Early Writings
by Ellen G. White
William Miller's Dream
[Referred to on Page 48]
I dreamed that God, by an unseen hand, sent me a curiously
wrought casket about ten inches long by six square, made of ebony and pearls
curiously inlaid. To the casket there was a key attached. I immediately took
the key and opened the casket, when, to my wonder and surprise, I found it
filled with all sorts and sizes of jewels, diamonds, precious stones, and gold
and silver coin of every dimension and value, beautifully arranged in their
several places in the casket; and thus arranged they reflected a light and
glory equaled only to the sun. {EW 81.2}
I thought it was not my duty to enjoy this wonderful sight
alone, although my heart was overjoyed at [82] the
brilliancy, beauty, and value of its contents. I therefore placed it on a
center table in my room and gave out word that all who had a desire might come
and see the most glorious and brilliant sight ever seen by man in this life. {EW 81.3}
The people began to come in, at first few in number, but
increasing to a crowd. When they first looked into the casket, they would
wonder and shout for joy. But when the spectators increased, everyone would
begin to trouble the jewels, taking them out of the casket and scattering them
on the table. {EW 82.1}
I began to think that the owner would require the casket and
the jewels again at my hand; and if I suffered them to be scattered, I could
never place them in their places in the casket again as before; and felt I
should never be able to meet the accountability, for it would be immense. I
then began to plead with the people not to handle them, nor to take them out of
the casket; but the more I pleaded, the more they scattered; and now they
seemed to scatter them all over the room, on the floor and on every piece of
furniture in the room. {EW
82.2}
I then saw that among the genuine jewels and coin they had
scattered an innumerable quantity of spurious jewels and counterfeit coin. I
was highly incensed at their base conduct and ingratitude, and reproved and
reproached them for it; but the more I reproved, the more they scattered the
spurious jewels and false coin among the genuine. {EW 82.3}
I then became vexed in my physical soul and began to use
physical force to push them out of the room; but while I was pushing out one,
three more would enter and bring in dirt and shavings and sand and all manner
of rubbish, until they covered every one of the true jewels, diamonds, and
coins, which were all excluded from sight. They also tore in pieces my casket [83]
and scattered it among the rubbish. I thought no man regarded my sorrow or my
anger. I became wholly discouraged and disheartened, and sat down and wept. {EW 82.4}
While I was thus weeping and mourning for my great loss and
accountability, I remembered God, and earnestly prayed that He would send me
help. {EW 83.1}
Immediately the door opened, and a man entered the room,
when the people all left it; and he, having a dirt brush in his hand, opened
the windows, and began to brush the dirt and rubbish from the room. {EW 83.2}
I cried to him to forbear, for there were some precious
jewels scattered among the rubbish. {EW 83.3}
He told me to "fear not," for he would "take
care of them." {EW
83.4}
Then, while he brushed the dirt and rubbish, false jewels
and counterfeit coin, all rose and went out of the window like a cloud, and the
wind carried them away. In the bustle I closed my eyes for a moment; when I
opened them, the rubbish was all gone. The precious jewels, the diamonds, the
gold and silver coins, lay scattered in profusion all over the room. {EW 83.5}
He then placed on the table a casket, much larger and more
beautiful than the former, and gathered up the jewels, the diamonds, the coins,
by the handful, and cast them into the casket, till not one was left, although
some of the diamonds were not bigger than the point of a pin. {EW 83.6}
He then called upon me to "come and see." {EW 83.7}
I looked into the casket, but my eyes were dazzled with the
sight. They shone with ten times their former glory. I thought they had been
scoured in the sand by the feet of those wicked persons who had scattered and
trod them in the dust. They were arranged in beautiful order in the casket,
every one in its place, without any visible pains of the man who cast them in.
I shouted with very joy, and that shout awoke me. {EW 83.8}
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