We again call attention to the parable of the ten virgins, for the purpose of showing that while the wise virgins were learning the nature of the event that was transpiring after the coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage,—going in with Him, by faith,—and the lights of the foolish virgins were going out, another feature is presented, found in these words:— “Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”
Here is brought to view a movement representing a class of persons who went forth to meet the Bridegroom, but failed to go in with Him to the marriage. A class, who, not seeing the light as to the true events186to take place at the close of the twenty-three hundred days, were setting time for the Lord’s return; for the Master says to them, “Ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” The class to whom this text refers professed to know that which they are told they do not know.
This language represents a movement, not after Christ’s second coming, but after the true time proclamation—after the announcement of the coming of the Bridegroom, and the going in with Him to the wedding. The query arises, What has been done since the close of the twenty-three hundred days? While light has been obtained and has spread concerning the present position of the Bridegroom, a class of people has arisen who are almost yearly setting the time for the Lord to come. Those leading out in this work were persons who were in the Advent movement previous to October, 1844, but who did not follow Christ into the marriage at the close of the midnight cry.
The admonition of the Saviour is to “watch.” And this is the attitude of Seventh-day Adventists. They believe all prophetic time closed Oct. 22, 1844, with the closing of the twenty-three hundred days, hence they have had no part in time-setting. Their position is, and ever has been, that of “watching,”—watching fulfilling prophecy, watching the signs of the times, watching the advancement of the third angel’s message, which is to lighten the earth with its glory, and ripen the harvest of the earth.
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS.
At this point in our Saviour’s discourse, He introduced the parable of the “talents,” in which He points out the duties and dangers of those who have the light concerning Christ’s present position—judging the righteous dead, soon to pass to the judgment of the righteous living. After the parable of the talents is the literal second coming, and the final separation of the righteous and wicked, as shown by the following scriptures:—
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
In that time when the Master has gone in to the marriage, when the cleansing of the sanctuary (the investigative judgment) is going on, when the Lord’s people are “watching” and waiting, not knowing the day or hour of His coming,—in that day, and to that people, does the parable of the talents apply; and by it we of this time are instructed. With this thought in mind, we will read the parable:—
“For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and188delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
“After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents, came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents; behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
“Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou189knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath [improved upon that entrusted to him] shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not [rightly used that entrusted to him] shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
While it has ever been the duty of the Lord’s people to be diligent in using their entrusted abilities in extending the cause of God, it is more emphatically so with those who are waiting for the immediate return of the Master. The Lord has said to His people, in that time when He is to “come quickly:” “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
One essential lesson to be learned from the parable of the talents is that when the Lord and Master is about to come, all who have a knowledge of the event should be doing all in their power to extend the light respecting His coming, and should be making the needful preparation to meet Him in peace.
It behooves all who have named the name of Christ, and especially those who are making a wise use of the talents entrusted to them, to be admonished by the Saviour’s caution to “take heed to yourselves, lest190at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”
In our Saviour’s approval of those placed on the right hand in that day, we may understand the nature of the work which should now more especially engage the attention of His professed people. He says: “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”
We are in the very time when this parable has its special application. Poverty, affliction, suffering, and distress abound on every side. And this condition of things is not to diminish, but, rather, to increase. Happy will it be for all who improve their talents in ministering to the needy in this time. Such, and such only, will receive at last the plaudit of the Master: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
CHAPTER X.
THE THIRD MESSAGE, AND LAST CALL.
IN the foregoing pages of this book we have endeavored to show that all the important developments in the Second Advent Movement were in exact fulfilment of the divine predictions made concerning them. And for the convenience of the reader in obtaining dates and facts, we recapitulate and condense in the following brief
SUMMARY.
1. Nearing the time when the signs in the sun, moon, and stars were to appear, there was seen in the heavens the fiery display of the aurora borealis, as predicted by the prophet Joel.
2. The knowledge of the close of the prophetic periods announced by Daniel the prophet, remained “sealed up” till “the time of the end”—1798.
3. Immediately after 1798, men in different parts of the world, independently of each other, learned that the period of the twenty-three hundred days closed in the year 1844. Thus was the statement verified that “many” would obtain “knowledge” on the great prophetic period, which had previously been “sealed up.”
4. Our Saviour said of the signs in the sun, moon,192and stars, that when they are fulfilled, then we may know that we are in the generation that is to witness His coming. The sign in the stars—1833—marked then the Lord’s time for the parable of the fig tree to be learned. He then raised up His teachers, who taught the parable to the world.
5. When the sixth trumpet should cease its sounding, the time message was to increase in power to its “loud voice.” From that date—1840—the message stirred the public mind, and rapidly spread to every known seaport, and the sound went throughout the world.
6. The first call to the supper, found in Luke 14, was to them that had been “bidden”—the Lord’s professed people. The message prior to April, 1844, went to the churches. In every direction the various places of worship were opened to those announcing the Lord’s near coming.
7. After the teaching of the parable of the fig tree, of Matthew 24, there would be one class of servants giving “meat in due season,” and another class smiting “their fellow servants.” After April, 1844, many of the ministers who before that date had favored the Advent doctrine, now turned and bitterly opposed those who still clung to the faith of the Lord’s near coming.
8. In the month of May, 1844, the modern churches introduced church festivals and various amusements for the purpose of raising means with which to pay church expenses, etc.; to these gatherings all classes, professors and non-professors, came, paid their193money, and ate and drank their delicacies. Thus, as the Scriptures declared, they began “to eat and drink with the drunken.”
9. When the Lord’s professed people should be found thus doing, the “kingdom of heaven,”—work of the gospel—should be likened to the ten virgins of an Eastern marriage. Immediately after the disappointment in April, 1844, those who retained their faith in the near coming of Christ began comparing their own experience with the parable, and thus became convinced that they were in the “tarrying time.”
10. As this people were scoffed at and taunted with jeers, they went forth to give the second angel’s message, the second call to the supper (Revelation 14 and Luke 14), which call was to be “quickly” made, to the wounded in the streets and lanes of the city.
II. As the virgins in the parable slumbered till midnight, so the Advent bands, from April to July (half a year—day-night), slumbered on the matter of time. Then light being received on the true ending of the days, they went forth, giving the midnight cry of the proclamation, which aroused the virgins, and mightily stirred the people.
12. At the close of the twenty-three hundred days, Oct. 22, 1844, the “little book” of the tenth chapter of Revelation—the time message—which had been “sweet” to the taste, now became very “bitter.” A failure in the realization of their high hopes of soon seeing the Lord was indeed a bitter disappointment, giving an experience similar to Mary’s in the Garden of Gethsemane, when she said, “They have taken194away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and I know not where they have laid Him.”
13. After the close of the twenty-three hundred days, the consecrated, praying ones began to receive light upon the position of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and to understand from the Scriptures that He had “gone in to the marriage;” and by faith they followed Him.
14. As the dawning light opened the sanctuary to their view, there was seen “in His temple the ark of His testament;” and in the ark, with the other nine, was the fourth commandment intact, which led to the observance (among the Adventists) of the seventh-day Sabbath.
15. Immediately after the close of the twenty-three hundred days there were those among the leaders in the past movement who said: “We have now had the first and second messages of Revelation 14, and still a third message is to be given.” And the third call “followed,” as predicted.
16. While there were those who followed Christ by faith, receiving advancing light, there were others who rejected these truths, and engaged in time movements. To the class mentioned in the parable who were not ready to go in with Him to the marriage, but came “afterward,” setting the time for His coming, He said, “Ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” From this it appears they professed a knowledge of a definite time when Christ would come. To those He said, “I know you not.” Since the close of the prophetic195periods in 1844, there have been those who have been active in fixing a definite time for the Lord to come. But Christ admonishes all to watch, for “ye know neither the day nor the hour.”
THE LORD’S MESSAGE.
The points briefly noted in the above summary stamp this Second Advent Movement as the Lord’s message, developed in His own appointed time; hence it is neither a false fulfilment of prophecy, nor a spurious message. Being settled in the conviction that the Lord is in the work, we are fully justified in the claim that this movement is the Lord’s method of warning the world, and that He has set His hand to the work of preparing a people for His coming; therefore the question asked by Israel of old, “Is the Lord among us or not?” would in our case be unreasonable.
In the preceding chapters, attention has been especially given to the first and second messages. The third angel was to follow them; as expressed in some translations, it “went with them,” implying that in the last call the three were to unite. The Advent message now is, in fact, a threefold warning, the truths relating to each being taught with the third. So also is this threefold message now to reach the same classes mentioned in the three calls of Luke 14. The invitation is to those who have been “bidden,” to the wounded and oppressed in the “streets and lanes of the city;” and most emphatically to those in the highways and hedges is now the call, “Whosoever will, let him come.”
In the fall of 1844, soon after the close of the twenty-three hundred days, Elder Joseph Bates, of Fairhaven, Mass., who, because of his former sea-faring life, is designated as CAPTAIN BATES, began the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, being one of the earliest pioneers in advocating the third angel’s message. Not many months elapsed, however, ere he was joined in his work by Elder James White and Mrs. E. G. White. These three labored incessantly and earnestly in planting the message in New England and in the central states. The Lord abundantly blessed their labors, and those of others who soon united with them. At this time the believers in the third angel’s message were, for the greater part, of the poor of this world, schooled in poverty.
It was not until the year 1848 that those advocating the third angel’s message had their attention especially called to the seventh chapter of Revelation—to the sealing work. As they prayerfully studied this subject, they saw a message to go forth bearing the sign (seal) of the living God to the world,—a message which was to prepare a people to stand when the great day of the Lord’s wrath should come. Just as this truth was clearly unfolding to their minds, and their hearts were becoming imbued with the spirit of it, the great confusion of 1848, among the principalities, kingdoms, and empires of Europe, broke out, beginning with the riot in Paris on February 22.197About the same time, the “spirit rappings” began in the state of New York. The time-setting Adventists thought then they surely had evidence that the Lord was immediately to come. Said they, “The BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY is to be the end of the commotion.” What better proof could they have? Spirits of devils were to gather the nations to that final conflict, and here were the spirits already going forth. The Seventh-day Adventists viewed the situation differently; “For,” said they, “a sealing message is to do its work in preparing a people to stand when the nations shall be angered, and God’s wrath at last comes.”
BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY
The First-day Adventists, who were continually setting the time for the Lord to come, made light of the Sabbath message and the small company who were to deliver it, and one of their leaders said to them: “It will take 144,000 years to accomplish the work you contemplate.” However, the humble few were not disheartened. They were only reminded of the difficulties experienced by the Israelites, when, in their poverty and weakness, they were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. “If a fox,” said their enemies, tauntingly, “go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” And, like them, they cried, “Hear, O our God; for we are despised.” The belief was strong that the third angel’s message and the sealing work was the truth of God, to be heralded to the world, but the198question was, How can it be done? With the thought of publishing in mind, without the means with which to do the work, Brethren Bates and White, Mrs. White, and a few others, met in Dorchester, Mass., Nov. 18, 1848, to engage in prayer for divine guidance—to inquire of One who knoweth the end from the beginning how to publish the truth. The Lord graciously heard, and gave light.
It was a fact that the winds of war and strife were about to be loosened for the final conflict, but the Lord in mercy commissioned His angels to “hold the winds” (keep back the battle of the great day) until the sealing of God’s servants should be accomplished. This Sabbath message, so small in its beginning, was to rise in strength and power, like the rising of the sun.
The commission was given to publish the truth to the world, with the assurance that the blessing of God would attend the effort. With this encouragement, Elder White began the work of
PUBLISHING A PAPER.
It was small at first, but, as the people read it, money was sent him with which to print, and thus the work grew. From that small beginning the truth was spread, until, as represented to him by another, “like streams of light it has encircled the world.” The first issue of the paper appeared July, 1849, with the approval of the few who, at that time, were associated with him, and with the sanction of high Heaven.
THE WINDS HELD.
The seventh-day people began to print the truth, as advised. Soon the turmoil of the nations of Europe ceased. Of its cessation, however, the editor of the New York Tribune said: “It was a great wonder to us all what started so suddenly that confusion among the nations, but it is a greater wonder still what stopped it.” To the children of God all was plain. The Lord had a message to be given to the world. He commissioned His angels to hold the winds of war, so that the final conflict of the nations could not come until a people were sealed, and prepared to stand in the trying day.
From 1848 to this day, though wars have been here and there, and such preparations for warfare made as never before, still the nations are held in check. Almost every year the politicians have foretold the bursting of the war-cloud which would involve all nations, and still they are restrained. Millions of soldiers in the various nations are “armed to the teeth,” and all anxious for the encounter, yet the spirit of war only breaks out in limited places, and the final contest is kept in abeyance. And why is all this?—That the Lord’s last great and final message of warning, bearing the sign (seal) of the living God, may be heralded to the ends of the earth.
Space is lacking to trace in these few pages all the interesting history of the rise of the third angel’s message. This is given more fully in larger works. But a few thoughts in reference to the results of the200publishing work, begun under such adverse circumstances, can not well be omitted when endeavoring to show to some extent the
GROWTH OF THE MESSAGE,
and how the “streams of light,” before mentioned, are fast making their way around the world.
GROWTH OF THE MESSAGE.
Instead of that one little eight-page paper, eight by five inches, of which Elder White printed eleven numbers, in the years 1849 and 1850, Seventh-day Adventists are now printing forty-two weekly and monthly periodicals. About half of these are in foreign tongues, and the remaining number are in the English language. This does not include a score or more of small local conference and mission monthly and semi-monthly sheets. Books, pamphlets, and tracts advocating the truths of this sealing message are now printed in thirty-nine languages; and, to give the reader a limited conception of how these “streams of light” are going to earth’s remotest bounds, these various languages are mentioned, and, as you read, you will perceive that all the leading languages of the world are given: Arabic, Armenian, Basuto, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Bengali-India, Chinese, Danish, English, Esthonian, Finnish, French, Fijian, Greek, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Hawaiian, Italian, Icelandic, Japanese, Kaffir, Lettish, Lavonian, Maori, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Servian, Spanish, Swedish, Tahitian, Turkish, Tongan, Welsh, etc. In these various countries there are active workers with the publications.