IV. Campbell-“The Hour of God’s Judgment Is Come”

The prophetic message of Revelation 14:6 became the text, or the burden, of many a sermon. An example appears in The Everlasting Gospel (1830), a sermon preached by the Scottish minister JOHN M’CLEOD CAMPBELL (1800-72), ^{106Educated at Glasgow, 1811-20, and then at Edinburgh, he became a licentiate in the Church of Scotland. He was minister of Row in 1825, but was ejected for “heresy” in 1830. He preached in the highlands from 1830 to 1832, and was minister of a congregation in Glasgow from 1833 to 1859, receiving a D.D. degree from the University of Glasgow. (Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 3, pp. 840, 841.)} of Row, Dumbartonshire, in April, 1830. It was preached in The Floating Chapel, at Greenock and “taken in shorthand.” Pressing upon the hour of God’s judgment and the need to “fear God and to give him glory,” he insists that they are living in the last days of the dispensation. Here are his words:PFF3 595.1

“I would now say to you, this night, ‘fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment is come,’ in a strict and literal sense. We are now at the close of that last day, concerning which the apostle says, ‘Hereby we know that it is the last time.’ At the beginning of this day, of the Gentile dispensation, the Apostle said, ‘we know that the ends of the world have come upon us.’ The ends of the world had come upon them, but we are just at the evening of that last day-we are at the last hour of that last day; and it is very nigh, very nigh, even at the door. My dear hearers, I beseech you to consider, that it is just near at hand, at the very door, according to all who have studied this matter, and have sought the teaching of God; (and God desires that we should see what is before us, and not be groping in the dark,) that they are all of one mind; that that period commonly called the millenium-the reign of Christ-is just at hand.” ^{107Jolin M’Cleod Campbell, The Everlasting Gospel, pp. 28, 29.}PFF3 595.2

Most earnestly he appeals for the voice of prayer and the humbling of heart that will transform and prepare the life that the coming wrath may be escaped. ^{108Ibid., pp. 31, 32.} His closing words are: “O that you understood these things! ‘Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.’” Amen! ^{109Ibid., p. 32.}PFF3 595.3