dom made man in effect the passive object upon which omnipotence exercised its will. The story of human life and destiny became thus, in those that were lost as in those that were saved, simply the inevitable carrying out in time of the decrees of the Absolute. The final appeal was not to character but authority, the final method was not ethical and free but that of power and thus of necessity.

Premillennialism does not deal primarily with the matter of the individual salvation about which the older controversy raged. It rests, however, upon the same fundamental conception of God and his method, simply applying these to world history and the coming of the kingdom. There is the same appeal to sovereignty in disregard of moral and rational considerations. World history, as premillennialism sees it, is a rigid scheme which a sovereign power has predetermined just as in the old Jewish apocalypticism. God might bring in the new age sooner, but he has not so determined. Satan rules in this age by the will of that same power which is later to dethrone him. "It is given unto Satan to triumph in the present dispensation," writes Brookes, one of the older premillennial authorities, and it is interesting to note that he concludes from this, as the event has proved quite correctly, that "the wretched heresy of womanism, the last form of error and the latest phase of infidelity, will certainly win the day" (The Lord Cometh, pp. 316, 317). A limited number of people are to be saved in this age before the second advent; that too, the same author points out, is purely a decision of divine authority (pp. 310, 311). And this is the reason why the world is not to be saved in this dispensation.

With this predetermination of the course of events by divine authority, there goes naturally the appeal to divine power or, rather, to divine force as alone decisive. As sovereign authority decides, so sheer power executes. Nothing is left to the contingency of human choice or human service. It is irresistible grace at work in the larger field. Hence these writers scoff at the idea of the kingdom being brought in "by man's puny efforts," and declare that when it comes it will be a miraculous deed of God. The sovereign will which has predetermined the course of events brings each to pass in turn by irresistible power.

In the effort to win larger groups the modern undenominational Adventism makes little reference to this Calvinistic basis. Older leaders, like A. J. Gordon and J. H. Brookes, were much more outspoken. The situation is clearly stated by Professor S. H. Kellogg, formerly of Allegheny Seminary, and one of the men who issued the call for the first "prophetic conference." Writing of that conference, he points out that while eighty-eight per cent were Augustinians, only five per cent of those who indorsed the call were Methodists. "Premillennialism," he declares, "presupposes an anthropology essentially Augustinian." Redemption is not brought about by "the cooperation of man with the work of the Holy Ghost in the use of existing material, moral, and spiritual agencies." "Premillennialists constantly insist that the present dispensation is strictly elective. They all maintain that the immediate object of the present dispensation is not the salvation of the world or the race, but only the salvation of an election out of the world ...So much stress is laid by premillennialists upon

conceptions of this kind, that it is difficult to see how any but an Augustinian can really accept the system." Premillennialism "refers the salvation of men out of the present age to the electing purpose of God. It seems to be of necessity involved, moreover, that this election must be sovereign and absolute" (Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. XLV).

Mr Wesley's teaching on the points involved needs no detailed statement. He emphasized as strongly as any man the thought of salvation by grace alone. He had as high a conception as any of the power of God and his sovereignty, but he saw that the sovereignty that God desired was a moral sovereignty, resting upon the free love and loyalty of his children. He magnified the power of God, but it was the power of God's Spirit exercised through the truth and in the realm of freedom, not as a coercive force. Religion thus became for him a personal relation moving in the realm of moral forces. And against the rigid determination of the Calvinistic system, he proclaimed God's will for the salvation of all men, a will whose defeat could have only one source, the refusal of man. But enough has been said to make clear Mr. Wesley's fundamental difference of standpoint from modern premillennialism, and why this has found so little entrance among Methodists.

II. A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE brief bibliography here appended has been prepared with the needs of the average pastor and general student in mind.

REPRESENTATIVE WRITINGS OF MODERN PREMILLENNIALISM The reports of the so-called prophetic conferences are perhaps the best source for the modern movement. The titles are given here with the place and date of the conference.

Premillennial Essays (New York, 1878).

Prophetic Studies (Chicago, 1886).

The Coming and Kingdom of Christ (Chicago, 1914).

Light on Prophecy (Philadelphia, 1918). This last is of least value.

Of the older books may be mentioned:

J. H. Brookes. The Lord Cometh (1876).

Nathanael West. The Thousand Years in Both Testaments (1880).

J. A. Seiss. The Last Times (1856).

H. Grattan Guinness. The Approaching End of the Ages. Illustrates the now generally discredited and abandoned effort at calculation of the end of the age.

S. H. Kellogg. Premillennialism. Vol. XLV, Bibliotheca Sacra. The following are representative among the more recent publications:

W. E. Blackstone. Jesus Is Coming. First published in 1878, but with recent editions. Very widely circulated.

J. F. Silver. The Lord's Return. These two show very much less ability than the older works mentioned above, but are valuable for reference.

A. C. Gaebelein. The Harmony of the Prophetic Word.

J. M. Gray. A Text Book on Prophecy. Prophecy and the Lord's Return.

R. A. Torrey. The Return of the Lord Jesus.

I. M. Haldeman. The Coming of Christ; Ten Sermons on the Second Coming.

CRITICISM OF PREMILLENNIALISM

David Brown. The Second Advent (second edition, 1849). A thorough discussion and still 'valuable, especially as reporting the opinions of earlier premillennialists.

H. C. Sheldon. Studies in Recent Adventism. Good, but very

brief.

George P. Eckman. When Christ Comes Again. Practical and helpful discussions of a popular character.

James H. Snowden. The Coming of the Lord. A somewhat fuller exposition of premillennialism and perhaps the best of the recent criticisms.

Shailer Mathews. Will Christ Come Again? (pamphlet).

Here might be mentioned also Frank Ballard, Why Not Russellism?; and Daniel Steele, A Substitute for Holiness (with special reference to the Plymouth Brethren).

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL WORKS

The following list includes works bearing not only upon premillennialism and its history, but upon apocalypticism in Judaism and early Christianity.

Frank C. Porter. Messages of the Apocalyptic Writers. Perhaps the best brief introduction to apocalypticism and the books of Daniel and Revelation.

R. H. Charles. Eschatology, Hebrew. Jewish, and Christian; also edition of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (in two large volumes).

M. S. Terry. Biblical Apocalyptics.

W. Bousset. Die Religion des Judentums; Die Offenbarung Johannis.

E. F. Scott. The Kingdom and the Messiah.

E. W. Winstanley. Jesus and the Future.

Shailer Mathews. The Messianic Hope in the New Testament.
S. D. F. Salmond. The Christian Doctrine of Immortality.
H. A. A. Kennedy. St. Paul's Conception of the Last Things.
Shirley J. Case. The Millennial Hope. A valuable historical
review with criticism of modern premillennialism.

In addition to Porter and Bousset mentioned above, the following
may be commended on Revelation: C. A. Scott. The Book of
Revelation (in New Century Bible); J. Moffatt, Expositor's
Greek Testament, V.

Some of the best material is to be found in special articles: A Harnack. "Millennium," in Encycopædia Britannica; W. A. Brown. "Millennium," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible; R. H. Charles. "Eschatology of the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature," in the same; W. Fairweather. "Development of Doctrine in the Apocryphal Period,” in the same; C. A. Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillennialism," Lutheran Quarterly, IX.

Since writing the above, there have appeared two very valuable works, the former being specially full in its treatment of earlier apocalypticism: I. T. Beckwith. The Apocalypse of John; S. J. Case. The Revelation of John.