Commissioned by a Vision by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 9, 1910

Commissioned by a Vision

By W. A. S.

BETWEEN the years 1840 and 1850, Dr. Thomas E. Bond was editor of the Baltimore Christian Advocate, at that time one of the leading Methodist organs in America. After his death, in 1856, that paper published a memoir of his services and work. The writer of this memoir related the following experience, which we find reprinted in an early volume of the Review:—

He very rarely mentioned it, and never ventured to designate or explain it. Its truth is, however, beyond question. The circumstances forbid the supposition of optical illusion or temporary hallucination. There are those living who testify to such of the facts as were subject to observation, and the memorials of the transaction are yet distinctly preserved in the religious character of sons and daughters of some who were immediately affected by it.

Being on a visit to his father, he was deeply grieved to find the church, which he had left in a state of prosperous activity, languishing, lukewarm, and weak. His thoughts were much occupied with the subject, and of course it was the matter of earnest and frequent prayer. In this state of mind, one morning he was walking over the fields to a neighboring house, when suddenly he seemed to be in a room where a number of people were assembled, apparently for worship. The room he recognized as an apartment in the house of a neighbor, where a prayer-meeting was to be held on the evening of that day. Had he stood in the midst of it, he could not have been more conscious of the scene. There was nothing of the dim, or shadowy, or dreamy about it. He recognized the people, noticed where they sat and stood, remarked his father near the table, at which a preacher was rising to give out a hymn. Near the middle of the congregation he saw a man named C—, for whose salvation he felt considerable anxiety, standing with his son beside him. While gazing with astonishment upon the scene, he heard the words, “Go and tell C— that he has an offer of salvation for the last time.” Naturally supposing that the too great concentration of mind upon one subject had induced some hallucination of the senses, Dr. Bond fell down on his knees, and besought God to preserve his reason. The scene, however, continued; it would not disappear or change in any of its particulars. In vain he struggled to dispel it; the voice yet repeated, with indubitable distinctness, “Go tell C— that he has an offer of salvation for the last time.” Yet how would he dare to deliver so awful a message!

For a great length of time he struggled for deliverance from what he still considered an illusion. At length an expedient occurred to him, which he adopted. He had never been in the room in which he was apparently present, when it was used for a public religious meeting. He, of course, did not know how it was commonly prepared for such occasions. He therefore noted with great care the particulars of the scene. He saw where the little table for the preacher, the benches and chairs for the people, were placed. He noticed his acquaintances, and where they sat and stood; and when he was satisfied that he had possessed himself perfectly of these details, he said, “I will go to this meeting; and if I find all things there to correspond with what I now see, it shall be a sign from the Lord, and I will deliver the message.” Immediately the scene vanished, and he was alone in the green fields.

With a spirit indescribably agitated, he returned home, where he found ladies, who required him to escort them a long distance; and it was somewhat past the hour fixed for the meeting, when he reached the place. During the day he had freely indulged the hope that on his entrance into the room, his trouble would disappear. He thought he had been the subject of an illusion, the fruit of an excited brain; and that a want of correspondence, immediately to be detected, between the real scene and the one presented to his disordered fancy, would at once satisfy him as to the morbid character of his morning vision, and release him from the obligation of delivering the terrible message, with which he was conditionally charged.

When he opened the door, however, he saw again, in all its minuteness of detail, the morning scene. In vain he searched the room for a variant particular. There sat his father in the designated place. The preacher at the table was rising to give out the hymn. In the midst of the room stood C—, with his son beside him. Everything demanded that the message should be delivered.

After the preliminary exercises, he rose and stated the circumstances as we have related them; and then, going to C—, he laid his hand upon him, and repeated the words he had heard. The effect was indescribable. C— and his son fell down together and called upon God. An awful solemnity rested upon all present. Many cried for mercy, and from that time began a revival which spread far and wide, the fruits of which are yet seen, after many days.

In these last days, with unbalanced temperaments all about, and fanaticism running wild, disregarding the Word of God for fancies and impressions, we need more than ever to emphasize the things of the Word. However, in many an experience, we see that God bears testimony at the moment of need, even if by unusual means. W. A. S.