A FALSE PROPHET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 101, 30 April 1898, Page 4 (Supplement)

A FALSE PROPHET.

'Tf at first you,don't succeed, try, •TX» try again,',, is a, most excellent im.xijti, and there is at any rate one Tna-i. m this world who has taken it to lien rt most thoroughly, namely, the *.?>•;■■ Mr Baxter,'specialist in 'end o' |he Avorld' prophecies. lam not quite J erM'n Low long Mr Baxter has been j3&-tb? Prophetic business, but to use • sport.ng phrase, he's been 'going off a 1 W™n? 'Ims' for over a q^rter i" -n imTV ,Tl\ irty years/or..more '4 o D PS IiS? (I | book entitled lst^WH?J Predestined Mon- ,; r^'SSl 1 But N;iP°leon 111. -Uaia u ,.;' uy'J the pos t, f Ol . he died -_' ' . "ter west napped on

Prince Jerome arid Once more came to grief. But he wasn't a little bit east down by these failures and prbmptly spoiled Boulanger. At first it seeired as though Baxter's luck had turned, for; Boulahger Might: a duel, got ■wounded, and survived, which made him answer admirably to the Book of ,xT?O-rclaiipns 'Beast who had the wound . , -lie sword and did live' —a fact v • a was doubtless noted with joy by isr.xter and his:disciples. But their joy/;was short lived, for Boulanger, •after making strong running, came to grief. Havirfg failed so signally to spot the P.M.Vf. Baxter .turned his attention more particularly to horrific prophecies concerning the end of the world, but he has. had no luck-in this department either. As long ago as 18S7 he •predicted the j'Ascension of 144,000 living Christians to Heaven without dying' for March sth, 1896. It didn't come oft', nor did the Universal War which was to. rage from October, '%, to August, '97, so far as I am aAvare. In that same- year of Jubilee, moreover, i Baxter declared that 'Great European Avars,, and revolutions,•betweeii*>&B and '01 will be the first leading prophetic event, issuing in the formation of the now existing 23 states or kingdoms-in the'countries ox rCaesar's Il'oinan Empire into,exactly 10 kingdoms confederated together —preiigured by the! 10-horned wild beast and 10-toed image of a man. 'Ten-toed image of a man' sounds like an acceptable addition to our vocabularj^ of genial, abuse, but a tenhorned beast smacks of Barnum and Bailey. This by the way. My point Is that the ten kingdoms didn't confederate together at the specified date nor did 'a Napoleon arise about '91-2 as an eleventh little horn,' as Baxter said he

Avould. But these egregious failures — failures Avhich would have put any other man out of the prophetic business for good—have' no effect on Baxter. He simply shifts his forecasts a little further on. and goes one better than his last. Mr Little Horn Napoleon, he now tells us, Avill bob tip 1 serenely about '99-1900 and his"} 144,000 Christians are to commence their long aerial excursion on March 3, 1003. He is at- present promising' the inhabitants of Bow and neighbourhood 'astounding' effects of the First Four Trumpets' between August, 1903 and October, 1904; 'millions of Christians eft to Sinai on the back of a big eagle,' to start last week in February, 1904; 'w(<e3 of •sDemon Scorpion Lociists ■and 'Demon Lion-headed Horses'— a prolonged engagement lasting from /January to April, 1908. And liriDliy the Battle of Armageddon is fixed definitely for 23rd April, 1908. We are, however, not in the least concerned, for apparently Baxter can't go fight. We ought, according to one of his forecasts for: 1594, £o he now right in the.middle of 'three years and a-half of great 'tribulation, during which this earth Avill be.'like a pandemonium, an Aceldama, a Golgotha, or field of blood, when Napoleon Avill have i^ower over.all nations and massacre millions of Christians.' There is, 'tis true, a good deal of tribulation about, especially among Stock Exchange operators, mining speculators and the like, and some Christians have been massacred in the land of the unspeakable Turk, so the prophecy is not quite so far oft" the mark as usual. But Napoleon has not yet assumed command of the nations, and the little odds and ends of wars of the last <18 months, even including' the Greco-Turk affair, .haven't amounted to an Aceldama or 'a^oigothu: "! T" :-rv.----r-.- -' -iff' v:" K':"{;: *?■ ~..■ -■ .■ ■ **t-»-<- ~ .... • .