The Council of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony have great pleasure in republishing this work by Andrew Bonar, D. D. The book was first printed in 1853 and although that is about a century and a half ago it has not been necessary to alter any of the arguments raised by Dr Bonar. Because his teaching is based on the infallible Word of God, the book is as much up-to-date, and in fact more so, than when it was written.

Dr Bonar obviously saw, at the time of writing, that the tendencies in his days were leading towards the events spoken of in Holy Scripture which have yet to be completely and precisely fulfilled. This is a reminder that we have to wait God’s time. The events could occur very quickly or there may still be some time before the culmination of this age. This is all in the sovereignty of God.

It is sad that although the things happening in the world today indicate more clearly that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, so few seem to take an interest in those things taught by God in His Word. We trust that this book will assist in stirring up God’s people in these days of abounding apathy, infidelity and apostasy.

We have taken the liberty of incorporating Dr Bonar’s footnotes in the text, and we have added a few comments which are indicated as being provided by the Editor (these are in brackets and italics). There are just a few phrases which we have omitted as they relate to events happening at the time of writing and would not be appreciated 150 years after! A Subject Index and a Scripture Index have been included, which we trust will be found useful.

The exposition given by Dr Bonar has great relevance to the days in which we live and in sending forth this work, we pray that God may use it to the edification and help of His children.

The Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony adheres to the Authorized Version of Holy Scripture, and all quotes in this book are from that God-honored translation. Readers would, in any case, expect this of a book written in 1853!

The principle of interpreting the prophetic portions of Holy Scripture as literally as the historical is recognized throughout the following pages, and it is upon this ground alone that the writer builds his hope of escaping a charge of presumption in submitting them for consideration, as he has ventured to do. They are meant to be a protest against the confusion which has been introduced by metaphorical indulgences, and not as an additional fancy to increase the bewilderment felt by many who, like himself, are honestly seeking to know the truth of what concerns us all so deeply.

The rule laid down is that Scripture language is to be taken literally in every instance where the context does not, clearly and unmistakably, show it to be metaphorical. There surely is nothing unreasonable in such a position, and if there were, it is for those who dispute to prove it so and also to define, with equal distinctness, the principle on which they would proceed, showing, to begin with, why words occurring in one part of Scripture are to bear a different construction from what they do in another.

We have its own authority for saying that in it are things "hard to be understood," and a knowledge of this may well deter any from dogmatizing upon details; but can it be said that this is to interfere with the principle of a literal interpretation itself or the leading deductions which, if words have any meaning at all, follow inevitably from it? Can it really be deliberately believed that God’s Word is so darkly and unintelligibly expressed as to have left the prophetic portion of it an open field for every wild and unbridled speculator to enter upon, or that men may venture to assign to terms occurring there a meaning altogether different from what truth and soberness assign to them elsewhere?

If the great enemy of all truth can no longer bury prophetic truth, as till of late years he has pretty nearly succeeded in doing, it would seem as if his efforts were now directed to deluge the world with false suggestions, so as to bewilder and perplex men’s minds, and it would therefore be well for us to recall, in the deceivableness of our days, how our Lord Himself met the delusions in His. Was it not by a constant and consistent appeal to the inspired literality of Scripture? "It is written," was His answer, and it is to the same refuge His followers must betake themselves, if they would escape the increasing confusion in which the neglect of this great principle is involving prophetic as well as all other Scripture investigation.

That prophetic study, in an especial degree, should have been attended with so little practical benefit, might well of itself create a suspicion that the prevailing system has been, and is intrinsically wrong. By it the inquiry has been directed chiefly, as it would seem, to gratify a vain curiosity as to dates, etc. on which it was not to be expected any blessing could rest: nor indeed has it rested nor will rest, until the same consistent principle of fulfillment, recognizable in prophecies declared by Scripture itself to have been already fulfilled, is acted upon in respect to those that are not.

But besides all this, let us bear in mind there is something else to be attended to. Our principle may be right, and yet there be no practical benefit to ourselves individually from the study after all. The question is not how much we are interested or how correct our conclusions may be, but how are we profiting by the disclosure we shall find of such terrible, and, at the same time, such glorious realities as the "sure word of prophecy" declares to be coming upon the earth? Without a corresponding result on our life and conversation, we are but trifling with this as with other Scripture, for all there is bound up in indissoluble harmony together, prophecy as well as doctrine being alike declared to be profitable for our correction and instruction in righteousness (see 2 Timothy 3:16) by the same inspiration which has taught and commanded us to "search the Scriptures," without separating them as we have been doing.

The different portions, when so taken, will be found to be all in explanation and support of each other, whilst the comfort given by an assurance of ultimate triumph will indeed be found distinctly helping God’s people into a "patient waiting," as the knowledge imparted will keep them from being "shaken in their minds," if not altogether overborne by those things which, as they will see, are coming upon the earth.