Memoirs of William Miller - Sylvester Bliss

church as in a state of warfare and suffering until
her deliverer -- Christ -- comes, -- all those
scriptures which declare the coexistence and the
mingling of the righteous and wicked, even to the
end of the world, -- all those passages which
represent the continuance of the Man of Sin, the
little horn of the fourth beast in Daniel’s vision, the
great dragon power, etc., as existing till the
personal advent of the Saviour, to destroy them that
destroy the earth, and to reward his saints. 2nd. We
deem it dangerous to the eternal interests of men. It
holds out to them the hope that a period more
conducive to piety than the present is before them;
thus inducing, however unintentionally, the sinner
to defer immediate repentance, and encouraging
professors to wait for a more favorable opportunity
to expend their energies for saving sinners, both at
home and abroad. And, finally, its direct influence
is to put far off the second advent of the Saviour,
and thus lull the world into a state of carelessness
with respect to an immediate preparation for the
event. There can be no millennium until the first
resurrection, the resurrection of the just.
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