“The Waiting Time” and “the Patience of the Saints”
By George Ide Butler
In the history of our world as revealed in the Scriptures, it is easy to discern four great movements, or remarkable manifestations of divine power, to advance the knowledge of God among mankind, and to open the way of salvation to the children of men. These are the preaching of Noah and the deluge, the acceptance of Abraham and his descendants as God’s peculiar people, the coming of Christ the first time and the gospel work then established, and the preparatory work of his people for his second advent. The second advent movement and its accomplishment is the most remarkable in its consequences. Each of these movements is unpopular in its time. The agencies God uses have to struggle against great difficulties in giving the Lord’s message to the people, yet wonderful blessings to mankind grow out of their efforts. We wonder at the work of Noah,—for one hundred and twenty years a preacher of righteousness,—and the little apparent success attending his efforts, only eight persons being saved, and all these members of his own family. Surely it must have been a work of waiting and a time of patience. But the deluge was a tremendous event in the affairs of mankind. It demonstrated beyond question that the God of heaven interferes in the affairs of men. The selection of Abraham and his posterity as God’s peculiar people, their removal from Palestine to Egypt, their servitude for centuries, their miraculous exodus, the thunders of Sinai, the revelation of the divine love, and their establishment in Canaan as a center, are some of the most wonderful events on record. The history of the children of Israel for fifteen centuries proves to the world that God lives and reigns, and knows how to save his people and punish the wicked. The first advent of Christ as a babe in Bethlehem, his beautiful life without spot or tarnish of sin, his work as the grandest teacher the world ever saw, his death on the cross a sacrifice for sin, his glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven, the sending forth of his disciples in humility to proclaim the gospel which has for twenty centuries been the great hope of the world,—these indeed are events of the greatest magnitude. Our Saviour himself enunciated the grandest truth of the centuries when he said at his departure, “I will come again.” And he will come to take his people to himself, to everlasting glory, where sin shall be no more, the curse of death and sorrow will be done away, and rebellion in the house of God be put down forevermore. The glorious second coming is to be preached to all the world, to every people, tribe, and nation, that every person may have a chance to be among the saved to all eternity. Who shall say that this advent message is not the greatest truth in this world of ours? What can compare with it? This grand truth is to be heralded by wonderful prophecies of deepest interest. The signs of the nearness of this event are to be clear and unmistakable, so clear that any intelligent person of ordinary mental power can perceive and understand if he really desires to know. Of necessity the warning of this world of fifteen hundred million people will take time. It will require vast effort, the expenditure of immense sums of money, and a multitude of laborers. The difficulties will be exceeding great, with over four hundred different languages in which this gospel of the coming kingdom must be proclaimed. The task is tremendous, but it can be done and will be done. This is the work of the last generation. When the prophetic time was proclaimed for the judgment to begin in the heavenly courts above, a mighty cry went forth, reaching to the ends of the earth. Under the preaching of William Miller and his associates, about one hundred thousand believers in the second coming of Christ were won. Then came the disappointment. This disappointment was like that of the disciples, who thought, when Christ made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, that surely he would be proclaimed king; but instead, he was crucified on Calvary’s cross. What a terrible disappointment that must have been to them! Many of the disciples no doubt gave up all hope that Jesus was the true Messiah. They could not explain his Messiahship in harmony with their past hopes of his being their king. Thus it was with the second advent believers, in their sad disappointment. This failure of their glorious hope of seeing their Lord come with power and great glory in 1844, forced them into the time of waiting and the period of the saints’ patience. It was a time of darkest gloom to those ardent believers. The great majority of those who looked for their Lord to come in 1844 gave up their hope altogether and were ashamed of their previous belief.7 But it was not so with others. To be sure, they were overwhelmed with sorrow and disappointment, but they firmly believed that God led them in proclaiming the glorious message. They looked and longed for light, that they might understand the meaning of this overwhelming disappointment. They did not have to wait long. The light upon the work of the third angel’s message explained to them what before was dark. They realized that the “waiting time” had come, and the time of the saints’ patience. Our next article will deal more fully and clearly with this.