p. 5 | J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 13, 1914

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

The Second Advent Movement — No. 6

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

We saw in our last article that after the disappointment of the Adventists in the spring of 1844 their opponents first resorted to ridicule. This did not stop the work. As expressed by Brother Himes: “The ministry and membership who had availed themselves of our labors but had not sincerely embraced the doctrine, saw that they must go with the doctrine and preach and maintain it, or in the crisis which was right upon them they would have difficulty with the decided and determined believers. They therefore decided against the doctrine, and determined, some by one policy and some by another, to suppress the subject. This placed our brethren and sisters among them in a most trying position. Most of them loved their churches, and could not think of leaving them. But when they were ridiculed, oppressed, and in various ways cut off from their former privileges and enjoyments, and when the ‘meat in due season’ was withheld from them, and the siren song of ‘peace and safety’ sounded in their ears from Sabbath to Sabbath, they were soon weaned from their party predilections, and arose in the majesty of their strength, shook off the yoke, and raised the cry, ‘Come out of her, my people.’”

Now as the Adventists continued to compare their experience with the prophetic word, they found that just such a state of things was to follow the announcement, “The hour of his judgment is come,” and that a second message, declaring the fall of Babylon in consequence of her seeking to enforce upon the people her “wine” (false creeds), was to be given. Turning to the prophecy of the seven churches representing the seven periods of the gospel church, we find that the Sardis church was brought out by the Reformation after the dark period of the working of “that woman Jezebel”—the symbol of the apostate Roman Church. The Sardis church, which had the privilege of hearing of the Lord’s coming, was in danger of becoming a “dead” church, instead of the living church which it had been; and in consequence of not holding fast that which it had heard, would be thrown off its watch and be overtaken by his coming, as by a thief in the night. See Rev. 3:3.

Turning to the calls to supper, as given in Luke 14, there was the second call to gather “quickly” the “poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind,” fitly representing those who were being persecuted by the churches for their faith. So the fallen condition of the once live church, Sardis, was followed by the “brotherly love” church, Philadelphia. The fifty thousand believers, who by the second message of Rev. 14:8 were brought out from the various churches, were united in one bond of brotherly love on the great cardinal truth of the immediate coming of Christ. Indeed, it was a brotherly love church. The poor among them were sought out and cared for, and the heart of the widow and the fatherless was made to rejoice. If any one by misfortune was in debt, the brethren paid the debt. They could not bear to see any of their number in sadness. Such were to be helped, and prayed for. If one said to another, “I think you were in such a church,” the ready response came, “It is no matter what I was. Thank the Lord, I am rejoicing now in the hope of soon meeting him.”

“But,” you will say, “if this was the real tarrying time, how could it be they were so joyous? The text says that ‘they all slumbered and slept.’” Matt. 25:5.

On this point we read in the Midnight Cry of Oct. 3, 1844, the words of Geo. Storrs:—

“While the bridegroom tarried, the virgins all slumbered and slept. . . . It is no use for us to pretend that we have been awake; we have been slumbering, not on the fact of Christ’s coming, but on the time. We came into the tarrying time; we did not know how long it would tarry, and so on that point we have slumbered.”

Concerning the situation in the tarrying time we read in the Signs of the Times of Oct. 31, 1844: “They believed they were where the chronology points; . . . and that while we should have to wait only the little while that our chronology might vary from God’s time, yet they believed we could have no more clue to the definite time. They had all taken their lamps and gone forth to meet the Bridegroom; but the Bridegroom had tarried beyond the time in which he was expected. During this tarrying of the vision, it seemed to be the determination of all to wait for it, believing it could not be delayed, and that it might be momentarily expected.”

Of the movement up to that time, Sister E. G. White says: “The widespread movement under the proclamation of the first message, answered to the going forth of the virgins; while the passing of the time of expectation, the disappointment, and the delay were represented by the tarrying time of the bridegroom.”—‘Spirit of Prophecy,’ Vol. IV, page 243. Again: “In like manner was prophecy fulfilled in the first and second angels’ messages. They were given at the right time, and accomplished the work which God designed to accomplish by them.”—Id., page 254.

There was another thing connected with the tarrying time that was very trying. Up to the spring of 1844 meetinghouses and halls were everywhere opened to the Adventists so abundantly that, with the hundreds of preachers, they could not begin to fill all the calls. In the spring of that year the churches and halls were closed against them, and they were thrown entirely upon their own resources.

It was fortunate indeed that this perplexed condition of things came in summer instead of winter. They could not shut up God’s groves. As warm weather came, grove meetings, and finally camp meetings, were held in numerous places. In these gatherings the people were exhorted to faithfulness, and the advent experiences of the past and present were reviewed, showing that all was in harmony with the prophetic word, and that in the Lord’s own time all would be made plain. So matters stood until the middle of July, when the largest camp meeting of the season was held in the State of New Hampshire. There came the explanation, and the midnight cry.

Lodi, Cal.