[A letter written by a Second Advent brother to his son.]
I have, from the presentation of truth, embraced the seventh day Sabbath, and the shut door, as being my last refuge in this dark and gloomy day. I am well aware that this news may be astonishing to you, as you were well acquainted with my former views, and scriptural objections to this faith. But do not throw by the letter and refuse to read, and call your father a fanatic. Read a few of the many reasons that have led me to this change of views, with prayerful attention. And I will commence by asking you some questions, as you are well acquainted with all the Advent movement. And although previous to this movement your experience was quite limited, yet it may be well for those of us, who are pretending to hold on to the speedy coming of the Lord, to ask ourselves what is the ground of our faith.
Do you believe that the Angel that was to fly through the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach, spoken of in Rev. xiv, 6-7, is fulfilled? Read the verses, weigh well their contents. It was to "them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God." Was it done? "Give glory to him," was it done? "and worship him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and fountains of waters." Is what we have seen and heard a fulfillment of this prophecy? I am struck, while reading it, with its exact fulfillment. Settle this question before God. If settled in the affirmative, which I think it must be, then I ask is not "the hour of his judgment come?" This may be a new thought to you; but God's world must settle these questions. I ask again, whether the Angel which was to follow in verse 8, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," together with Rev. xviii, 4, saying, "come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues," has been fulfilled. Were God's people in the Catholic Church?—Was the simultaneous cry of almost all who gave the first cry, and the rushing of the living members in the churches, and the fear lest they should be found in them, (the only place where, but a few months before, they thought there was safety,) the work of man? What was the cause of this universal panic among the churches? All the living members were leaving them. Was this the power in man's voice? Where is that powerful voice now? Or was this the voice of that Angel that was to follow the first, the power of God in this message to the children of men? Settle these questions in your own mind as in view of the judgment. I ask not what others have thought; I am well aware of the giving up on this point. Can we ever expect, or can any generation to follow us, expect to see the like again? See if there is not an exact fulfillment, as there was in any of the prophecies of the first advent of our Saviour.
Again I ask, what was it that gave such tremendous power to the words, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh," which broke upon us, as it were, in the stillness of night, while one servant was saying, "My Lord delayeth his coming," and the other, "The Lord is coming." What was it that hurried those messengers through the land to spread the message as though a world's destiny depended on their flight? What was it created such an awful fear on the churches, and that made such a complete consecration of time, property and self, among the Advent bands? Was there ever such a time in the world's history? Did it not savor of the work of God? Can there ever be another "Midnight Cry," given, if Christ should not come for a thousand years, that would produce such wonderful effects? Will God suffer his people who have17been praying, searching the Word, and sacrificing, to find the truth, to be deceived by these movements, and utterly fail? Or has the devil been permitted to make so exact a counterfeit, as to deceive the very elect?
It does not destroy the fulfillment of prophecy, if we should get a hundred unscriptural views of what constituted the Bridegroom's coming. I think it is more safe to acknowledge that we may have been mistaken in what constituted the coming of the Bridegroom, and the shut door, than to throw the whole prophecy away. God will not fulfill his prophecies but once, if we look for their fulfillment again as long as the Jews have for the first coming of Christ. And now what has given force and edge to these messages? It has been the preaching of time. Had time been out of the 'messages,' they would never have come to any point. And now has the preaching of time been of God, or of men? God has certainly given us time in his word. The 2300 days, as preached by Bro. Miller and others, ended in '41, tenth day of seventh month. This gave point to the Midnight Cry. Here all the numbers given us in the Bible ended harmoniously. From that time what confusion has there been about the ending of the 2300 days!
No one has successfully attempted to make the different numbers harmonize at any other point of time. But they have labored for six years to show that these days would end somewhere else, and in this labor have almost, if not quite, destroyed the faith of all their hearers in the speedy coming of the Lord. The only question to be decided as to the ending of the 2300 days is to find their commencement. And B. C. 457 was the starting point. Whether there will be any further attempts to make these days cover '51, '52, or '55, I know not. But for one I have lost all confidence in these brethren having any light on prophecy since '44. I must turn my eye to some other quarter for light. If the 2300 days have ended, (and the 'Advent Herald' of March last says, that to fix the starting point of the 2300 days anywhere else than B. C. 457, you would have to altar the dates of more than twenty eclipses, which would throw every date into confusion. This quotation is from memory.) where did they end? and what was done at their ending?—They say in effect, that nothing has been done; the earth has not been cleansed; therefore the Sanctuary has not been cleansed.
But God says, Dan. viii, 14, 'Unto 2300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.' I feel bound to believe this plain word of God, rather than follow the definitive idea that this earth was the Sanctuary to be cleansed. Turn to Ex. xxv, and read a few of the first verses, then turn to the first of chap. xxxvii, and you will be at no loss to know what God has called his Sanctuary. You will recollect that this was to be made in exact imitation of something that God showed Moses on Mount Sinai. Here is light, but I do not expect what I have written on the subject of the Sanctuary will give you much light. Defer deciding until you hear more.
I think I have foreseen the awful vortex to which we must be driven, who have adopted any other time for the ending of the 2300 days than '43, or tenth day of seventh month, 1841, unless the Lord should come soon. The genius of men will not be able to move them much further, and then where are we? God's prophetic time has failed, and all the past movement which was got up by the preaching of time, and all our confidence that we were led by the Spirit of God in that movement is lost. I ask again, where are we? If God did not lead this people when did he ever lead a people? I confess for one, that if I were not led by the Spirit of God in trying to spread these messages, I have never known what the Spirit of God was. In more than twenty years experience, I have had no doubts of the leadings of God's Spirit, and never less than while penning these lines. With this view of the subject, I ask where is the evidence that the Lord will come in my day, or in yours?—You may answer that the signs and the Image spoken of in Daniel show that He is near. So they do in connection with the time, but how definite is the Image? Almost 1100 years have we been in the 'toes,' and can you tell how much longer we may remain there? The darkening of the sun and moon in 1780, and the falling of the stars in 1833, how long will it be to the shaking of the powers of heaven, and how long from this point to the coming of the Lord? Who can tell? You are ——, that by following these opinions, (for I think they have no light on prophecy answering to this day,) and their necessary results, I am brought near the vortex. Hence I embrace the 'Midnight Cry,' the 'Shut Door,' and 'the Third Angel's Message' as being my knowledge, as I stated at first.
The embracing these truths has opened a light upon the book of Rev. elation, and on the Types, (so freely used in proclaiming the Midnight Cry,) as I have never seen before. I now feel that I am on the track of prophecy, and that the coming of the Lord is near. This to me is no small source of comfort, to have evidence on which I can rest, that this state of trial is soon to end. My time and your patience might be exhausted, were I to undertake to bring to your view the whole subject connected with the Shut Door. Suffice it to say, it does not in my opinion, exclude all conversion. But it does exclude those who have wilfully rejected all these Messages. I believe that the names recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, were brought in at the tenth day of seventh month. That He then bore in their names before the Father, as the antitype of the 'Breastplate of Judgment.' Ex. xxviii, 15; and xxxix, 8. Read the passages in their connection, and if you will read from Ex. xxiv, to chap. xi, you will see with what exactness God has had his Sanctuary made, and all that pertains to it. Were these things recorded with such precision for the Jews only? Since I began this, I have got the small tract on the Sanctuary, and Shut Door, which I will send you. Read it with attention, it will give you much light on the cleansing of the Sanctuary.
I fear it would be wrong is me to withhold from you my views of most of our Advent brethren. They compose the Laodicean Church.—Start not, but hear my reasons. This church is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. Is not this applicable? This church says that they are 'rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing.' Do not our brethren say they have a great amount of truth, that they are far in advance of the churches? Do they not say they have truth enough?—Have need of nothing? Do not know they are 'poor and miserable,' etc. They are all 'counseled to buy gold,' etc. 'That the shame of their nakedness do not appear.' 'As many as I love I rebuke and chasten.' I hope there are many of this class. Read Rev. iii, 11-22. They must be 'zealous and repent.' This church came out of the Philadelphia or Brotherly-Love church, and this, out of the Sardis church, as was preached in '44. When has the world beheld, since the days of the apostles, a band of brethren that loved more fervently, coming together from the different churches. But where was the Laodicean church organized? At the Albany Conference. 'Let patience have its perfect work.' This point shall be made as plain as any fulfilled prophecy, if reason and facts may determine. A great proportion of the brethren went to this Conference believing in the 'Shut Door.' You may doubt this statement because the leaders and managers were of a different opinion, and there succeeded in convincing their brethren that the door was open, and they must now 'double their diligence' to convert the world. They say they are the true Israel of God. Now read Rev. iii, 9. I ask where has been the brotherly love in this body since! Where is the light on prophecy that used to shine with such clearness from these brethren? There is need of zeal and repentance, or the Lord will execute his threatening in verse 16.
When I began this I had no expectation of using so much paper in asking and answering questions, and giving my views. However, the opinions expressed have not been formed hastily; but from long reflection. Therefore examine them patiently and prayerfully in all their parts, before you reject my conclusion; as I fear in rejecting you will reject the truth of God. I believe the Third Angel's message will be sounded louder and louder, until it is heard by every humble and penitent soul, who has not rejected God's former messages. And when the Angel has accomplished his work, (the last work to prepare God's people,) the vials of God's wrath will be poured out upon the world. And I cannot put the pouring out of these vials far in the future.
I cannot reject the idea that there will be a clear distinction between saint and sinner previous to the Lord's coming, and of course there must be something to draw out the real character. That there is need of something sane to test the real friends of God, as in former days, I doubt not. And that something should be preached so crossing that the proud heart will not receive, and the humble and contrite will not reject, I doubt not.
This letter is too far advanced to gratify your wish to know how I dispose of all the New Testament objections we used to urge against my present views; and had I more space I might rail it doing it to your satisfaction. I will freely acknowledge that there are some passages that have had a strong influence upon my mind, to hold up to my former views (and when once the position is taken that here is no distinction18between the Law given by Moses, for the observance of the children of Israel, through their generations, and the Law written by the finger of God, and deposited in the Ark of the Covenant, and was kept in the Sanctuary or Tabernacle which was the strength of the children of Israel, a type of what John saw in heaven, Rev. xi, 19.) and have held me for a long time. You may well suppose, with so much labor and trial, together with some conviction of the truth of my opponents, that the subject of the Sabbath has not been slightly examined, or hastily embraced. I am not aware of being influenced by any soul; but by the truth presented. I have never embraced a doctrine more crossing; but he that follows Christ will find crosses.
'The Sabbath was made for man.' I have never been able to reconcile the idea that there was no Sabbath, with what I believe to be the wants of man, and the goodness and providence of God. If he was good and merciful in commanding the children of Israel to rest the seventh day, instead of requiring them to work, is there any good reason why he should not require it after Christ came? Is the Sabbath any less needed as a day of rest under this, than under the former dispensation? If there is no express command, it is evident that Christ and his Apostles observed it through their day. And Christ directed his disciples to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath day. Matt. xxiv, 20. And it is evident from history that the seventh day Sabbath was observed for centuries after the Apostles day. If Christ thought the keeping of a Sabbath was of so much importance that he directed them to pray that they might have no occasion for breaking it forty years after his death, surely he had some expectation that it would be observed. How far these examples and requirements will supply the want of an express command in the New Testament, after so many in the Old, judge ye.—Our Savior said whosoever shall break one of the heats of these commandments and shall teach men so, shall be of no esteem in the reign of heaven. If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments. 'And they returned and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath-day, according to the commandment.' Luke xxiii, 56. You say you know well the influence these test questions have upon the trembling, sincere and honest disciple, when enforced with zeal and power; for you have felt it many times. So you have come to the conclusion there have been false tests presented to you. A rational conclusion, I think.—But am I to understand because there are false tests, that there are no true ones? Such a conclusion, if true, would uproot the religion of Jesus Christ from the land. The whole economy of God as revealed in the Bible, to nations and individuals, is designed to test their fidelity to him. Why was Satan, the arch deceiver, permitted to have an existence in the world, and tempt and try the children of God, if not to test their love to Him. This opens a large field, which I have not time to explore. I will ask what advances have you made in your christian course, without having every step tested? Is it probable that at the closing scenes of this world, and the final conflict with the powers of darkness, God will have no test by which to prove his children? Will the danger to which we are exposed consist in submitting to false tests for Christ's sake, or rejecting true ones? Do any doubt, who believe in the Advent movement, that the first Angel's message tested the churches, and those churches or individuals who understandingly rejected have fallen? So with the second, and so it will be with the third. You see, ———, it has taken a good deal of paper, to get out a few thoughts. I have endeavored to be as short as possible, and answer my mind. You know I am unaccustomed to putting them on paper. You will I trust, pass over the errors in the writing and composition; but mark well the subject matter. I am aware that some of it may seem simple, perhaps foolish, but 'God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.' I know it will not accord well with the instruction you have listened to, for some time past, and the influence that may still surround you. The change made in my mind since embracing these sentiments, has been happily indeed. A strength has been imparted which I have not felt for years. I have endeavored to keep two Sabbaths holy unto the Lord. ***