Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 6, 1910

Editorial

By Editor

The 1844 Movement.—It was in the spring of 1844, the end of the Jewish year 1843, that those who first proclaimed the message of the judgment hour expected to see the Saviour coming in the clouds of heaven. At that time, they had held, the twenty-three hundred years of Daniel’s prophecy, beginning B. C. 457, would run out, when the sanctuary was to be cleansed. This cleansing was interpreted to mean the purging of the earth by fire at the second advent, as they thought this earth must be the sanctuary.

The Midnight Cry.—But the spring of 1844 passed, and the Lord did not come. They found consolation, as they waited, in the parable of the virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom, and who waited while the bridegroom tarried. Far into the summer of 1844 was the “tarrying time” in the story of that movement. Then it was noticed for the first time that the twenty-three-hundred-year period began in the autumn of 457 B. C., and “so must reach to the autumn of 1844.” Further, in the type of the earthly sanctuary and its cleansing, the tenth of the seventh month, Jewish time, was the day for the cleansing work. That would be Oct. 22, 1844; on that day the Lord would come, they said. As this word went out among the believers in the second advent, it electrified the movement. It was the “midnight cry” of the parable: “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” It aroused every sleeper, and swept through the land with a mighty power.

It was not mere emotionalism. There was a solemn restraint upon hearts; sinners were converted, wrongs were made right, and there was earnest preparation for the great judgment hour. The editor of the Midnight Cry, Joshua V. Himes, wrote in the issue of Oct. 3, 1844:—

“I take up my pen with feelings such as I never before experienced. Beyond a doubt, in my mind, the tenth day of the seventh month will witness the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven. We are within a few days of that event—awful moment to those unprepared, but glorious to those who are ready.”

How the Judgment Hour Came.—On that eventful twenty-second of October, 1844, the eyes of the believers looked upward to the heavens for the sign of the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory. They were disappointed. No opening heavens revealed the shining glory. No trump was heard summoning the world before the Judge of all. But while they watched and waited for the judgment hour on that solemn day, the judgment hour actually came. Could their straining eyes have pierced the sky, they would have beheld the wondrous sight described by Daniel:—

“The Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Dan. 7: 9, 10.

The Word Fulfilled.—As that solemn hour came when Christ was to enter upon the final phase of his mediatorial work, the investigative judgment before the Father, in the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, the message was to be proclaimed on earth, “The hour of his judgment is come.” That message was proclaimed in the 1844 movement; and all who received it were on that tenth day of the seventh month afflicting their souls and looking heavenward to the opening of the judgment hour. Those believers were mistaken in the expectation that their eyes would that day see the Lord coming to earth to execute judgment. But the angels in heaven that day beheld his coming into the most holy, to begin the cleansing of the sanctuary, the investigative judgment, according to the prophecy of Daniel: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Mistaken as to the nature of the event, the early advent believers had nevertheless proclaimed the judgment-hour message, and the prophecy was fulfilled. One hymn of advent history, in the first little collection published by our pioneers in 1849, sang thus of the experience of those who watched in 1844:—

“Our longing eyes were raised in vain, To meet him in the air, For ’twas not so the Bridegroom came, His bride’s not here, but there. There to the fair Jerusalem, Unseen by mortal eye, Jesus our King and Priest did come, Thus answering to the cry.”