—FROM SOME WHO HAVE READ THE BOOK—
MINISTERS, EVANGELISTS, LAYMEN, AND
THE RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR PRESS.
Below we quote some Comments already received.
More coming in daily, will be given again.
Millennial Dawn. One's first thought on taking up this volume is that it is the work of some good-meaning but over-zealous Christian who, in order to add strength to and fortify the faith that is within himself, has been led to "rush in where angels fear to tread" and to fix the day and hour of the Savior's second coming, as so many have already done. However, the reader is agreeably surprised, before he has read half a dozen pages, to find that such is not the aim and object of the book; that, on the contrary, there is nothing of the prophetic about it, and that it is the product of a wise and thoroughly Christian pen. The work is a serious and philosophical review of "the plan of salvation" as laid down in the Book of Books. No other authority is quoted except the Bible, the writer stating that it is his endeavor to divorce his subject as completely as possible from all opinions of men, and to give his readers the truth undefiled from the fountain head. The work is admirable in many ways, being produced in a style sufficiently pleasant and attractive to at once fix the attention of the reader, while the subject matter, relating, as it does, to the "old, old story," can never grow prosy or dull. The book is calculated to do good to all, whether a young recruit, an old soldier of the cross, or one blindly groping in the dark. As a reference book for the Bible student it is invaluable, and no Christian household should be without it.—Galveston News, Sept. 5, '86.
I am astonished at the depth of knowledge the book contains. In my judgment there never has been before the public a work to equal Millennial Dawn. It ought to be in the hands of every minister.
Millennial Dawn, the Plan of the Ages. A remarkable book! A book for the times! It is emphatically A Helping Hand for Bible Students. In these latter days, when Christians are so eagerly seeking the light of God's word, to interpret passing events and to forecast the dawning future, so pregnant with tremendous import to all mankind, this book comes as a soothing, satisfying draught from the fountain of all truth, knowledge and wisdom. Every earnest seeker after truth, every sincere student of the Bible, will do well to secure a copy of this remarkable book at once and enjoy the feast of fat things which it contains.—J. E. Jewett in Christian Herald, Oct. 7, '86.
I have never been so interested in any work on the Bible. I am carried away and lifted up. I think it is the very pith of the word of God. It seems I would give all I had if I could only get all Christians to read it. It does seem that the writer has gotten right down to facts as they are in Scripture. I cannot but think how blind I and all the world have been on many things now so plain and Scriptural to me. May God bless the author and more and more reward his search for the "deep things" of His word. A. H. BLUNT.
It is thoroughly refreshing, in this age of skepticism and vaunted indifference to the truths of religion, to find a writer coming nobly forward to maintain the principle of a revealed religion. This the author has done with strength and good reasoning in his Millennial Dawn. A concise idea of his position in regard to the Bible may be gleaned from the following extract: "When Columbus discovered the Orinoco river some one said he had found an island. He replied: 'No such river as that flows from an island. That mighty torrent must drain the waters of a continent.' So the depth, and power, and wisdom, and scope of the Bible's testimony convinces us that not men, but the Almighty God, is the author of its plans and revelations."—Evening Post, San Francisco, Cal.
"I never read any work on the Bible that presented such a vast amount of truth in so small a compass in my life." W. HAYMAN.
Millennial Dawn is the title of a series of books issued by the Tower Publishing Company. The first [R897 : page 8] volume of the series, now on our table, is entitled The Plan of the Ages. It is nothing less than an exposition of the purposes and method of the Supreme Being in the creation of mankind and in the economy of human and angelical affairs. It may be described as a philosophy of history, but a philosophy so far-reaching [R898 : page 8] in its grasp and so comprehensive in its range as to make the expositions of Bossuet, and even of Augustine, seem narrow and prosaical. What, with manifest hyperbole, Dr. Johnson said of Shakespeare, seems literal truth when applied to this Pittsburgh writer:—
'Existence sees him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting time toils after him in vain.'
Readers will cease to suspect any ironical meaning or intent in these statements, when they reflect that the writer of this Plan of the Ages professes to be merely an interpreter of Scriptural prophecies and an expositor of divinely attested facts, soaring upon the wings of inspiration, and not of his own natural powers.
That the author of the book is in earnest, fully believing in the sufficiency of his own insight and in the soundness of his interpretations, no attentive reader can doubt. So much is manifest from the direct, straightforward style, as well as from the modest confidence with which he ignores antagonism or the possibility of contradiction.
Some of his interpretations and applications of Biblical texts are striking at least, and some of the views expressed are certainly novel and ingeniously presented. The references to the industrial, social and other troubles of the present time give a practical character to many pages of the book, showing that the author is by no means a mere dreamer. To persons, therefore, who take pleasure in Scriptural interpretation, or in the application of Scripture to contemporary history and questions of the day, this Plan of the Ages may be safely commended as likely to be interesting.—Pittsburgh Times, Sept. 28, '86.
"It is a strong writing, showing much research and excellent arrangement and method in its treatment of its subjects. None will doubt the honesty or earnestness, or the intended devotion to truth of the author. Christian readers may find teachings in the book to combat, but they will find much more to commend. From a scholarly stand-point the book will be marked as one of merited literary excellence."—Inter-Ocean, Chicago, Ill.
Millennial Dawn, the Plan of the Ages, is a first or introductory volume to a series of works intended to arrest skepticism by reason and Scriptural truth. To Bible students its pages will be found of most absorbing interest. Its arrangement is clear, and every page bears evidence of profound thought as well as patient and intelligent study of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptural story has been fitted to the history of the world in a manner that is singularly compatible and highly suggestive to the minds of those who are willing to read further than the dedicatory page, which reads thus: "To the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: In the interest of his Consecrated 'Saints,' waiting for the adoption, and of 'All that in every place call upon the Lord'—'The Household of Faith,' and of the Groaning Creation Travailing and Waiting for the Manifestation of the Sons of God, this work is dedicated."
It may not be a palatable truth, nor a fact creditable to the mental or moral status of the American people, yet it is undeniable that when an author has studied the Scriptures until he gets "a new light" on the subject, and begins to teach the second coming of Christ, the advent of the Millennium, etc., and publishes this to the world, they are apt to scoff at him as "a crank," or to use the more scriptural language:—"Saul, Saul, much learning hath made thee mad."
If the author be mad there is an excellent system in his madness, and if "a crank," his mind never takes the reverse motion. He presses steadily forward from premises apparently well settled to his conclusions, with an orderly and calm arrangement of strictly logical truths seldom paralleled, and the whole argument is presented in such a dispassionate style as to preclude the slightest notion of rant, cant or insincerity. The independence of thought and originality of "The Plan of the Ages," are refreshing, but it is a work which demands careful study to comprehend. It is one that will require the average reader to keep a Bible constantly at hand for verification of the references and amplification of assertions, and in this respect may become a helping hand to Bible students.
The author draws many startling analogies, showing the aptitude of likening human governments to beasts, drawing the parallel from their selfish and destructive character, based on "man's idea of self-government, independent of God." Still, he must not be understood as urging therefore that the Church should assume control of the affairs of State, and therein reads a wholesome lecture in a few words to many ecclesiastical politicians. He says:—"The Church of God should give its entire attention and effort to preaching the Kingdom of God, and to the advancement of the interests of that Kingdom according to the plan laid down in the Scriptures. If this is done faithfully, there will be no time or disposition to dabble in the politics of present governments. Jesus had no time for it; the Apostles had no time for it; nor have any of the Saints who are following their example."
Although the Apostle speaks of the Church as the Kingdom over which Christ reigns, and the Church is frequently called the Kingdom in the parables of our Lord, yet the author maintains that this has reference merely to the Church before the Second Coming and is but the "incipient, embryotic condition" of the Kingdom.
In short, he does not believe that the Kingdom of God is figurative, but that it is an actual empire to be established on earth and among men, that Christ in person will assume the reins of government on earth "for a limited time and for a particular purpose; and that it will terminate with the accomplishment of that purpose." This will be the Millennial age, and will end when Christ delivers up the dominion of earth to the Father. (1 Cor. 15:25; Matt. 25:34.)
The author's work evinces a keen observation of and lively interest in the present situation of mankind; his array of facts tending to show from the present aspect of affairs in the world as they are "shaping themselves for the rapidly approaching conflict" are not alarming, but they force themselves on the attention of the intelligent, even though we may not be able to see as clearly as himself that the "trouble of the day of the Lord is immediately at hand." And, it may be added, that in a commercial community, enjoying the comforts of wealth and the comparative security of governments founded on the will of the people, they will be saints indeed who can be expected "to abandon the strife of greed and vain glory and its discontent; striving for the higher riches and the peace they do afford."—Commercial Gazette, Pittsburgh, Oct. 9, '86.
Millennial Dawn is even more than I could have possibly hoped for: so loyal to God's Word, while so true to moral logic, and competent to convince the mind and heart of the truths of our holy religion and its "future glory." J. COBB.
Millennial Dawn. We have here what seems intended to be the first of a series of volumes under this general title, and which is designated as The Plan of the Ages. Prefixed to the volume is a chart which is designated as the Chart of the Ages, and which embraces two dispensations and an unfulfilled part of another. The first dispensation extends from the creation of the world to the flood, covering a supposed period of 1,656 years. The second dispensation—that of this present evil world—embraces the Patriarchal Age, the Jewish Age from Jacob's death to the end of the seventy weeks, and the Gospel Age, extending from Jesus' baptism to the completion of the church, which is his body. The third age, not yet begun, is the Millennial Age, or that of the personal reign of Christ. Of course the volume is what is known as pre-millennial—with additional views, which probably many pre-millennialists will not endorse. The writer enforces the idea of three "ways" in the Scriptures: The Broad Way—to destruction; the Narrow Way—to life; and the Highway of Holiness—for the ransomed of the Lord. He also holds that the first great judgment was in Eden, but that God will give the world a second trial under Christ, in person and as judge. With all this, and with other positions to which exceptions may be taken, the work is thoroughly reverent, and may be read with profit.—The Interior, Chicago, Sept. 16, '86.
The author of the well-known publications, Why Evil Was Permitted and The Tabernacle and Its Teachings, has sent forth another volume entitled Millennial Dawn, the Plan of the Ages." It is the first of a series designed to make plain the teachings of the Bible and arrest skepticism and infidelity. It is intended especially as a help for Christians, and this purpose is well carried out in the work. It will be of inestimable value to Bible students.—Buffalo News.
"I prize it very highly, and nothing in the world would please me better than to see it in the hands of every professing Christian. I think it would make real Christians of many of them." G. EICHORN.
Millennial Dawn; The Plan of the Ages. This is the first of a series of works for Bible students,—"a helping hand." The author endeavors to show that a severe conflict is approaching between Labor and Capital, between Good and Evil—Justice and Injustice, and that when the earth shall have been purified from wrong and oppression the Millennium will have come. The work is scholarly and of much interest.—Springfield (Mass.) Homestead.
"It will be found a valuable aid in studying the plan of salvation."—National Tribune.
Millennial Dawn will be undoubtedly very interesting to a large class of Bible students.—American Rural Home, Rochester, N.Y.
I do not intend to "notice" the book, but believe competent critics will agree that none of the many books on Evidences of Christianity, gives in such compact form and lucid phrase what Christians need to know and remember in this direction as the opening chapters on Divine Revelation in Millennial Dawn.
In the important chapters on "The Kingdom of God" and "Kingdoms of This World" there is the same masterly arrangement of the facts, and calm deductions, so far above the common idle speculation on these glorious themes.
I mention one more topic, Jehovah's Day. Surely no other student of "last things" has seen as clearly and written as boldly yet truthfully and reverently on this theme as the author of Millennial Dawn. Yet in the last chapter of his book the author has given clearer pictures of the scenes and events of the Day of Wrath, and applied the Scriptures more pertinently as God's illustrations, than in any other writings from his pen.
Every man of means who prizes the truth ought to buy a dozen or a hundred copies and sell or loan them. If you cannot preach publicly, you could not find a better substitute than copies of Millennial Dawn loaned to good minds. Here is a book no one need be ashamed to hand to the most polished or refined. If composition, breadth of thought and importance of subject are all considered, it is second to nothing on earth except alone the Book of books.
Millennial Dawn, the Plan of the Ages. This is the first of a series of volumes, each complete in itself, designed to make plain the teachings of the Bible in a manner calculated to arrest skepticism by reason and Scripture. Their special aim is to lend a helping hand to Christians in putting on the whole armor of God that in the present confusion and skepticism and tendency toward infidelity, they may be able to stand. The work is by the author of the well known publications, "Why Evil was Permitted," and "The Tabernacle and Its Teachings," which have had such an immense circulation, both in America and Great Britain.—Ohio Farmer.
TOWER PUBLISHING CO.: Deep thanks for the "helping hand," Millennial Dawn. It is indeed "still waters," and "green pastures," so filling sometimes as to cause fear of a thorn in the flesh to prevent being lifted up above measure. Marvelous are these revelations of the jewels of God's love and plan! I fear of missing them, but cannot think that any can be permitted to develop capacity to taste to exhilaration of this new wine, and yet miss the fruition.
There is a promise connected with spiritual hunger, but this surely goes beyond that. It is delicious feasting on the fat things themselves.
I have received the Dawn, and have not ceased until I have gone through it. What a feast of fat things is opened to those who will run patiently the race for the crown. If I could not get another Dawn, money to any amount would not buy the one I have. It is another book I shall prize above rubies. JAMES PUTTICK.
"I do not say that there is no other such book as Millennial Dawn, the Plan of the Ages, but if there is another such work I am sorry I did not come across it sooner in life. No treatise on the Bible known to me will hold a candle to this book. It starts just where I have always thought a theological book ought to start, by proving and establishing a groundwork for faith before it addresses faith. It shows the reasonableness of believing that there is a God, an intelligent Creator, then aside from the Bible shows that the fact of a Bible as a revelation of God's will and plan is reasonable. Then it shows in few words the oneness and harmony and reasonableness of the Bible itself. But this last it proves beyond question as a whole, for from first to last every argument is based upon reason and Scripture, and by the comprehensiveness and grand symmetry of the Plan of the Ages which this volume presents, it proves beyond question, not only that the Plan is a divine one, but at the same time, that the Bible which contains that plan is a divine revelation.
It is valuable beyond price to all truth seekers—skeptical and others—but who to-day, amid the clamoring creeds, is not in doubt and to some extent skeptical? He who has not longed for some more tangible, more reasonable and more solid basis of faith and hope than is generally possessed by Christians, either has little brain capacity or will not allow himself to think.
Oh! I long to have fellow-Christians illumined by the light of God's Word which this book so marvelously reflects. And imbued with its spirit of consecration, all would indeed be saints. I shall do what I can to bring it to the attention of the household of faith, believing that I can in no other way do them so much good, or so honor God. It cannot fail to bring forth rich fruit of grace, knowledge and love wherever it is read, or rather where it is studied prayerfully by earnest, truth-seeking children of God.
As for me, my feet had well nigh slipped—I was almost an Infidel, disgusted with the unreasonableness of much of the theology and the contradiction one of another of the various religious denominations, all of which I ignorantly supposed to be taught in the Bible. But I thank God that the "glad tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people," as presented in the Plan of the Ages, reached my eyes and heart. It has put a new song in my mouth, even the loving kindness of our God. For this I shall ever praise the giver of every good, and in my humble way shall delight to spend and be spent, in letting the light of the Plan of the Ages shine into other and still other hearts, to refresh and bless and strengthen them as my own has been." W. BELL.
"I have read Millennial Dawn with great interest and am reading it a second time. I think it the best book I ever read, except God's book, the Bible. I purpose sending for more and lending them to worthy ones wherever I can find them; so that they also may know the riches of the grace of our God."
"I am delighted with the book, and think it likely to induce the careful investigation of educated skeptics. I have already had five copies and now want forty more. I want to do what I can to put this book into the hands of truth seekers. I long for the next volume." E. HORNE.
Both Church and State are shown to be involved in the trouble of the Day of the Lord, social, political and financial. In no other book are the Scriptures bearing on these topics so pertinently applied. Mankind will soon be asking the question, "Watchman, what of the night?" and the answer is here given—The morning cometh—the blessed reign or Day of Christ—and also the night; for the word of warning it gives is needed concerning "Jehovah's Day" which closes the world's sad 6,000 years of night, and introduces the Millennial age of glory, the world's Sabbath. I wish a million readers were each in possession of a copy. Its composition, thought and importance of subject, are all that could be desired. B. ADAMSON.
"I am surprised at the truth it reveals. Truly "the half was never told." I am greatly blessed in the study of God's Word, which is made more plain."
A volume that will surely be appreciated by Bible students, is Millennial Dawn, The Plan of the Ages. It is the first of a series of volumes designed to make plain the teachings of the Bible, in a manner calculated to arrest skepticism, by Reason and Scripture, the special aim being to lend a helping hand to Christians in putting on the whole armor of God, that in the present confusion, the skepticism and tendency toward Infidelity, they may be able to stand. It is certainly a book that will be welcomed even by those of skeptical minds, for a kindly feeling of forbearance and respect for opposing opinions pervades its pages, and the objectionable dogmatism and evidences of bigotry, so common in the majority of such arguments, are evidently unfamiliar to the mind of the truly Christian and scholarly editor. Millennial Dawn will, we predict, have a very large sale. We heartily commend it to our readers.—Detroit Commercial Advertiser, Sep. 24, 1886.
"Words fail me to express my appreciation of the book. The reading of it was the grandest feast I ever enjoyed. How much I wish that every earnest seeker after the truth could have a copy of it. If it were possible to spare the money I would order several copies to lend, but for the present I am doing what I can with my one copy." N. RANEY.
Millennial Dawn. This is the first volume of a series under this title, and treats, as the author terms it, of the "Plan of the Ages." The second volume will be upon the "Times and Seasons" of Scripture. This volume takes up the subject at a point where the skeptically inclined will be most interested and proceeds with the important theme in logical order, step by step presenting the truths which the author finds in the Bible bearing upon the subject. The author, while a close reasoner, is eminently scriptural, bringing forth a "Thus saith the Lord," to substantiate all his arguments. The subject and its treatment are deeply interesting, and all seekers after the so-called hidden truths of Revelation will be delighted to find a treatise that explains so clearly things but half understood or mysterious before.—Indiana Farmer.
The Pacific Congregationalist says: "In Millennial Dawn, Vol. I., we have a much more pronounced and perfected scheme than they have yet given us at Andover. The author has given to his well-printed book of 351 pages the sub-title, The Plan of the Ages."
New York, August 23, 1886.
To the Author of Millennial Dawn:
DEAR BROTHER: Truly the entrance of his Word giveth light! Your book, Millennial Dawn, has been used by God to so illuminate his divine revelation that the glorious view seems to have left me like one in a trance. Trained, as I have been, in the most rigidly Calvinistic school of thought, my whole self naturally and quickly assumed the defensive as I caught the spirit of the book in its opening pages. But God had beyond all doubt, been preparing my mind and heart for the childlike reception of his truth. And laying aside all prejudice, preconceived notions, and "traditions of the elders," I closeted myself for the greater part of three days with my Bible and Dawn, and earnestly seeking, in prayer, the guidance of God's Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth, I feasted upon the fat things and drank in the precious truth until I could almost say with Paul, "Whether in the body I cannot tell; or whether out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth."
I have long since become dissatisfied and disheartened concerning the clash and din of jarring discord among opposing creeds and rival sects composing the heterogeneous "mass of baptized profession"—each division, large or small, wresting the Scriptures to conform to its own particular phase of belief, causing the Word to appear so distorted that its divine Author would fail to recognize his own production.
But, blessed be God, the Scriptures, in reality, cannot be broken, and however men may seem to pervert them to support their peculiar views, they remain unchanged and unchangeable—the Rock of Eternal truth! I praise God that he has made you instrumental in opening my eyes to behold the beautiful symmetry which the Word exhibits in the marvelous combination of its manifold and multiform parts, and in unstopping my ears to hear the delightful harmony which its many and varied notes produce when taken in their entirety.
S. I. HICKEY, Presbyterian Minister.
Millennial Dawn has highly delighted and consoled me. Indeed aside from the Bible, no book is so highly prized by me. I have books which cost many times more than the Millennial Dawn, but, if I could not get another, I would not part with it for all of my books and many more besides. G. W. DICKSON.
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