p. 103 | Confession and Faith After the Disappointment

Publishing Committee · Saratoga Springs, N. Y. · Mar 2, 1852

Confession and Faith After the Disappointment

By Horace Patten; Olive M. Patten

From Bro. and Sr. Patten.

DEAR BRO. WHITE: We feel that duty demands a brief account of God’s dealings with us, and a confession of our errors. We would also express our gratitude for the present truth and the blessings that attend it. We embraced the Advent doctrine about the year 1841, and were warm advocates that Christ would come in 1843. We believed without a doubt that we should see our blessed Jesus, whom our souls loved, at the end of the 2300 days. We saw the tarrying time, heard the cry “Behold the bridegroom cometh,” and with strong and unwavering confidence, expected perfect and eternal deliverance, on the tenth day of the seventh month, 1844. But the sad disappointment and trial we then felt, is best known to those who experienced the same. We could not understand why, Christ had not come for his people as we expected, but firmly believed that what we had passed through was nothing less than the mighty work of God. Some cried delusion, mesmerism, and the work of the devil. This we could not believe, for God had wrought a work in our souls that was not the work of some strange spirit. During this state of things, our minds became much distracted, which way to turn we knew not. We had clearly seen that Babylon was fallen, and cried “come out of her my people.” Every bridge was taken up; go back, or deny the past, we could not. We were earnestly looking for something to explain our position, when in the spring of 1845 there came certain brethren to us, who said we proclaimed the time right, but were wrong in the manner. By ingenious, and mystified interpretations of many scriptures, too numerous to mention, they made it appear that we had come to the dispensation of the fullness of times, that there was a change from natural or literal interpretations of scripture, to spiritual, 1 Cor. xv, 46, “Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” Now, said they, we have come to the end of the natural, or literal interpretation of the word, and all the scriptures are to have a spiritual fulfillment, they cannot be understood by the natural man, because the natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned. You recollect the devil quoted scripture to Christ, so a multitude of scriptures were presented to us. In our bewildered state, and for want of better light, we drank the deadly poison. We were soon led to believe that we had been carnal, in looking for a literal person of Jesus to come, and in looking for that city above, “the mother of us all.” In short the fire of spiritualism soon burned up the person of Jesus, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and all the glories of heaven. We began to talk about God and heaven in us, so we could no longer look up to our dear Father in heaven, and family prayer was soon neglected. From this time we did hope but nothing obtain. We looked for a more special manifestation of God, and his glory in the future, but our hopes were emphatically like the house built upon the sand, [Matt. vii, 24-27,] for we did not hear and do the sayings of Christ.

Pride, self-exaltation, and a worldly spirit crept in, till we no longer had the spirit, or bore the marks of the meek and lowly Jesus. Here we were, our souls well nigh drowned in destruction and perdition, shielded against any truth that could be brought from the Word, by the false idea, that it was going back to the natural, when the message of the third angel came to our ears. We wonder the glorious truths of this message, ever penetrated the thick darkness which surrounded us. We are miracles of grace, monuments of the mercy and long suffering of God. We thank and praise our Heavenly Father, that his own mighty hand was stretched out in kindness, to rescue us from this awful snare. Last August Bro. Rhodes came to us imbued with the Spirit of our Blessed Lord and Master, and presented a harmonious chain of scripture evidences that all the commandments, were still binding upon us. We thought there was no Sabbath; but the scales fell from our eyes, and we were enabled to see that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, and we determined to keep it, let what would oppose. Here we found the blessed company who are keeping the commandments of God that they may have right to the tree of life, and enter through the gates into the city. We were fully satisfied that we had once more found a humble, self-denying, sacrificing people, sanctified through the truth who were going through to the kingdom. With them we wanted to go. We were willing to confess and forsake all our errors; to give to the winds all our spiritualism, and believe the word of God as it reads. We are heartily sorry we have been engaged in spreading error and darkness among the dear children of God. We are unworthy of a place among his people. But we do believe the Lord has forgiven us and we would gladly do any thing in our power to wipe out the stain, and put an end to these evils. The Lord forbid that honest souls should stumble over our darkness. O! that we could tell you with what joy and gratitude we received the true light on the cleansing of the Sanctuary. No one could be clearer, than we were that the days ended 1844. In our darkness we have secretly longed for something that would more fully explain the past mighty move, and the fulfillment of this scripture, “then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed.” Then think of our joy, after waiting near seven long years in ignorance, to learn, that our Great High Priest, did exactly fulfill the types on the tenth day of the seventh month, and entered the Most Holy Place, in the True Sanctuary above which the Lord pitched and not man, bearing in the names of all Israel, there to complete the great work of redemption, and perform his last work of mercy for fallen man. Now we are praying that our names may be retained on the breastplate of judgment, may be confessed before the Father and the holy angels, so that when he comes out, our errors and sins may all be blotted out, and we receive the never ending blessing. We are now looking with more confidence than ever, for that same Jesus to so come in like manner as he was seen go into heaven, also for the Holy City, New Jerusalem which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, to come down from God out of heaven.

When we received present truth, the long lost family altar, was speedily restored. Our children all pray with us. The truth attended by the blessing of God, has made us a happy family. We feel that “We are on our journey home, to the New Jerusalem.” Our treasures and our hearts are there and we want eternal life at the expense of every thing. Never did the scriptures open so gloriously, showing past, present, and future, in delightful harmony, as now. Never were our feet so firmly planted on the sure foundation, the unerring Word, as at present. We feel that it will take all to enter the kingdom, but no sacrifice can be too dear, to make, no suffering too great to endure, if we can only with the 144,000 be redeemed from among men, and enter through those gates into the holy city, where we may eat of the leaves of the tree, and drink from the crystal stream, that makes glad the city of our God. We want the prayers of the people of God, to unite with ours; “that we may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Yours in the patient waiting time, HORACE PATTEN. OLIVE M. PATTEN. Rochester. N. Y., Feb. 19th, 1852.