Former Things by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 6, 1903

Former Things

By Uriah Smith

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.” Isa. 46: 9. The readers of the Review have not failed to notice what appeared in the paper last week, at the close of the volume, entitled, “The Review for 1903.” With the sentiments there expressed, the editorial workers on the Review are in the most hearty accord; and in the policy outlined for the paper, our hearts are fixed in the most steadfast purpose and determination. That purpose is to make this paper an exponent of the “present truth,” the bearer of “good tidings of great joy” to all its readers, and “an inspiration to a complete consecration of heart and life to the work of hastening the coming of the blessed Master.” The aim will be to make it of such inestimable value to all who love his appearing, that it will lead them to identify themselves with this great movement to give the advent message to all the world in this generation, regarding it as indispensable to the carrying out of their purpose, to “co-operate intelligently with other believers in this closing work.”

This strikes the keynote of the work in our hands, namely, the sounding of the advent proclamation in all the world, before the generation beginning at a definite point in the past, and now nearing the utmost limits of its existence, shall have all passed off the stage of action. The prophetic announcement and its limitations are set forth in this scripture: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” In Matt. 24: 29, reference is made to certain days of tribulation; and it is said that immediately after that tribulation, phenomena in the sun and the moon, unheard of and unexplainable, were to take place. The sun was to be preternaturally darkened, and the moon was not to give her light. This was all literally and impressively fulfilled in the notable Dark Day of May 19, 1780, and in the following night. Fifty-three years and fourteen days later, Nov. 13, 1833, came the wonderful shower of meteors, known as “the falling of the stars.” This was to be followed, after an indefinite interval, by the shaking of the powers of the heavens. This will be fulfilled when Heb. 12: 26 is fulfilled, and the heaven and the earth shake at the voice of God. Rev. 16: 17, 18; Joel 3: 15, 16. But these are parts of the great day itself, when kings and chief captains, the rich and mighty men of the earth, call for rocks and mountains to fall on them, and hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne; for they then testify with terrible emphasis, that “the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6: 14-17. But the events prophesied of in Matt. 24: 29, except the shaking of “the powers of the heavens,” occur long enough beforehand to arouse the world, and to act as signs and precursors of the coming of that day. We stand right between verses 13 and 14 of Revelation 6, with the falling of the stars as the last sign in nature to herald to us the coming of the Son of man. What follows in this line of events is too late to be signs and warnings to us. Now note the climax of this instruction in Matt. 24: 32-34: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [“he,” Christ, margin] is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”

The writer of this may be allowed a word of personal application on this point: Born May 2, 1832, he easily reckons himself as coming within the generation which was living at the time of the falling of the stars, Nov. 13, 1833, the last tabulated sign in the heavens to foretell the near coming of the Son of man, and at the time of his baptism by an Adventist elder, in good standing under the first message, in the early summer of 1844, of sufficient age to see (historically) “all these things,” these phenomena in the heavens, and contemplate their value, as signs of the end, and on this evidence to raise from the doorsteps of his home in West Wilton, N. H., the cry, “The Lord is coming,” as far as the voice was able to reach relatives and friends in the neighborhood.

On that doctrine he has never had a misgiving from that day to this. And there he still stands, on the authority of the words of Christ, as we can but interpret them, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Whether or not the writer lives till the Lord appears, there will undoubtedly be a sufficient number of that generation alive at the end to make good the prophecy. For the Lord says, “My words shall not pass away.”

In endeavoring to comply with the prophetic injunction to “remember the former things of old,” the object has been in these introductory lines to ascertain how far experiences of a personal nature could be linked with any work which God is developing in the earth, or any fulfillments

of his prophetic word. This has led to a consideration of what is meant by “this generation,” one of the crucial points of New Testament prophecy, for we finally reach a point in which it can be said, “This generation shall not pass away, till all these things,” not only the preliminary signs, but the events of the great day itself, shall take place. This inquiry is liable to lead to startling conclusions; for when we enter the little space of this generation, we enter ground which challenges the attention of the world. And we are happy to find a series of events set apart in the Scriptures as “these things,” covering “this generation,” the beginning of which clearly antedates the writer’s birthday. And now the question arises how long a generation can continue, the youngest members of which are upward of seventy years of age. We have not to wait for a new generation to arise, pass its period of infancy, youth, and middle life, before we reach the end, but only for a section of the human family to retire its old men, already fast disappearing, before all these things are closed up and finished. Happy they who have a part in this work now!

U. S.