Roger Metzger

Around the turn of the century, My mother-in-law’s Nazarene pastor announced his plan to preach a series of sermons about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount - one of his “favorite topics”. I offered him a copy of this book. About that time, my work schedule changed. My new schedule included working Sunday mornings so I didn’t get to hear the pastor’s sermon series. When he finished the series he told me that, because of his interest in the Sermon on the Mount, he had previously acquired several books on that subject but that Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing was the “best one” he had read to date.

This book was written from the historicist perspective that was employed by protestants from the sixteenth through the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth century. I don't think every detail in this book should be taken as definitive but readers who are accustomed to reading books by futurist writers should keep in mind that the futurist method of Bible interpretation was not even suggested until the Council of Trent, not extensively developed until the nineteenth century (John Darby) and not popularized until the publication of Cyrus Scofield Bible Notes about the end of the nineteenth century. The author of this commentary on Daniel and the Revelation (Uriah Smith) was working from the same principles of interpretation that other protestant interpreters had used - Sir Isaac Newton and others.

I don't describe the advent movement exactly as C. Mervyn Maxwell did but this book is a treasure-trove of information about the movement. Maxwell didn't take the position that only adventists are true Christians. In describing the baptists of Low Hampton, New York, for example, he called them "good brethren". Refreshing.