p. 170 | The Black Horse Story

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 18, 1902

The Black Horse Story

From newspaper clippings sent us, it appears that an effort is being made through the press to throw ridicule upon the belief and work of Seventh-day Adventists, by means of a fortuitous incident that occurred in connection with the recent Sanitarium fire. A paragraph has been going the rounds of the press which affirms that “Seventh-day Adventists are all wrought up, and declare that the end of the world is near at hand, firmly believing that the warning has been conveyed to them by the appearance of a black horse on the ruins of the Sanitarium at Battle Creek.” “Thousands daily visit the place,” it says, “and speculate on the strange sight.” It declares further that “the Adventists, who lay great stress upon Bible signs, have been searching the Bible for a reference to the black horse. They have at last found just one reference, and that is in the sixth chapter of Revelation. This entire chapter refers to the end of the world.”

The only basis for this story was that on one of the walls of the ruins the fire and smoke had left their impress in such a way as to produce a figure having quite a striking likeness to the appearance of a horse. The happening was the subject of some natural comment, but nothing is known here of any attempt to connect this trivial incident with the fulfillment of the prophecies of Holy Writ. For many years the belief of Seventh-day Adventists regarding the symbol of the black horse described in the sixth chapter of Revelation, has been set forth in Seventh-day Adventist literature, which has been before the people everywhere. Thus there is no occasion for any one to pay attention to puerile reports of this character, gotten up by people who neither know nor care anything about the truth.