JOSEPH HOAG'S VISION by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1867

JOSEPH HOAG'S VISION.

By Editor

FOR some years past we have known of a document with the above title. It has been published in various papers, and has several times been sent to this Office with a request for its publication. We have hitherto refrained from publishing it, as we wish ever to be careful what we insert in the Review, and as far as consistent, give publicity only to that which we can endorse, or the authenticity of which we can establish. But others who ridicule our faith in visions, the authenticity of which is clearly established, have not been so careful. It was published in the World's Crisis about one year ago. Many believe it is from God, and all must read it with interest as it has had a most faithful fulfillment so far. If our memory serves aright, we first read it several years before the late civil war in the United States.

Though it has been commented upon several times by the papers publishing it, there is one point in it which has been passed unnoticed by every paper in which we have seen it. If it is worthy of any credit or consideration in view of its past fulfillment, the point referred to is of the deepest interest. It is this: the late war and the abolition of slavery is to be followed by a Religious Despotism.

The readers of the Review will understand that this fact we have been urging upon them for years, drawn from Rev. xiii. The “Image of the Beast” is here to be erected, and enforce, as a religious duty, the institution of the first Beast—the Papacy.

In compliance with repeated requests we now give it to our readers; we do not say it is not what it purports to be; but with it would yet request all to receive such documents with caution, remembering that this is an age of deceptions and counterfeits. “Try the spirits.”

JOSEPH HOAG'S VISION.

In the year 1803, probably in the eighth or ninth month, I was one day alone in the field, and observed that the sun shone clear, but a mist eclipsed the brightness of its shining. As I reflected on the singularity of the event, my mind was clothed with silence, the most solemn I ever remember to have experienced, for all my faculties were laid low, and unusually brought into silence; I said to myself, what can all this mean? I do not remember ever before to have been sensible of such feelings.

While in this situation, I heard a voice from Heaven, saying: “This that thou seest, that dims the brightness of the sun, is a sign of the present and coming time. I brought the fathers of this country out of a land of oppression; I planted them here in the forest, blessed and sustained them, and while they were humble I fed them, and they became a numerous people; but they have become proud and lifted up, and have forgotten me, who nourished and protected them in the wilderness. They are running into every abomination and evil practice of which the Old Country was guilty, and have taken quietude from the land, and have suffered a dividing spirit to come among them. Lift up thine eyes and behold!” And I saw them dividing in great heat. This division began in the church, on points of doctrine. It commenced in the Presbyterian society, and in its progress went through various denominations, and in the close its effects were nearly the same in all. Those who dissented went off with high heads and taunting language, and those who kept to their original sentiments appeared reserved and sorrowful. When the dividing spirit entered the Society of Friends, it raged in as high a degree as in any I had witnessed; and, as in other cases, those who separated went with haughty looks and taunting, censuring language, and those who kept to ancient principles retired to themselves. Next it appeared in the Lodges of the Free Masons, and set the country in an uproar for a length of time.

Last of all, it entered politics throughout the United States, and did not stop till it produced a civil war; and an abundance of blood was shed through the course of the combat. The Southern States lost their power, and slavery, was banished from our borders; when a monarchical government arose, and established a National religion, which made all societies tributary to support its expenses. I saw them take property from Friends to a large amount. I was amazed at beholding all this, and I heard a voice proclaim: “This power shall not always stand; but with this power will I chastise my church until they return to the faithfulness of their forefathers. Thou seest what is coming upon thy native land for their iniquities and the blood of Africa, the remembrance of which has come up before me.”

This vision is yet for many days. I had no idea of writing it for many years, until it became such a burden that for my own relief I have thus written.