page_0043

To be inserted on page 204 as separate paragraphs where
there is a cross X.

One day after inquiring from him who were the clergy of the
established church of England in charge of the services which were regularly
held in Jerusalem, in a building recently erected, and where
everything was properly conducted, he mentioned one gentleman
who he said was quite a scholar and to whom he offered to in-
troduce me. His name I have forgotten, but I was glad of the oppor-
tunity of conversing with some eminent theologian, for such he was
represented as being, and I immediately accepted his offer. Upon
reaching his house and finding him at home we were received in
his library, and there we met a man of about forty, with a good
English clerical face and a pleasant and cordial manner.

After a few common place remarks I arrived without further pre-
face to the object of my visit, which was to know from him, as an
intelligent interpreter of the Bible, whether there was any serious
and undoubted prophecy in the Holy book about either the second
coming of Christ or the ending of the world. I think he made no re-
ply to the first part of my question, but with regard to the second
part he said that it was the opinion of many ca-
pable critics that there was in one of the books of the Bible which
he mentioned, a prophecy to the effect that the world would come
to an end when the time of the lasting of the four empires had
terminated, and that those empires were the Assyrian, Baby-
lonian, Greek and Roman. I there upon asked whether the Ro-
man empire had not ceased to exist for many centuries, and
his answer was that it was continued in the German Empire.
I then asked again whether the last empire had not come to
an end at the commencement of the century - to which he replied
in the affirmative - although, said he, the integral parts remain
in the German Confederation, composed of the same States which
formed the empire, with perhaps others who have joined since,
and whose delegates meet annually or less frequently at Frankfort on the Main.
At any rate, continued he, we consider that the time for the end-
ing of the world is near at hand, according to that prophecy,
and the event may occur at any day.

There were many fanatics in Jerusalem then who were living
there in order to be the first ones to greet the Messiah at his
second coming. Several had come from America many years
before at the time of the appearance of the great comet of 1844.
They were known as Millerites, their chief or prophet having been
a man of that name, and one of them, a Philadelphian, who had
waited in vain for the event, suffering much poverty the meanwhile,
was assisted by Hayes to return. But that an eminent theologian
of the English church should occupy his time with such forced in-
terpretations of Scripture, proves how many able minds are busy
with considerations that are utterly valueless and without profit