p. 20 | An Interesting Letter by Washington Morse

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 1, 1904

An Interesting Letter

By Washington Morse

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: I wish to add my testimony to the truth which I have just read in the REVIEW of Oct. 6, 1904, under the heading “Some Fundamental Principles in This Message,” as I was one who dealt with these facts, and have listened to the preaching of William Miller, J. V. Himes, George Storrs, Brother Hutchinson, of Montreal, and many others who proclaimed that time message. It seems as though our brother who gave the discourse must have passed through that momentous time, and been imbued with the spirit that was manifest all through those twelve years when that message was proclaimed. Our message then was, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”

The time was the moving principle, and that is the foundation of all these glorious truths. This is what makes us a separate people. This began to be manifest in the spring of 1844. About April 20 God called from fifty to one hundred thousand from the nominal churches. Right there we lost our reckoning, and fell asleep while the Bridegroom tarried; and it was the time that we went to sleep on, and it was the time that woke us up.

About the middle of July we discovered the discrepancy of our reckoning. The event given in Daniel 9 which marked the beginning of the seventy weeks was the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. That commandment went forth in the year 457 B. C., as recorded in Ezra 7. We had dated from the beginning of 457, but we discovered by reading Ezra 7:9, that six months of that year had passed away before the decree took effect; hence the twenty-three hundred full years would run over six months into the year of 1844. There the midnight cry began. Then all those virgins arose, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom on the tenth day of the seventh month.

In the tenth chapter of Revelation we see that the angel that comes with this message is clothed with a cloud. Thus it was we did not understand the work to be done in the judgment as we now learn by the sanctuary question. Neither did we understand that we were to meet with such a disappointment. Truly our eyes were holden as were the disciples of Christ. We did proclaim, with all the positiveness of Revelation 10:6, that time should be no longer; and prophetic time did end just as we preached, but we believed it was probationary time.

All was accomplished at the end of those periods that we were warranted to look for. The judgment did begin according to Dan. 7:9, 10, 13, 14; Rev. 11:18; Rev. 20:12, 13.

We are met with this saying from many, “Why did not you see the third angel’s message then?”—We were not to see it then, if we had, we never could have preached the first. The third angel could not get his message until the temple of God was opened in heaven (Rev. 11:19), at the end of the twenty-three hundred days of Dan. 8:14. By faith we then saw the ark of his testament, and some saw the light on the Sabbath, and began to keep it.

In Heb. 10:36 it is said: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” We did the will of God in preaching that time message, but we did not receive the promise. In Heb. 10:32 we are told to call to remembrance the former days. This is a very blessed thing to me. I am happy to live to see the sixtieth anniversary of the judgment. To me it is glorious to call to mind the former days, and, step by step, I can see how God has led this people. There can be no doubt but this truth will triumph gloriously in the near future, and I am one who hopes to triumph with it through the all-atoning blood of Jesus Christ.

WASHINGTON MORSE.