n of God: and now it appears that
the mountain-fixedness of Asiatic prejudice and institution shall
suddenly be dissolved, and absorbed into the general vortex.

And to those who may have suspected, that the prospect of the return
of Jesus of Nazareth to our earth for vengeance and expurgation of
evil first, and then for occupation of rule, _under_ the face of the
whole heaven, is but a speculative subject for curious minds, this
little book presents matter of reflection. By circumstances of such
urgent personal concernment, as those in which Mr. Groves and his
departed wife have been placed, the merely speculative part of
religion is put to flight. But we shall find them in the midst of
confusion, and bereavement, and horror, clinging to this one hope for
themselves and for the world, that the Lord cometh to reign, wherefore
the earth shall be glad; deriving from this hope a delight in God, in
the midst of all that seems adverse to such a sentiment, which, if it
be not a proof of practical power in a doctrine, what is practical?

On some few points, Mr. Groves has given a somewhat detailed
expression of his own sentiments. One of the most important of these
is re-considered in the notes by the writer of this introduction.
Another, on which the interest of many has already been strongly
excited, is the recognition of those men as ministers of God, who do
not utter the word of his truth, and who are admitted to speak without
the Spirit of his truth. The question, encompassed as it has been with
difficulties foreign to itself, is but a narrow one. The preaching of
the Gospel _is_ an ordinance of God. The preaching of what is not the
Gospel is _no_ ordinance of God; and affords me no opportunity of
shewing my respect for divine ordinances by my attendance upon it.
That men possessing the Holy Ghost should confer spiritual gifts by
the laying on of hands on those who in faith receive it, _is_ an
ordinance of God: that men, not having the Holy Ghost, should lay
hands on others for spiritual gifts, is _no_ ordinance of God.

If the outward fact of what is named ordination, determines me to
regard as now made of God a teacher, a pastor, an evangelist, a
bishop, him who, to all intelligent and spiritual perception, is what
he was, in error, and ignorance, and carnality; this is not respect
for divine ordinances at all, but a faith in the _opus operatum_, a
faith in transubstantiation transferred to men, denying the truth of