Several wars will take place before that of Armageddon, which in their nature will be fierce and terrible. Still these will all be preparatory—leading on to the day of decision and the battle final. On this point many err, and their error has a pernicious influence on the Church and the world. They interpret the preparatory signs as if they were final; hence the end with such is too near. A sincere anxiety takes possession of their soul, which utterly unfits them to judge aright the signs of the times and tokens of Providence. Thus were a portion of the Advent Church thrown into confusion the 8th of last July because they had fixed upon the seventh as the time for the ending of the world. And human folly and haste will repeat itself again on the 10th of April next, because another portion of the Advent brethren have fixed upon the 9th of April as the time of the end. It is a wonder the first did not take the 4th of July instead of the seventh, for then a stranger might think the end was nigh in some of our cities; or why didn’t the other party select the 1st of April, for no doubt it would have proved a more propitious day? But thus it is, and will be again before the appointed time of Heaven comes. Man is a creature of haste and sudden impulse, especially so in his religious experience. Kings and nations, Churches and sects, have laboured hard in times past to force the issues of Providence and give speed and certainty to times and events. The prophecies affecting our days are clear; so much so, that he who runs may read, if need be. But an impatient activity urges men on, bedazzling their eyes, which at once unnerves and unfits them for reading or judging. “In your patience possess ye your souls,” said the blessed Master to His disciples of old, and not less through them unto us. “Order is Heaven’s first law,” it has been said; and surely order pervades the prophecies. But the pulpits in general over-ride this order, and are not slow to malign such men as Edward Hine, of London, England, when the fact is, that his theory of the prophecies and mode of interpretation are vastly more natural, responsive, and reasonable than the ill-adjusted, unnatural, and non-responsive system of current theology. A person is under obligation to use that key for the unlocking of prophecy which fits the best, and that responds to providential events the most natural, without regard to the antiquated systems and mode of Church, sect, or college theology. Hine’s theory, as it is called sometimes, is as much superior to the old system of interpretation, as the railway Pullman car is to the ricketty old stage coach.