An Interesting Letter

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jun 18, 1914

An Interesting Letter

In a file of old Adventist papers, we find one issued in 1888 that contains an interesting letter from Elder J. V. Himes. He was then located with an Episcopal Church at Elk Point, S. Dak. His reversion to the experiences of our early history has a touch of pathos, and the lines, though written more than twenty-five years ago, will be read with interest. Elder John M. Orrock, then editor of the Herald, is addressed in the letter:—

“MY DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST: I am glad to have a weekly reminder that you are at your post of duty daily, seeking to feed and cheer the saints, and to lead the wanderer home to God. The intimations of a change in the Herald fill me with sadness. The times and things about us are changing all the while; but the changeless comes soon. The Herald is a clean-cut and finished weekly monitor on the doctrinal and practical truths of the great Messiah. I am glad to have lived so long and watched its course through forty-eight years, from the hour I began its publication, February, 1840. I expected to publish it only three years, which—agreeably to the calculation of Wm. Miller—would bring us to the epoch of the glorious appearing of Christ, in the ‘restitution of all things,’—and in the glorification of our lost inheritance, the restoration of the saints of all ages to immortal life.

“The generation of 1840-44 believed, worked, and waited those three years in hope, really expecting to finish their work and suffering, and enter into rest at the time appointed, it being clear to them that it would come in 1844. Beyond this, they did not look for the life of faith and hope, but for the consummation, the new heavens and new earth, the kingdom of God under the whole heavens. Their hope was founded on the prophetic periods, with the signs in the heavens and the earth confirming their views of speedy redemption. Being consecrated in person, their earthly goods were freely given in wisdom to spread the doctrine of the approaching consummation. They toiled day and night to bring others into the faith and preparation to meet God. They were shut up to the faith, and saw nothing beyond the fixed date except the new earth, in its glorious robes of the final restitution.

“They believed and watched until the last hour of the time of deliverance; but, like Israel, who traveled through the wilderness to Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 13), expecting then to enter the promised possession, they were turned back into the wilderness for forty years. It was a sad time for Israel, but not a hopeless disaster; for they should yet—after the forty years—enter into the rest and inheritance. And so we, though misled as to the exact period of the advent, continued to live in hope that ‘he who shall come will come’ in due time, ‘and will not tarry.’

“This loyal and waiting people therefore returned to their work, and commenced anew their pilgrimage for the Promised Land. Out of the great multitude who believed, a goodly number have gone over the river. Nearly all of the generation who looked for the kingdom in 1844 are at rest; a small remnant remain who are faithful. As only a few who left Egypt entered into the rest of Canaan, so in our case it is to be feared that many who started with us for the promised rest have by apostasy fallen by the way.

“In the last forty-four years, since the disappointment of the waiting ones, great light has sprung up. Great knowledge has been diffused through the whole earth on the coming kingdom. Never was there so great power in the prophetic word in relation to the soon coming of Christ, and never so great a multitude of believers, as now. In every department of Christendom is heard the cry, ‘Behold, he cometh.’ The camp of Israel is tenting down by the ‘fords of Jordan,’ and here many with faith and hope stand viewing the promised rest, and saying with Moses: ‘I pray thee let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.’

“The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever? Most of them are gone. I write today at eighty-four, having been in the wilderness twice forty years. My eye is not dim, nor my natural force abated. I still proclaim the faith and hope to all; and whether I die or am translated, I shall hope to find a home in that beautiful world, the world of promise. See 2 Peter 3:13. Love to all the saints.” — World’s Crisis, June 3, 1914.