Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1908

Early Experiences in the Publishing Work—No. 4

By John Norton Loughborough

THE second move made in publishing in connection with the third angel's message was a tract issued by Elder Bates, in the latter part of the year 1846. The title-page of this tract of forty pages is as follows: “The Opening Heavens, or a Connected View of the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles, Concerning the Opening Heavens, Compared with Astronomical Observations, and of the Present and Future Location of the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of God; by Joseph Bates. New Bedford, Press of Benjamin Lindsay, 1846.”

Brother Bates was moved to write this book by the wonderful vision which Sister White had concerning the planets, at Topsham, Maine, in the month of November, 1846. This vision settled the faith of Elder Bates that the visions of Mrs. White dealt with subjects which were outside of her previous knowledge, and were a true manifestation of the gift of prophecy.

When he had the manuscript prepared for this book, he had no money with which to get it printed. He sought the Lord to open the way for its publication. A sister near New Bedford, who had just completed and laid her first carpet on her bare floors, took up this beautiful rug-carpet, sold it, and gave the money to Brother Bates to print the book, saying that “she could make another carpet when she might need it.” This illustrates the spirit of sacrifice which actuated those who first accepted the message. The advancement of the cause of truth was the first object before them.

Elder Bates told me that “his understanding of astronomy was such that he could tell, at midnight, very nearly where he was upon the sea, as to latitude and longitude, by merely looking at the celestial bodies.” He also said that one day he tried to talk with Mrs. White about the stars, but he soon found she knew nothing about astronomy; in fact, he said she did not know whether she had ever looked into a book treating on that subject. She told him she knew the North Star and the Big Dipper, and that was all the stars she knew. She then turned the conversation to the new earth, and what the Lord had shown her in vision regarding it.

ON April 19, 1845, the Illustrated London News published something of great interest to astronomers from the pen of Lord Rosse, respecting the wonderful discoveries he had made through his monster telescope, especially a view of what astronomers called “the gap in the sky.” In the vision of Mrs. White, mentioned above, she would count the moons, and then describe the planet with which they were connected. Thus she described Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, Brother Bates giving the name of each planet as she described it. Finally she began to talk about the “opening heavens,” giving a most glowing

description of its glory. Calling it “an opening into a region more enlightened,” and said, “The New Jerusalem will come down through that place.”

While she was thus talking in the vision, and giving this description, Elder Bates arose to his feet, and exclaimed, “O how I wish Lord Rosse was here tonight!” Elder White inquired, “Who is Lord Rosse?” “O,” said Elder Bates, “he is the great English astronomer. I wish he was here to hear that woman talk astronomy, and to hear that description of the opening heavens. It is ahead of anything I have ever read on the subject.” No wonder Elder Bates was moved to publish his tract, “The Opening Heavens,” and give some facts in harmony with the vision that had so fully established him in the faith of the third angel's message.

Huggins, who first discovered this wonder in the heavens, said of it: “The space seemed much brighter than the rest of the heavens, which appearing wholly blackish, by reason of the fair weather, was seen as through a curtain opening, through which one had a free view into another region, which was more enlightened.”

William Herschel said of this opening in the sky: “It has been calculated that it [this space] must be two trillion times the diameter of the sun.”

Of this matter Brother Bates said, when concluding the description, as given in his tract: “Thus we see from the testimony adduced (and we could give much more were it necessary), that here is a most wonderful and inexplicable phenomenon in the heavens; a gap in the sky more than eleven billion three hundred fourteen million miles in circumference. Says the celebrated Huggins, ‘I never saw anything like it among the rest of the fixed stars—a free view into another region more enlightened.’”

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.