of barbarism and priestcraft, Lacunza, a
Spaniard and a Jesuit, found his way to the Scriptures, and thus received
the truth of Christ's speedy return. Impelled to give the warning, yet
desiring to escape the censures of Rome, he published his views under the
assumed name of "Rabbi Ben-Israel," representing himself as a converted
Jew. Lacunza lived in the eighteenth century, but it was about 1825 that
his book, having found its way to London, was translated into the English
language. Its publication served to deepen the interest already awakening
in England in the subject of the second advent.

In Germany the doctrine had been taught in the eighteenth century by
Bengel, a minister in the Lutheran Church, and a celebrated biblical
scholar and critic. Upon completing his education, Bengel had "devoted
himself to the study of theology, to which the grave and religious tone of
his mind, deepened and strengthened by his early training and discipline,
naturally inclined him. Like other young men of thoughtful character,
before and since, he had to struggle with doubts and difficulties of a
religious nature, and he alludes, with much feeling, to the 'many arrows
which pierced his poor heart, and made his youth hard to bear.' "(605)
Becoming a member of the consistory of Wuertemberg, he advocated the cause
of religious liberty. "While maintaining the rights and privileges of the
church, he was an advocate for all reasonable freedom being accorded to
those who felt themselves bound, on grounds of conscience, to withdraw
from her communion."(606) The good effects of this policy are still felt
in his native province.

It was while preparing a sermon from Revelation 21 for "Advent Sunday"
that the light of Christ's second coming broke in upon Bengel's mind. The
prophecies of the Revelation unfolded to his understanding as never
before. Overwhelmed with a sense of the stupendous importance and
surpassing glory of the scenes presented by the prophet, he was forced to
turn for a time from the contemplation of the subject. In the pulpit it
again presented itself to him with all its vividness and power. From that
time he devoted himself to the study of the prophecies, especially those
of the Apocalypse, and soon arrived at the belief that they pointed to the
coming of Christ as near. The date which he fixed upon as the time of the
second advent was within a very few years of that afterward held by
Miller.

Bengel's writings have been