A further History of the Second Advent Doctrine, from its commencement to
the treading of the Wine Press, &c.
With The One Hundred And Forty-Four Thousand Living Saints, Which
Are To Be Gathered At The Second Coming Of Jesus, From Every
Nation, Kindred, Tongue, And People; Especially Those That Are Now
Occupying The Position Referred To In The Twelfth And Thirteenth
Verses Of The Fourteenth Chapter.
Second Advent History.
In the fourteenth chapter of Revelations, John gives a most graphic
delineation of the Second Advent movement, from its rise in about 1840, to
a glorious state of immortality. He begins to describe from this
never-to-be-over-looked, wonderful picture of the last days, forming, and
changing in quick succession, under the deep impressions made on the
heart, by the heavenly flying messengers, saying with loud voices—the hour
of his judgment is come; and reminds one in some of its features, in the
changing of positions, of that last dreadful conflict of nations, on the
plains of Waterloo, which decided the fate of Europe. So here, in this
last great conflict of contending armies, John, in his vision, hears a
glorious voice, [see i: 15 and xix: 6.] and harpers harping with their
harps. His eye is turned to the point from whence came the heavenly music,
and he beholds a glorified company, with their INVINCIBLE Commander,
standing away up on the Mount Zion, that had followed him through his
fiery trying conflict, and he had brought them off victorious, and clothed
them with immortality and everlasting life; and the Father had stamped
“his name in their foreheads,” and they numbered 144,000, redeemed from
the earth; all the living saints that are saved out of the mighty host of
nations. Now read the first five verses of this chapter and methinks you
will agree with me, that John is here describing the character of the
144,000 as he had seen them sealed, as stated in the seventh chapter;
where he closes their history with the 8th verse, to describe the dead
saints, and seven angels with their trumpets, and the effect produced by
them, from the 7th chapter, 9th verse to the 12th chapter. Then in the
12th and 13th chapters, the dragon, the beast and his image, &c., &c. And
then he takes up the history of this same 144,000, from where he had seen
them sealed in the 7th chapter, 4-8 verses; and begins by describing them
sealed and redeemed from the earth, in company with the Lamb—the Lord
Jesus. From the 6th to the 14th verse, he gives the outline of what they
had been passing through, and the mighty host with whom they had been
engaged. It will here be remembered that this message, or proclamation of
“the hour of his judgment,” has gone to every nation and tongue, and
people; therefore as Jesus has stated that his elect are to be gathered
from the four winds, or from one end of heaven to the other, then his
144,000 will be composed of all nations, particularly the poor ignorant,
but honest hearted Slaves of this doomed country. But more especially
those described in the 12th verse, walking out in their faith of all the
living _present truth_.
An objection may arise with some; still, supposing that the 144,000,
because they are named after the tribes of Jacob in the 7th chapter, they
cannot mean the Israel of these last days. Micah, speaking of Jesus, says,
“He is _to be_ the ruler in Israel.”—v: 1-2. Gabriel said he would “reign
over the house of Jacob _forever_.”—Luke i: 33. Paul says “they are not
_all_ Israel that are of Israel;” “If ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s
seed and heirs according to the promise.” When John was afterwards giving
a description of the holy city, he even saw the names of the twelve tribes
of the children of Israel inscribed on the twelve gates. This agrees with
the description in the 7th chapter, and makes a perfect harmony when we
understand that this vision was sixty years after the introduction of the
gospel, when the church was the whole Israel of God. The other view would
give the literal seed of Jacob full possession of the city; the gates
being theirs by the titles on them. This would make a division wall there,
and God would be a respecter of persons. The gentiles could have no claim
there; thus their joint heirship with Christ would fail and so would this
Revelation; for John was directed to “show (us) things which would shortly
come to pass.”—i: 1; and to “write the things which thou _hast seen_, and
the things which are, and the things which _shall be hereafter_” in the
churches, in the future.—xxii: 16. So we see this vision was all of the
present and future; besides the tribes of _literal_ Israel had before this
been rejected and were to “be trodden down until the times of the gentiles
were fulfilled.”
To make the 14th chapter more plain, in respect to the 144,000, we will
try to give an exposition of the 7th. “And after these things, I saw four
Angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds
of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the _earth_, nor on the
_sea_, nor on any _tree_. And I saw another angel ascending from the east
having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the
four angels to whom it was given to hurt the _earth_, and the _sea_;
saying hurt not the _earth_, neither the _sea_, nor the _trees_ till we
have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”—1-3. I believe
the general view of these four angels being the four leading governments
[see 9th chapter 14, 15 verses,] is correct with the exceptions of Prussia
or Rome, because neither of those nations have any maritime force on the
sea. Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States of North
America, possess this power over all seas, and the most part of
Christendom. Our not being a party in the great christian alliance at the
downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1815, neither in 1840, at the fall of
the Ottoman Empire, will not, I think, effect this point; but being one of
these four messengers, will make it clear, at least so far as relates to
the flying messengers and their work, and our power on the sea. Who does
this sealing angel ascending from the east represent? Answer—I think some
of the very same flying messengers brought to view in xiv: 6, 7, and x and
xviii chapters. If messengers in the form, and fashion of men,
symbolically represented as flying through the midst of heaven, preaching
the gospel to men, and “being clothed with clouds,” rainbows and pillars
of fire, lighting up the earth with their glory; standing upon the sea,
and land, crying as when a lion roareth, that time should be no longer;
are called angels, I see not, nor know of any other exposition of this
second verse. If it is contended that an invisible angel is here
described, then, according to the 9th chapter, 4th verse, it was done in
like manner to individuals in the thirteenth century.
ASCENDING from the east, or sun’s rising. I think this does not mean _rise
up_ out of, &c., as in chapter 13th, or _ascending_ in a similar manner,
as in chapter xvii: 8, but rather the following, for instance: these
northern and middle States, and the Canadas, are now and have been the
location of almost all the flying messengers, and the burden of their
messages, as represented in the 14th chapter. William Miller began to
proclaim the message from the west, (Low Hampton.) And now to reverse it,
the sealing messenger is seen ascending from the eastern, the Atlantic
States, bounded by the broad ocean, of nearly three thousand miles, which,
when looking to the east, as John did at sun rising, would give the
appearance of the sun’s rising out of the water but a few miles off. Owing
to the round surface of our globe, every 15°, or nine hundred miles that
we sail from hence to the east, the sun appears _ascending_ from his ocean
bed one hour earlier in the morning. This is familiar to the mariner; as
also when they discover another ship, they cry, “sail ho!” Why? Because
the top of her sails are only seen, but as they approach each other,
_ascending_ up, as it were, out of the ocean bed, the lower sails, and
then the hull, and soon after the men are distinctly seen upon her decks.
If we look farther east for this sealing angel or messenger, even to Great
Britain, or still onward to the northern coast of China, we shall find
none that have been so much engaged in the work of God as those above
described. But if it is still insisted upon, that this sealing angel is
invisible, then we shall fail to know when we are sealed. But I think that
it is a work to be done here, and the saints will understand when they are
sealed or marked as readily as they did when they were rejoicing because
they had got the victory over the beast and his image, on the sea of glass
(or more sure word of prophecy.) Rev. xv: 2. This was their sectarian
profession that bound them in Babylon; and now their second advent
profession, as in Rev. xiv: 12, if adhered to, will bind them to Jesus and
seal, or mark, them for the city; see xxii: 14. Ezekiel had a
prefiguration of this, in his vision of the man clothed in linen with a
writer’s inkhorn by his side, passing through the city, marking God
groaning, sorrowing children, (ix: 2, 4, 11,) preparatory to the awful
slaughter that was immediately to follow; with the strict charge not to
touch them that had the mark (or seal) in their foreheads;—just as it will
be in the last days, when the 144,000, all of the _living_ children, are
sealed with the seal of the _living_ God in their foreheads, having been
marked or sealed in a similar manner, and by the remnant of the messengers
that four years ago were writing, lecturing and exhorting the people of
God to get clear of the mark of the beast by coming out of Babylon,
because she had fallen; developing their true profession, or christian
character, even then, by the help of the marking iron, (the steel pen and
stamping type,) with the ink from the writer’s _ink horn_; with this
difference, that this simultaneous sealing of the 144,000 will show such a
clear development of christian character in their lives and shining
foreheads (or faces,) that it will be clearly understood that Jesus has
redeemed them from _all_ iniquity, by purifying “unto himself a _peculiar
people_, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS.” [These good works, methinks, will be
something more than simply saying we believe the Lord is coming.] Yes,
says Malachi, when by his prophetic spirit, he saw Jesus “making up his
jewels,” at this point of time, “_then_ shall ye return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him
that serveth him not.” “In the latter (or last) days ye shall consider it
perfectly.”—Jer. Then “he that is unjust, let him be so, and he that is
righteous, let him be so still, and behold I come quickly, &c.”—Rev. xxii:
11, 12.
This sealing process, then, I understand to be going on with the little
flock, progressing in accordance with the last eight years’ peculiar labor
in their experience, and will be completed and approbated by God in the
agonizing time of Daniel’s and Jacob’s trouble, and proclaimed to the
world by God’s roaring out of Zion, and uttering his voice from Jerusalem;
then he will be the hope of his people; (see Joel iii.) then their
atonement will be finished, the Sanctuary cleansed,—16th and 17th verses;
“Zion’s captivity turned;” “their mouths filled with laughter;” “the
jewels made up,” and the wise will understand the time of their coming
deliverer.(3)
_The four Angels._—How does the sealing angel, or messenger, ascending
from the east, cry with a loud voice to these four angels or governments
of messengers, to “hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees,”
&c. In the first place, I understand that symbolic prophecies have literal
statements interspersed, which serve as a key for the rest: i. e. they
have a mixed character; for instance, earth and sea here, literal;
_trees_, symbolical; meaning those that are _marked_, or _sealed_; the
professed people of God—followers of Jesus. See the clear proof under the
sounding of the fifth trumpet by the Turks, in ch. ix: 4th verse: “they
were not to hurt any tree, but only those MEN which have _not_ the _seal_
of God _in their foreheads_.” This proves the trees to symbolize the
followers of God; see also Hosea xiv: 8. Again, it is said that these four
messengers were to “hold the wind from blowing on the _earth_, _sea_, or
any _tree_.” By the _wind_, I understand as Paul teaches the Eph. iv: 14,
“every wind of doctrine and cunning craftiness, and slight of men to
deceive, and lead nations into carnage, war and bloodshed;” see also ii:
2, “being led by the Prince of the power of the _air_, working in men
disobedience, according to the course of this world.” After the last great
battle of nations at Waterloo, in 1815, then these blood-thirsty,
conquering crowned heads, formed themselves into what they called a
christian alliance, showing that there was now peace with all the world;
since which time they and our own government have been petitioned or
prayed to by those who professed to be the followers of the Prince of
Peace, to abolish the wicked practice with themselves, and thereby
restrain all other nations. Now let us learn the difference between the
trees, (professors or followers of the Prince of Peace,) and _servants of
God_ which are now to be sealed, viz. the 144,000. Thousands on thousands
of these professors or trees since this work began, have died, and
probably one hundred times that number have turned traitors, by deserting
their leader and commander, while the great mass of advent believers,
which stamped this truth upon them, (the nominal church) in Oct. 1844,
have since that time, also turned into the enemy’s ranks, leaving the
remnant to finish up the work. The great majority of these professors were
once under the right banner, but the winnowing fan of their great leader
has left them with the chaff, so that the voice of the remaining
messengers, some of whom were sending these petitions to the four
governments, and their prayers to God to restrain these wicked practices,
have become so feeble and disregarded by their former associates, that the
Devil, seeing his time is short, is now hard at work marshalling his
united forces throughout the world, for a mighty victory; and these four
messengers are his principle dependence to “gather the whole world to the
battle of that great day of God Almighty,” but it will not become general
until the 144,000 saints are sealed.
Here, then, I understand, that the professed followers of the Prince of
Peace, (symbolized as trees,) have been crying with a loud voice by their
petitions, which is the symbol for prayer, see xiv: 15, 18, and Matt.
xxvii: 46, praying these four messengers that have power on all lands, and
_all_ seas, not to make any more war, either on the land or on the sea,
nor with the professed people of the Prince of Peace, by disregarding
their petitions. I know not in what other way these four nations could be
prayed to as represented in the second verse. Now the 144,000 are sealed.
Then John brings us to the resurrection. The 9th verse says, _after this_,
(mark this point,) I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could
number of all nations and kindreds, and people and tongues stood before
the throne, clothed in white, with palms in their hands, &c. These I
understand are _all_ the sleeping saints from Abel down to the very last
one that falls asleep here. Their having palms in their hands, and robed
in white, looks to me like the perfect uniformity there will be with
_them_, and the 144,000 that have never died, that I believe will be
redeemed right from, or at, the time for the feast of Tabernacles, and
form a perfect phalanx, rending the air with their shouts while they are
mounting up with wings as eagles to meet their glorified king and Lord;
see xix: 14; Lev. xxiii: 39-44. Here, they will serve God day and night in
his temple.—15th verse. Therefore all the work that is pointed out here in
Revelations for the messengers, (called angels,) to perform, will all be
accomplished here before Christ comes. Now we will turn again to the