William
Newton Clarke (1909)
"Now again the doctrine of
the second advent took a disproportionately prominent place in my
affairs. It was necessary that I should explain the thirteenth
chapter of Mark, the great eschatological discourse, the dread of
expositors—unless indeed it chances to be their delight. It was the
part of my task that I dreaded most, for I was well aware of the
difficulty of the passage, and certain that I could not stand for any
of the old interpretations. But I had been thinking more or less in
that field, ever since the discussions of the advent that I have
spoken of. Moreover, in the late Seventies a book treating the
general subject of terrestrial eschatology had appeared, and had been
much read and discussed in the circle of my acquaintance. The book
was crude in some respects, and was far from uttering the last word
in the constructive part, but it was unanswerable in its refutation
of certain long- accepted doctrines, and at least it prepared the way
for something better. It has now gone out of sight, for it lacked
some of the qualities that make for permanence; but it freed many of
us from inherited untenable views of the second coming, and offered
us at least a tentative doctrine in their place. Under this influence
I wrought out an interpretation of the difficult chapter which
satisfied me at the time, and this I embodied in my commentary.
It is interesting to note what this interpretation was, for the
nature of it indicates again how far from being even and consistent
was the movement of my mind. I have spoken of the growing conviction
that the early advent hope was disappointed. This conviction was
steadily settling into certainty, and yet at this time I was
fascinated by the claim that the hope had not been disappointed. I
still felt that the prediction of an early advent must have been
fulfilled, and that the fulfilment must be sought in the early
history. So I accepted the idea that the fulfilment occurred in the
destruction of Jerusalem. The taking of this position was not a
consistent step in my progress, and yet it is quite accounted for by
that blending of old influences and new to which every advancing
mind is subject." (Sixty Years with the Bible: A Record of
Experience, p. 136)
By Dan Maines
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