The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 363
The Arabs of Yemen, he says, “are in possession of a book called Seera,
which gives notice of the second coming of Christ and His reign in glory;
and they expect great events to take place in the year 1840.”—Journal
of the Rev. Joseph Wolff, page 377. “In Yemen ... I spent six days with
the children of Rechab. They drink no wine, plant no vineyard, sow
no seed, and live in tents, and remember good old Jonadab, the son of
Rechab; and I found in their company children of Israel, of the tribe of
Dan, ... who expect, with the children of Rechab, the speedy arrival of
the Messiah in the clouds of heaven.”—Ibid., page 389.
A similar belief was found by another missionary to exist in Tatary.
A Tatar priest put the question to the missionary as to when Christ would
come the second time. When the missionary answered that he knew
nothing about it, the priest seemed greatly surprised at such ignorance
in one who professed to be a Bible teacher, and stated his own belief,
founded on prophecy, that Christ would come about 1844.
As early as 1826 the advent message began to be preached in
England. The movement here did not take so definite a form as in
America; the exact time of the advent was not so generally taught, but the
great truth of Christ’s soon coming in power and glory was extensively
proclaimed. And this not among the dissenters and nonconformists
only. Mourant Brock, an English writer, states that about seven hundred
ministers of the Church of England were engaged in preaching “this
gospel of the kingdom.” The message pointing to 1844 as the time of
the Lord’s coming was also given in Great Britain. Advent publications
from the United States were widely circulated. Books and journals were
republished in England. And in 1842 Robert Winter, an Englishman
by birth, who had received the advent faith in America, returned to his
native country to herald the coming of the Lord. Many united with him
in the work, and the message of the judgment was proclaimed in various
parts of England.
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