THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ADVENTISM.
By Editor
"CALL to remembrance the former days" is the injunction of the Apostle; and from the position we now occupy in the fulfillment of prophecy, it is both proper and profitable to review the past, as well as to examine our position in reference to the present and the future. We commence in this number an article on the Rise and Progress of Adventism, by J. Litch, published in the Advent Shield, May, 1844. We trust it will be acceptable to all our readers. First, to those who had no experience in the past Advent movement, under the First and Second Angel's Messages, but who have been brought to a knowledge of the truth under the Third, and have come therefore to consider the former acts of God, it will be interesting to learn the particulars of their rise and progress. Second, all those who were engaged in the first two messages of the Advent movement will be interested in calling to remembrance the former days. We give the article as it was then written. Further light has led us to different views in some particulars; for instance, the writer says, "And now on this the 24th day of April, 1844, when all the prophetic periods . . . have gone by, as far as we are able to calculate them," &c. But the best of evidence has since been produced that those periods did extend to and end in the Autumn of 1844. Whoever believes that the past movement was in fulfillment of prophecy, and that then the first two messages of Rev. xiv, had their accomplishment, must of necessity admit that the time has come for the third, or that God has withdrawn his hand from the accomplishment of his purposes. The position which we now occupy is the only legitimate one, from the light of past experience, and of Scripture.