Early Writings
by Ellen G. White
The First Angel's Message1
I saw that God was in the proclamation of the time in 1843.
It was His design to arouse the people and bring them to a testing point, where
they should decide for or against the truth. Ministers were convinced of the
correctness of the positions taken on the prophetic periods, and some renounced
their pride, and left their salaries and their churches to go forth from place
to place to give the message. But as the message from heaven could find a place
in the hearts of but few of the professed ministers of Christ, the work was
laid upon many who were not preachers. Some left their fields to sound the
message, while others were called from their shops and their merchandise. And
even some professional men were compelled to leave their professions to engage
in the unpopular work of giving the first angel's message. {EW 232.2}
Ministers laid aside their sectarian views and feelings and
united in proclaiming the coming of Jesus. Wherever the message was given, it
moved the people. Sinners repented, wept, and prayed for forgiveness, [233]
and those whose lives had been marked with dishonesty were anxious to make
restitution. Parents felt the deepest solicitude for their children. Those who
received the message labored with their unconverted friends and relatives, and
with their souls bowed with the weight of the solemn message, warned and
entreated them to prepare for the coming of the Son of man. Those cases were
most hardened that would not yield to such a weight of evidence set home by
heartfelt warnings. This soul-purifying work led the affections away from
worldly things to a consecration never before experienced. {EW 232.3}
Thousands were led to embrace the truth preached by William
Miller, and servants of God were raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah to
proclaim the message. Like John, the forerunner of Jesus, those who preached
this solemn message felt compelled to lay the ax at the root of the tree, and
call upon men to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Their testimony was
calculated to arouse and powerfully affect the churches and manifest their real
character. And as the solemn warning to flee from the wrath to come was
sounded, many who were united with the churches received the healing message;
they saw their backslidings, and with bitter tears of repentance and deep agony
of soul, humbled themselves before God. And as the Spirit of God rested upon
them, they helped to sound the cry, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for
the hour of His judgment is come." {EW 233.1}
The preaching of definite time called forth great opposition
from all classes, from the minister in the pulpit down to the most reckless,
heaven-daring sinner. "No man knoweth the day nor the hour," was
heard from the hypocritical minister and the bold scoffer. Neither would be
instructed and corrected by those who were pointing to the year when they
believed the [234] prophetic periods would run out,
and to the signs which showed Christ near, even at the doors. Many shepherds of
the flock, who professed to love Jesus, said that they had no opposition to the
preaching of Christ's coming, but they objected to the definite time. God's
all-seeing eye read their hearts. They did not love Jesus near. They knew that
their unchristian lives would not stand the test, for they were not walking in
the humble path marked out by Him. These false shepherds stood in the way of
the work of God. The truth spoken in its convincing power aroused the people,
and like the jailer, they began to inquire, "What must I do to be
saved?" But these shepherds stepped in between the truth and the people,
and preached smooth things to lead them from the truth. They united with Satan
and his angels, crying, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace.
Those who loved their ease and were content with their distance from God would
not be aroused from their carnal security. I saw that angels of God marked it
all; the garments of those unconsecrated shepherds were covered with the blood
of souls. {EW 233.2}
Ministers who would not accept this saving message
themselves hindered those who would have received it. The blood of souls is
upon them. Preachers and people joined to oppose this message from heaven and
to persecute William Miller and those who united with him in the work. Falsehoods
were circulated to injure his influence; and at different times after he had
plainly declared the counsel of God, applying cutting truths to the hearts of
his hearers, great rage was kindled against him, and as he left the place of
meeting, some waylaid him in order to take his life. But angels of God were
sent to protect him, and they led him safely away from the angry mob. His work
was not yet finished. [235] {EW 234.1}
The most devoted gladly received the message. They knew that
it was from God and that it was delivered at the right time. Angels were
watching with the deepest interest the result of the heavenly message, and when
the churches turned from and rejected it, they in sadness consulted with Jesus.
He turned His face from the churches and bade His angels faithfully watch over
the precious ones who did not reject the testimony, for another light was yet
to shine upon them. {EW
235.1}
I saw that if professed Christians had loved their Saviour's
appearing, if they had placed their affections on Him, and had felt that there
was none upon the earth to be compared with Him, they would have hailed with
joy the first intimation of His coming. But the dislike which they manifested,
as they heard of their Lord's coming, was a decided proof that they did not
love Him. Satan and his angels triumphed, and cast it in the face of Christ and
His holy angels, that His professed people had so little love for Jesus that
they did not desire His second appearing. {EW 235.2}
I saw the people of God joyful in expectation, looking for
their Lord. But God designed to prove them. His hand covered a mistake in the
reckoning of the prophetic periods. Those who were looking for their Lord did
not discover this mistake, and the most learned men who opposed the time also
failed to see it. God designed that His people should meet with a
disappointment. The time passed, and those who had looked with joyful
expectation for their Saviour were sad and disheartened, while those who had
not loved the appearing of Jesus, but embraced the message through fear, were
pleased that He did not come at the time of expectation. Their profession had
not affected the heart and purified the life. The passing of the time was well
calculated to reveal such hearts. [236] They were the first to turn and
ridicule the sorrowful, disappointed ones who really loved the appearing of
their Saviour. I saw the wisdom of God in proving His people and giving them a
searching test to discover those who would shrink and turn back in the hour of
trial. {EW 235.3}
Jesus and all the heavenly host looked with sympathy and
love upon those who had with sweet expectation longed to see Him whom their
souls loved. Angels were hovering around them, to sustain them in the hour of
their trial. Those who had neglected to receive the heavenly message were left
in darkness, and God's anger was kindled against them, because they would not
receive the light which He had sent them from heaven. Those faithful,
disappointed ones, who could not understand why their Lord did not come, were
not left in darkness. Again they were led to their Bibles to search the
prophetic periods. The hand of the Lord was removed from the figures, and the
mistake was explained. They saw that the prophetic periods reached to 1844, and
that the same evidence which they had presented to show that the prophetic
periods closed in 1843, proved that they would terminate in 1844. Light from
the Word of God shone upon their position, and they discovered a tarrying time—"Though
it [the vision] tarry, wait for it." In their love for Christ's immediate
coming, they had overlooked the tarrying of the vision, which was calculated to
manifest the true waiting ones. Again they had a point of time. Yet I saw that
many of them could not rise above their severe disappointment to possess that
degree of zeal and energy which had marked their faith in 1843. {EW 236.1}
Satan and his angels triumphed over them, and those who
would not receive the message congratulated themselves upon their farseeing
judgment and wisdom [237] in not receiving the delusion,
as they called it. They did not realize that they were rejecting the counsel of
God against themselves, and were working in union with Satan and his angels to
perplex God's people, who were living out the heaven-sent message. {EW 236.2}
The believers in this message were oppressed in the
churches. For a time, those who would not receive the message were restrained
by fear from acting out the sentiments of their hearts; but the passing of the
time revealed their true feelings. They wished to silence the testimony which
the waiting ones felt compelled to bear, that the prophetic periods extended to
1844. With clearness the believers explained their mistake and gave the reasons
why they expected their Lord in 1844. Their opposers could bring no arguments
against the powerful reasons offered. Yet the anger of the churches was
kindled; they were determined not to listen to evidence, and to shut the
testimony out of the churches, so the others could not hear it. Those who dared
not withhold from others the light which God had given them, were shut out of
the churches; but Jesus was with them, and they were joyful in the light of His
countenance. They were prepared to receive the message of the second angel. {EW 237.1}
Click here to read the next chapter:
"The Second Angel's Message"
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