Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller : $b Gathered from his memoir by the late Sylvester Bliss, and from other sources — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller : $b Gathered from his memoir by the late Sylvester Bliss, and from other sources
John Stuart Mill · en
But other great men have made as grave mistakes relative to the event to
occur at the close of the great periods of Daniel as Mr. Miller. These,
however, are soon forgotten, while that of Mr. Miller is ever fresh in
the public mind. The learned late Geo. Bush, Prof. of Hebrew and Oriental
Literature in the New York City University, in a letter addressed to Mr.
Miller, and published in the _Advent Herald_ for March, 1844, made some
very important admissions relative to his calculations of the prophetic
times. Mr. Bush says:—
“Neither is it to be objected, as I conceive, to yourself or your
friends, that you have devoted much time and attention to the study of
the _chronology_ of prophecy, and have labored much to determine the
commencing and closing dates of its great periods. If these periods are
actually given by the Holy Ghost in the prophetic books, it was doubtless
with the design that they _should_ be studied, and probably, in the end,
fully understood; and no man is to be charged with presumptuous folly who
reverently makes the attempt to do this. On this point, I have myself
no charges to bring against you. Nay, I am even ready to go so far as
to say that I do not conceive your errors on the subject of chronology
to be at all of a serious nature, or, in fact, to be _very_ wide of the
truth. In taking a _day_ as the prophetical term for a _year_, I believe
you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the
high names of Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Kirby, Scott,
Keith, and a host of others, who have long since come to _substantially_
your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods
mentioned by Daniel and John do actually expire _about this age of the
world_, and it would be a strange logic that would convict you of heresy
for holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominent in
the notices of these eminent divines. Your error, as I apprehend, lies in
another direction than your _chronology_.”
Here Prof. Bush speaks frankly and truthfully, and his words of candor
and wisdom sustain the Adventists in that feature of their faith most
objectionable to their opponents. But what was the event for which Mr.
Bush looked to mark the termination of the 2300 days? Let the following
extract from the same letter to Mr. Miller answer:—