proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day
that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall
leave them neither root nor branch.” Mal. iv, 1.
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out
of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in
the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together
to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went
up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints
about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of Heaven
and devoured them.” Rev. xx, 7-9.
2. The prophet Isaiah (chapter xxxiv) describes the final conflagration
of our globe in language which is a complete parallel to that of the
third angel in describing the punishment of the wicked. Those who
contend that Isaiah refers only to ancient Idumea, must admit that the
period of time described in this strong language, must finally come to
an end. And those who admit that Isaiah, in the language we are about
to quote, refers to the conflagration of our earth, will find in what
follows ample proof that that scene will finally close.
“For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses
for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned
into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof
shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the
smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it
shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.” Chap.
xxxiv, 8-10.
3. But this terrific scene of final conflagration is not to last
throughout unlimited duration. For the earth having been burned, and
all its elements melted, new heavens and new earth are to follow, as
the present earth succeeded to that which was destroyed by water. And
in the earth thus made new the righteous are to be recompensed.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also; and the works that are
therein shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy
conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of
the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. iii, 10-13. “And I saw a new heaven and
a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea.” Rev. xxi, 1.
4. Thus however dreadful and long-continued the punishment of the
wicked will be (for each is to be punished according to his deserts),
that punishment will finally result in the utter destruction of all
transgressors. All the wicked will God destroy. Ps. cxlv, 20. They
shall die the second death. Rev. xxi, 8; Rom. vi, 23; Eze. xviii, 4,
20. They shall perish, being consumed into smoke. Ps. xxxvii, 10, 20,
38. They shall be punished with everlasting destruction, being burned
up in unquenchable fire. 2 Thess. i, 9; Matt. iii, 12. And thus having
been consumed, root and branch, they shall be as though they had not
been. Mal. iv, 1; Obadiah 16.
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE THIRD MESSAGE.
The position of all Adventists after the passing of the time, was at
best a very trying one, and the work for a time moved slowly, attended
with much opposition. To “hold fast the beginning of their confidence”
in the great movement, in the face of a scoffing world and church,
and amid violent opposition from those who were drawing back from the
faith, was a severe trial of faith and patience. And the numbers who
had the moral courage, and shared sufficiently in the grace of God, to
do this, were found to be small.
Those who cowardly yielded to the clamors of opponents, to confess that
they had been in error on the time, occupied the unhappy position of
wearing the Advent name after giving up as error the very means which
had made them Adventists. While those who apostatized so far as to
give up the Advent faith, hope, and name, for a place in some one of
the nominal churches, were destined to be regarded as vacillating, and
ever feel the sting of remorse for so great a weakness as embracing
the “blessed hope.” Those who wished to renounce the Advent faith, and
free themselves from the reproach suffered by those who adhered to it,
might find a degree of relief for the present in confessing their way
back into the church. But of those who have been imbued with the spirit
of the Advent faith and hope, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and
have been partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the world to come, and have apostatized, there
are few who can again enjoy the insipid piety of the popular churches.
In fact such persons are very unhappy and dissatisfied with their
position and relations in religious matters, unless their apostasy has
been so sinful as to obliterate from the soul all traces of Christian
experience, and they be given over to the sensual pleasures of this
life. May God pity this unhappy class, and may they again stand with
those who are looking for the blessed hope.
But the position of those who discard the great movement which made
them Adventists, and yet cherish some of the leading views of William
Miller, and rejoice in the Advent name, is more inconsistent, and their
course far more sinful in the sight of God, than that of those who made
an entire surrender of both position and name. What a position in the
sight of God, angels and men! They bless the Advent faith, hope and
name, and curse the very means which has made them what they profess
to be! These may hold the doctrines of the personal coming of Christ,
the literal resurrection of the dead, and life and immortality alone
through Christ to be given at the resurrection of the just, but while
failing to acknowledge the hand of God in the Advent movement in the
past, and standing opposed to the third angel’s message of the present,
have no well-defined position as to the plan of God in warning the
world and proving his people preparatory to the coming of the Son of
man. And it is because of the ignorance of the people as to the true
position, and because there is no real cross in what these men do
teach, that they have influence. Some of them speak of Millerism and
Miller, as they would of Mormonism and the notorious Smith, and yet
claim to be Adventists. But if the hand of God has been with those who
have borne the Advent name at any time, it was during the great time
movement of 1843 and 1844. More recent time movements and operations of
various kinds, by those who regard that grand movement as an error of
Millerism, compare with it about the same as a rushlight compares with
the noonday sun.
And these men will speak proudly of their Advent faith, and bless the
Advent name, while they curse the great Advent movement, which has
brought the Advent doctrine before the present generation. The sin
against the Holy Ghost, which had no forgiveness in the days of Christ,
was to attribute the work of the Spirit, in the miracles of Jesus,
to Satan. How much less, think you, is the sin of those who deny the
work of the Spirit of God in the Advent movement, and attribute the
power which attended that work to human and satanic influences? I do
not say that all Adventists, besides Seventh-day Adventists, take the
foregoing positions. Most of them, however, do; and the candid reader
who regards the view of the great Advent movement taken in these pages
with favor, will not fail to see both the glaring inconsistencies and
the sinfulness of the positions taken by these professed Adventists.
But the true position is free from such absurdities, and is harmonious
in itself. It honors God, vindicates his word, and sustains Christian
experience. It explains the past, definitely points out present duty,
and lights up the glorious future. It presents a connected system of
truth, the most beautiful in all its parts, that the mind of man ever
contemplated.
The period of the third message dates from the disappointment in 1844,
and from that time to the present the development of its great truths
has been progressive. Immediately after the passing of the time, not a
few took a firm stand that the first and second messages were in the
past, that the midnight cry had been given, that the 2300 days had
ended, and that we had reached the patient waiting, watching time.
But it was not until the subject of the cleansing of the sanctuary
was brought out in 1846, that the termination of the 2300 days became
one of the clearest points in the entire system of Second-Advent
truth. This established us in the fulfillment of the first and second
messages in the past, opened before us the ark of God containing the
ten precepts of his holy law in the most holy place of the heavenly
sanctuary, and called our attention to the third message, with its
solemn warning to flee the worship of the beast and his image, and in
its stead keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. How
forcible the closing words of the third angel: “Here is the patience
of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the
faith of Jesus.” And how natural the conclusion that the Sabbath reform
should come in right here.
INTRODUCTION OF THE SABBATH.
As early as 1844, sister Preston, a Seventh-day Baptist, who was a
believer in the soon coming of Christ, introduced the Sabbath to the
Adventists of Washington, N. H., and made a good impression. With
the help of the publications of her people, and the blessing of God,
about forty embraced the Sabbath. The truth on this subject reached
other points in New Hampshire. About that time Elder T. M. Preble
embraced the Sabbath, and began to teach it. He called the attention
of Adventists to the question, by a pamphlet on the subject, dated
February 13, 1845. After showing the claims of the Bible Sabbath, and
the fact that it was changed to Sunday by the Papacy, he said; “Thus we
see Dan. vii, 25, fulfilled, the little horn changing times and laws.
Therefore it appears to me that all who keep the first day for the
Sabbath, are the Pope’s Sunday-keepers, and God’s Sabbath-breakers.”
But Elder Preble, not seeing the Sabbath reform under the message
of the third angel, and that in the ripening of the harvest of the
earth, the Sabbath was to be a test, continued his ministerial labors
in connection with those who bitterly opposed it. He soon lost his
interest in the subject, and has since become one of its bitterest
opposers. The same is true of Elder J. B. Cook, and a few other
Advent ministers, who at a later point of time, embraced the Sabbath
and abandoned it. Elder Preble had, however, called the attention of
Adventists to this subject, and several in different parts of New
England embraced the Sabbath, whose interest in it did not prove as
transient as his had been.
In 1845, Elder Joseph Bates, then of Fairhaven, Mass., began to teach
the Sabbath of the Bible, and several in Massachusetts, and Maine,
embraced it as the fruit of his labors. He wrote and circulated
gratuitously a small work upon the subject. By reading this little
pamphlet, I was established upon the Sabbath, and began to teach it.
This little work reached several in Connecticut, and with Bro. Bates’
personal labors, brought over to the Sabbath a number in western New
York and different parts of New England.
But these were generally the poor of this world, and the very few
among them who had means, did not realize that on them rested the
responsibility of sending the truth to others. Hence the cause moved
slowly.
In the autumn of 1847, Bro. Bates sat down to write a work of more than
one hundred pages, with only a York shilling at his command. And I was
chopping cord-wood for my daily bread for the support of my little
family, where I could earn but fifty cents a day. We two were alone in
publicly teaching the Sabbath. Under such circumstances we could do but
little in the cause. I state these things to show the reader the humble
manner in which this cause commenced, and the sacrifices then made to
spread the truth.
I well remember when Bro. Bates felt deeply impressed with the duty
to labor in Vermont, and, being destitute of means, resolved to start
on foot from Fairhaven, Mass. A natural sister of Mrs. W. had come
from Maine to Fairhaven, to perform the duties of the kitchen for one
dollar a week, and in this way raise means to spread the truth. On
learning Bro. Bates’ intention to perform the long journey on foot, she
went to her employer and asked for five dollars, which she obtained
and gave to Bro. Bates to help him on his way to Vermont. God greatly
blessed the mission, as many witnesses, who still observe the Sabbath,
can testify. Let not those brethren and sisters who take but little
interest in spreading the truth, blush at this simple narrative. He
who notices the sparrows, saw this act of self-sacrifice, and set
his seal of approbation. It was written in the books from which all
are to be judged according to their deeds. And did not the angels
who rejoice much over one repenting sinner, rejoice over this simple
means of sending the light of present truth among the Green Mountains
of Vermont? That sister will receive her reward. I write not these
things to shame the wealthy believer, who is burying himself up in his
wealth and his cares, and losing his interest in the cause, and his
hold on Heaven; but I design to state facts that you may be led to seek
that spirit of sacrifice, which those who were first in this cause
evinced, that you may walk in that humble path of obedience in which
they walked, and enjoy the blessing of entire consecration, which then
rested upon them.
FIRST CONFERENCE OF BELIEVERS.
In the spring of 1848, in company with Bro. Bates, Mrs. W. and self
attended a conference of believers, at Rocky Hill, Conn. This was
the first general meeting held by Seventh-day Adventists. In point of
numbers and influence, it marked a new era in the cause; and yet we all
numbered less than thirty. The brethren were much encouraged, and Bro.
Bates began to labor more extensively as the way opened before him.
MRS. WHITE’S EXPERIENCE.
Here I must introduce the part which the Spirit of God has led Mrs. W.
to act in connection with this cause. I do this,
1. Because her experience and labors have been closely connected with
its rise and progress.
2. Because of the spirit of prejudice and enmity existing against her
calling and labors. This is manifested by those who are ignorant of the
facts in the case, or if not wholly ignorant, are led by a spirit of
frenzied persecution. The bearing which this has upon the cause is a
sufficient reason for laying the facts as they are before the public.
3. Because of the importance of her work, in connection with this
cause, as will be seen in the following pages.
It was but a few weeks after the passing of the time, in 1844, that
she had her first vision. The circumstances of this manifestation are
briefly stated by Mrs. W. as follows: “I visited sister H., one of our
Advent sisters, whose heart was knit with mine. In the morning we bowed
at the family altar. It was not an exciting occasion. There were but
five of us present, all females. While praying, the power of God came
upon me, as I never had felt it before. I was surrounded with light,
and was rising higher and higher from the earth,” &c. (_Spir. Gifts_,
vol. ii, p. 30.) Her condition in vision may be described as follows:
1. She is utterly unconscious of everything transpiring around her, as
has been proved by the most rigid tests, but views herself as removed
from this world, and in the presence of heavenly beings.
2. She does not breathe. During the entire period of her continuance
in vision, which has at different times ranged from fifteen minutes
to three hours, there is no breath, as has been repeatedly proved by
pressing upon the chest, and by closing the mouth and nostrils.
3. Immediately on entering vision, her muscles become rigid, and joints
fixed, so far as any external force can influence them. At the same
time her movements and gestures, which are frequent, are free and
graceful, and cannot be hindered nor controlled by the strongest person.
4. On coming out of vision, whether in the day-time or a well-lighted
room at night, all is total darkness. Her power to distinguish even the
most brilliant objects, held within a few inches of the eyes, returns
but gradually, sometimes not being fully established for three hours.
This has continued for the past twenty years; yet her eyesight is not
in the least impaired, few persons having better than she now possesses.
She has probably had, during the past twenty-three years, between one
and two hundred visions. These have been given under almost every
variety of circumstance, yet maintaining a wonderful similarity; the
most apparent change being, that of late years they have grown less
frequent, but more comprehensive. She has been taken off in vision
most frequently when bowed in prayer. Several times, while earnestly
addressing the congregation, unexpectedly to herself and to all
around her, she has been instantly prostrated in vision. This was
the case June 12, 1868, in the presence of not less than two hundred
Sabbath-keepers, in the house of worship, in Battle Creek, Mich. On
receiving baptism at my hands, at an early period of her experience,
as I raised her up out of the water, immediately she was in vision.
Several times, when prostrated by sickness, she has been relieved in
answer to the prayer of faith, and taken off in vision. At such times
her restoration to usual health has been wonderful. At another time,
when walking with friends, in conversation upon the glories of the
kingdom of God, as she was passing through the gate before her father’s
house, the Spirit of God came upon her, and she was instantly taken off
in vision. And what may be important to those who think the visions
the result of mesmerism, she has a number of times been taken off in
vision, when in prayer alone in the grove or in the closet.
It may be well to speak as to the effect of the visions upon her
constitution and strength. When she had her first vision, she was
an emaciated invalid, given up by her friends and physicians to die
of consumption. She then weighed but eighty pounds. Her nervous
condition was such that she could not write, and was dependent on one
sitting near her at the table to even pour her drink from the cup to
the saucer. And notwithstanding her anxieties and mental agonies,
in consequence of her duty to bring her views before the public,
her labors in public speaking, and in church matters generally, her
wearisome travels, and home labors and cares, her health and physical
and mental strength have improved from the day she had her first vision.
As to the character of the visions, I only wish to state at present
that this may be learned by reading the several volumes of “Spiritual
Gifts,” for sale at the Review Office. As to their fruits, and the
nature of the opposition they have met, I shall speak more fully
hereafter.
SECOND GENERAL CONFERENCE.
In the summer of 1848, we received an invitation to hold a Conference
with the few friends in Western New York. I was destitute of means, and
with feeble health entered the hay-field to earn the sum necessary to
bear our expenses to that meeting. I took a large job of mowing, and
when fainting beneath the noonday sun, I would bow before God in my
swath, call upon him for strength, rise refreshed, and mow on again. In
five weeks I earned enough to bear our expenses to the conference. Bro.
Bates joined us at this meeting. The notice had been given to all in
the Empire State who were in sympathy with our views, and there was a
general rally; yet there were not more than forty present.
And what confusion of sentiment among this few! A spirit of discussion
and contention for points not important prevailed, so that we who
had come so far could hardly have chance to give our message, and
the meeting would have proved a failure, and the good brethren would
have separated in confusion and trial, had not the Lord worked in a
special manner. His Spirit rested upon Mrs. W., and she was taken off
in vision. The entire congregation believed that it was the work of
God, and were deeply affected. She related what she had seen, which
was given to correct some errors among them, and in melting strains
exhorted them to leave their errors, and those points on which they had
differed, and unite on the important truths of the third message. And
on that good evening the brethren sacrificed their Babel of sentiments
and united on the truth. And what was the result? Harmony began to
prevail, and many came flocking to the standard of truth.
The fruit of this vision was good. It could not have been the work of
an enemy, according to the test given by our Lord, in Matt. vii, 15-20:
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits
ye shall know them.”
THE OPPOSITION.
By the spring of 1849 the subject of the Sabbath began to attract
considerable notice from Advent believers, who, seeing that the
first day of the week could not be sustained by divine authority,
were falling back to the position of no Sabbath in the Christian
dispensation. And it may be worthy of notice, that this is the result
everywhere the Sabbath question is discussed. The reason why the
regular Baptists have taken this position more generally than any other
denomination, may be because of their relation to the Seventh-day
Baptists, who have more or less brought the subject to their notice. As
an illustration of this point, when William E. Arnold, of Rochester,
N. Y., in 1844, stated to Elder Joseph Marsh his convictions of duty
to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, Elder Marsh replied
that the first day of the week, as the Sabbath for Christians, was
clearly proved from the word of God, and the unvarying practice of the
Christian church. Mr. Arnold invited him to give the subject especial
attention. He promised to do so and report the next Sunday. His report
was simply this: That he had examined the subject, and had become
satisfied that the Sabbath was Jewish, and that there was none for
Christians.
The change from the first day to no Sabbath cannot be regarded in any
better light than a change from bad to worse, and it is a matter of
grief that thousands, finding themselves utterly unable to sustain the
observance of first-day, take refuge from the pointed arrows of truth
in this comparatively strong hold of unbelief. The masses are ignorant
of the facts relative to the first day of the week. They think the
New Testament abounds with direct testimony that it is sacred time.
Elder Joseph Bates asserted in a grove, in Connecticut, in 1849, that
there was not one text in the New Testament which taught a change
of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. An
intelligent-appearing gentleman interrupted by saying, “There are more
than twenty.” “Well,” said Bro. Bates, “will you please to give us
one?” The gentleman replied, “I can give you twenty.” Bro. B. urged,
“If you can give twenty, you can certainly give one. We wait for one;
only give us one text.” The gentleman was silent and Bro. B. went on
with his subject.
It is a fact that the first day of the week is mentioned in the New
Testament only eight times, and is not in a single instance spoken of
as a sacred day. Inspiration gives it the simple title of first day of
the week. See Matt. xxviii, 1; Mark xvi, 2, 9; Luke xxiv, 1; John xx,
1, 19; Acts xx, 7; 1 Cor. xvi, 2.