterwards, the church at Jerusalem tried the same
plan. They were driven by persecution from that
city, and went everywhere preaching faith,
repentance, and the resurrection. They had some
better success, yet not in comparison to the number
who heard; for Paul says, their sound went out to
the ends of the earth. But very few believed. Again,
it has been tried in our day. For fifty years the
Protestant churches have been sending Bibles,
tracts, and publications without number; and is the
world converted? No. It has waxed worse and
worse. ...
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