A PROPHET LIBELLED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 407, 16 January 1909, Page 5

A PROPHET LIBELLED.

DAMAGES, £500. ' (DY 12LEGHATH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPIBIQin.) London, January 14. The Rev. M. Baxter, the prophetic editor of the' "Christian Herald," was awarded £500 damages for libel from tho newspaper : ;"Mint" for. describing him as a' charlatan. It may come as a surprise to many elderly peo--pie to hear that the Eev. Mr, Baxter, of prophetic fame, is still alive. As far , back as the sixties he created intense and widespread interest by his,application of scriptural prophecy to current events, and hundreds of people can ■now,'remember-ho', in their childhood, they were alarmed by his predictions; One of his discoveries was that Napoleon 111 was Antichrist. Mr. Baxter proved this to his own entire Satisfaction by:many a chapter and vers#'.of .pro-' pheoy, and young children of evangelical families used to shudder, in oompnny with their parents, as they thought of the dreadful things prophesied for the days or Antichrist, and accepted Mr. Baxter's confident., prediction that those;'days wore , immediately. ,at hatid. Though ;. to-day : 'Mr.. Baxter has many ' faithful disciples, /it is difficult to realise how .widespread was the beliei in him forty or fifty years ago, before his frequent propheciesVhad been l'requeiltly' falsified; The Christian. Herald," which he edits, and which bears the sub-titlo of "Signs of tho:Times," is a brightly-written journal dealing with, events of interest all ,over> the world, . and taking its distinctive character, from the way in whioh it interprets these events by the light of prophetic books.- An earthquake,, a war, or famine is generally regarded by it as ono more proof that the end of the world is. near at hand. Mr. Baxter is also the'author of . many books, in which lie minutely calculates times and. seasons, and. prophesies disasters. He is the son of a prophet, his.father (who was intimately associated for some time with'the Irvingites) having, been filled with: the same belief in his own ! power to. interpret tho prophets of, the.Bible.