Peace and Safety by M. E. Cornell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 31, 1865

“Peace and Safety.”

By M. E. Cornell

“WHEN they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them,” &c. 1 Thess. v, 3.

This prophetic testimony describes the tendency of the present age exactly. Popular men, are representative men. If they cry “peace,” this will be the popular sentiment. The temporal millennium doctrine has blinded the masses so that they are constantly dreaming of better days and a Golden Age. The New York Tribune of November 1860 said, “We are happy to assure you that there can be no chance for disunion.” That popular journal confidently assured its readers that the expectations of Adventists, and the dissolution of the union, were two “very remote and dubious contingencies.” When the South seceded, and seventy-five thousand men were called for, many of the leading men supposed that to put down the rebellion, would only be a “breakfast spell!” But oh, how sadly mistaken! Truly they have cried, “Peace,” when there was no peace.

Mr. Henry Ward Beecher is said to be the most popular minister in America. In the fall of 1860, he ridiculed the idea that there could be a revolution and war in the United States. He prophesied, “Peace,” loud and long. The following specimen of a “Peace and safety cry,” is found in Mr. Beecher's sermon in the New York Tribune, Nov. 10, 1860.

“I will tell you what will happen—nothing. You may depend upon one thing—that all the barking will be done before voting, and that there will be no biting afterward. If there be one thing that is certain, it is this: that cowardice and essential injustice go together, and that there will be no reaction against virtue, and truth, and justice, and righteousness, that can avail for one hour. Therefore, if any man has made up his mind to emigrate—if any man has made up his mind to melt down his plate, that in the confusion of affairs he shall save some wealth; if any of you propose to convert his property into jewels as most portable and marketable, I would simply pray you to wait a week longer, and it may be you will change your mind. Do not melt all your plate! Do not be too eager to be frightened! Union disolved? A great evil, surely, but not to the North. Revolution and war? There will be neither! You ought to be more manly than to be played upon by such foolish appeals. Or, if you insist upon being scared, you should go home and get into your cradles, that your grandmothers may sing you to sleep! Now, for a baby to be afraid of wolves, for a baby to be afraid of black Douglas, for a baby to be afraid of witch stories and tales, is natural; but for a full-grown man—a free citizen—to be afraid of these things, is not pitiable only—it is contemptible!”

Why don't these men confess their mistake? It seems that the poor Adventists are the only ones that become base and contemptible before the people, because they are sometimes mistaken in regard to events.

In 1843, some of the most popular theologians admitted that Miller was right in his time, but claimed that the true event to be looked for was the “world's conversion.”

Instead, however, of the church's converting the world since 1843, the world has converted the church. The increase of crime, according to the most reliable statistics, has been nearly ten-fold faster than the proportionate increase of population. After the great disappointment, the Adventists were called upon to confess their mistake and give up the doctrine! No confessions to be made on the other side, because the majority never confess! If they were mistaken, there was no occasion to confess it, because it was popular! And the question with the masses is not, what is true and consistent, but what is popular and fashionable. To be unpopular now, is the greatest cause of shame that can be thought of. “The wise will understand.” They will learn by prophecy, and passing events, but the popular men of this age, it is to be feared, will continue to cry “Peace and safety” until sudden destruction comes, and they find no way of escape. But while they cry, Peace, the true watchmen will sound an alarm. “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel ii, 1.

M. E. CORNELL.