The Temple in Heaven by W. H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, January 6, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 1

The Temple in Heaven.

By W. H. Littlejohn

Babylon Testifies Against Herself.

BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

MR. BIBLIST.—When we parted yesterday evening, I promised to give you some external proofs which would go to establish the proposition that the Protestant churches had experienced a moral fall. Perhaps it would have been better had I styled these proofs internal instead of external, since they will be drawn largely from the confessions of persons belonging to those churches, and therefore competent to bear witness respecting their inner life. If you will hand me from the book-case yonder, Maud, a little work entitled “The Three Messages of Revelation 14, 6–12,” I will read you a few extracts which are pertinent to the question before us. The author of the work was Eld. J. N. Andrews. He was a participant in the ’44 movement, and knew whereof he wrote. I will begin here on page 52, as it will give you a connected and intelligent idea of the manner in which the second angel’s message began to be preached, and the results that followed:—

“The preaching of the hour of God’s Judgment and the immediate coming of the Lord, was at once the test of the church, and the means by which she might have been healed. It was the test of the church, in that it showed that her heart was with the world, and not with her Lord. For when the evidences of his immediate advent were set before her, she rejected the tidings with scorn, and cleaved still closer unto the world. But it might have been the means of healing her. Had she received it, what a work would it have wrought for her? Her unscriptural hope of a temporal reign, her false view of a second advent, her unrighteous justification of oppression and wickedness, her pride and conformity to the

world, would all have been swept away. Alas, that this warning from Heaven was rejected!”

“The last means that Heaven had in store to heal Babylon having failed, God gave her up to her own heart’s desire. It is well known that in immediate connection with the proclamation of the hour of God’s Judgment, the announcement of the fall of Babylon was everywhere made throughout our land. Its connection with the advent message is well expressed by the following from Eld. Himes, dated McConnellsville, O., Aug. 29, 1844:—

“‘When we commenced the work of giving the “midnight cry” with Bro. Miller in 1840, he had been lecturing nine years. During that time he stood almost alone. But his labors had been incessant, and effectual in awakening professors of religion to the true hope of God’s people, and the necessary preparation for the advent of the Lord; as also the awakening of all classes of the unconverted to a sense of their lost condition, and the duty of immediate repentance and conversion to God as a preparation to meet the Bridegroom in peace at his coming. These were the great objects of his labor. He made no attempt to convert men to a sect, or party, in religion. Hence he labored among all parties and sects, without interfering with their organization or discipline, believing that the members of the different communities could retain their standing, and at the same time prepare for the advent of their King, and labor for the salvation of men in these relations until the consummation of their hope.”

“‘When we were persuaded of the truth of the advent at hand, and embraced the doctrine publicly, we entertained the same views and pursued the same course among the different sects, where we were called in the providence of God to labor. We told the ministers and churches that it was no part of our business to break them up, or to divide and to distract them. We had one distinct object, and that was to give the “cry”—the warning of the “Judgment at the door,”—and to persuade our fellow-men to get ready for the event. Most of the ministers and churches that opened their doors to us and our brethren who were proclaiming the advent doctrine, co-operated with us till the last year. The ministry and membership who availed themselves of our labors, but had not sincerely embraced the doctrine, saw that they must either go with the doctrine, and preach and maintain it, or in this crisis which was right upon them, they would have difficulty with the decided and determined believers. They therefore decided against the doctrine; and determined, some by one policy, and some by another, to suppress the subject. This placed our brethren and sisters among them in a most trying position. Most of them loved their churches, and could not think of leaving. But when they were ridiculed, oppressed, and in various ways cut off from their former privileges and enjoyment, and when the “meat in due season” was withheld from them, and the siren song of “peace and safety” was resounded in their ears from Sabbath to Sabbath, they were soon weaned from their party predilections, and arose in the majesty of their strength, shook off the yoke, and raised the cry, “Come out of her, my people!”

“‘This state of things placed us in a trying position; (1) because we were near the end of our prophetic time, in which we expected the Lord would gather all his people in one; (2) we had always preached a different doctrine, and now that the circumstances had changed, it would be regarded as dishonest in us if we should unite in the cry of separation and breaking up of churches that had received us and our message. We therefore hesitated, and continued to act on our first position until the church and ministry carried the matter so far that we were obliged in the fear of God to take a position in defense of the truth and the downtrodden children of God.’”

In what I have just read, you have the history of the steps that led to the separation of the Adventists from the orthodox sects, and the proclamation of the message respecting the fall of Babylon. More than fifty thousand believers came out of the nominal churches at that time, who have since maintained a separate existence. If they were justified in so doing, we would naturally expect that the churches from which they withdrew would furnish in their subsequent history evident tokens that they had provoked the Divine displeasure by opposing the work of God and denouncing those who had engaged therein. That they did so, and that from the very point where they began to persecute men and women whose only offense consisted in their belief in the near advent of the Lord, I will now demonstrate by reading certain extracts from several leading publications of that time. I will begin with one on page 54 of this book:—

“The Christian Palladium for May 15, 1844, speaks in the following mournful strains: ‘In every direction we hear the dolorous sound, wafting upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blasts from the icebergs of the North, settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak, that lukewarmness, division, anarchy, and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion.’

“The Religious Telescope of 1844 uses the following language: ‘We have never witnessed such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly the church should awake and search into the cause of this affliction (for an affliction every one that loves Zion must view it). When we call to mind how few and far between cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, Has God forgotten to be gracious? or is the door of mercy closed?’

“About that time proclamations of fasts and seasons of prayer for the return of the Holy Spirit were sent out in the religious papers. Even the Philadelphia Sun of Nov. 11, 1844, has the following: ‘The undersigned ministers and members of various denominations in Philadelphia and vicinity, solemnly believing that the present signs of the times,—the spiritual dearth in our churches generally, and the extreme evils in the world around us,—seem to call loudly on all Christians for a special season of prayer; do therefore hereby agree by Divine permission, to unite in a week of special prayer to Almighty God for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit on our city, our country, and the world.’

“Prof. Finney, editor of the Oberlin Evangelist, Feb., 1844, says: ‘We have had the fact before our minds, that in general, the Protestant churches of our country, as such, were either apathetic or hostile to nearly all moral reforms of the age. There are partial exceptions, yet not enough to render the fact otherwise than general. We have also another corroborated fact,—the almost universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the religious press of the whole land testifies. Very extensively, church members are becoming devotees of fashion, joining hands with the ungodly in parties of pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, etc. But we need not expand this painful subject. Suffice it that the evidence thickens and rolls heavily upon us, to show that the churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord, and he has withdrawn himself from them.’”

You will observe that all of the testimonies that I have been reading to you are from sources such as to preclude the possibility either of bias against the churches or ignorance respecting their true condition. It is sometimes objected that the revivals that have occurred among the orthodox sects since the time the quotations given above were written, about 1844, prove that the spiritual dearth that then characterized the churches was brief in its duration. The notable awakening of 1858 in particular has been cited in support of this theory. That there were very extensive revivals at that time cannot be questioned. It must be admitted, however, that they seemed to mark a new departure in the experience of the Christian world, so far as results are concerned. No doubt there were many genuine conversions at that time; but it is equally undeniable that the great mass of the so-called converts had a very superficial and unsatisfactory experience. Let me read you on this point a few paragraphs from several leading denominational organs. Here is something from the Congregationalist of 1858:—

“The revival piety of our churches is not such that one can confidently infer, from its mere existence, its legitimate, practical fruits. It ought, for example, to be as certain, after such a shower of grace, that the treasuries of our benevolent societies would be filled as it is after a plentiful rain that the streams will swell in their channels. But the managers of our societies are bewailing the feebleness of the sympathy and aid of the churches.”

“There is another and sadder illustration of the same general truth. The Watchman and Reflector recently stated that there had never been, among the Baptists, so lamentable a spread of church dissensions as prevails at present. And the sad fact is mentioned that this sin infects the very churches which shared most largely in the late revival. And the still more melancholy fact is added, that these alienations date back their origin, in most cases, to the very midst of that scene of awakening. Even a glance at the weekly journals of our own denomination will evince that the evil is by no means confined to the Baptists. Our own columns have, perhaps, never borne so humiliating a record of contentions and ecclesiastical litigations as during the last few months.”

Perhaps the authorities that I have read thus far are ample for the purpose of proving that from 1844 to 1858 there was a steady decline in the spirituality of the popular churches of this country. With their history from the latter date down to the present time, you, Mr. Thoughtful, are familiar. Maud is not old enough to recollect anything about the condition of things at the time in question. Indeed, she was not then born. I think that your own observation, Mr. Thoughtful, will satisfy you that I am correct when I say that the spirituality of the churches of to-day is not to be compared with that of a quarter of a century ago. You, doubtless, are aware also that the comparison would be much more unfavorable were it to be instituted between the churches of our time and those of fifty years ago. Nowhere is the contrast more apparent than in the Methodist denomination, to which you belong. At the period in question, they were still enjoying the benefits of the great awakening which was inaugurated by John Wesley and others. They were humble, simple-minded, and devout. The line of demarkation between them and the world was sharply defined. In dress, gravity of manner, and daily walk, they gave evidence that they were the disciples of the humble Nazarene. How changed to-day! Now they have so far departed from their original simplicity that they cannot be distinguished from other churches, and hardly from the world. This degeneration is so manifest that already several smaller communions have separated themselves, in the hope that they might be able to bring back the power and piety of the early days of Methodism.

Mr. T.—What you say, Mr. Biblist, about the Methodist church is, alas! too true. The more devout among our members deplore the present situation, and long for a better state of

things. This is particularly true of our aged brethren and sisters, whose experience dates back to the time to which you have referred. I am not yet quite prepared to accept your explanation of the matter; but I cannot deny that the present condition of things among our people presents features that are very discouraging and very hard to explain.

Mr. B.—Do not understand me, Mr. Thoughtful, as arguing that the Methodist church is in a more deplorable condition than the other orthodox denominations. Indeed, I think it will compare very favorably with them. I have mentioned that communion in particular for two reasons: first, because they were at the climax of their spiritual power in the first part of this century; secondly, because you, being a member of that persuasion, are acquainted with their history and their religious condition at the present time. We will consider this matter further at our next sitting.