Picture of J. Bates Yours in the blessed hope Joseph Bates

CHAPTER twenty-two closed with the Conference in the city of Lowell, Mass. The history of the fall of the Ottoman Supremacy will be found in J. Litch’s Prophetic Expositions, Vol. ii, pages 181-200. On pages 198 and 199 is the summing up of his conclusive argument, showing how clearly the prophecy in Revelation 9:13-15 was fulfilled on the 11th of August, 1840. On pages 189 and 190 will be found the reliable testimony of an eye-witness, who states facts to prove the same point, seemingly without any knowledge of the prophecy, or Litch’s exposition of it. Here it is:

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“The following is from Rev. Mr. Goodell, missionary of the American Board at Constantinople, addressed to the Board, and by them published in the Missionary Herald, for April 1841, p. 160.

These astounding facts prove that the prophecy of the sounding of the sixth angel for three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days, ended on the 11th day of August, 1840, and at the same time the second woe passed, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.

Mark, this short space of time called “quickly,” is the whole period of time from the passing of the second woe and sixth angel, to the commencing of the third woe, and sounding of the seventh angel. (Sketch of hand pointing right) This space of time called quickly, defines the time to announce to every nation and kindred and tongue and people that Christ is coming, by the proclamation of the angel’s message in Revelation 14:6, 7. This is in accordance with the testimony of the Saviour. Matthew 24:3, 14.

No marvel, then, that those who had been looking with intense anxiety for the passing away of the Ottoman Supremacy, saw with such clearness that the time had come for a body of people to

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proclaim the message in question from thence down to the ending of the prophetic periods of Daniel’s vision. And that the time had then come for this message to go to every nation, was still further demonstrated by a call for a Second-advent Conference to be held in Boston about the time the Ottoman empire lost its supremacy, and many weeks before the news of its fall reached the United States. At the close of this Conference, which was convened a few weeks after the call, in October, 1840, an address of the Conference setting forth their views respecting the second advent of our Lord, was sent forth to the world, and from thence the work continued until the message ended in the autumn of 1844.

It was truly wonderful to learn how fast professed Christians could believe the evidences of the near coming of the Lord from the teaching of the Bible and history, and then disbelieve on no better

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authority than a sneer, a laugh, or “how do you know? nobody knows anything about it,” etc. Some of my brethren of the Washington-st. Christian church, also began to wane in their Advent faith, and would say to me sometimes at the close of our “social meetings,” “Bro. Bates, we wish you would not say so much about the second coming of Christ.” “Why,” said I, “don’t you believe it is as true now as it was when Bro. Miller preached it here last year, and you believed it?” “Well, we believe Christ is coming, but no one knows when. Bro. Miller taught that it would be in about 1843. But we don’t think so. We like to hear you exhort and pray, but we don’t like to hear you say so much about the second coming of Christ, and the time.”

Four of us, members of the church, had united and built the meeting-house at a cost of over nine

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thousand dollars, nearly three-quarters of which belonged to us at the time I withdrew. Some of my good friends that were engaged in the temperance and abolition cause, came to know why I could not attend their stated meetings as formerly, and argued that my belief in the coming of the Saviour should make me more ardent in endeavoring to suppress these growing evils. My reply was, that in embracing the doctrine of the second coming of the Saviour, I found enough to engage my whole time in getting ready for such an event, and aiding others to do the same, and that all who embraced this doctrine would and must necessarily be advocates of temperance and the abolition of slavery; and those who opposed the doctrine of the second advent could not be very effective laborers in moral reform. And further, I could not see duty in leaving such a great work to labor single-handed as we had done, when so much more could be accomplished in working at the fountainhead, and make us every way right as we should be for the coming of the Lord.

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After some discussion on the subject, it was voted unanimously to have three hundred similar to this one lithographed, which was soon accomplished. They were called “the ‘43 charts.” This was a very important Conference. A camp meeting was now appointed to convene the last week in June, at East Kingston, N.H., where an immense multitude assembled to hear the good news and glad tidings of the coming of our blessed Lord. I had not the pleasure of attending this meeting, but heard most stirring reports of what was accomplished there. Camp meetings and conferences were now being multiplied throughout the Middle and Northern States, and Canada, and the messengers were proclaiming in the language of the message, “T H E H O U R O F H I S J U D G E M E N T I S C O M E!”

During the month of August, 1842, a Second-advent camp meeting was held in Littleton, Mass. This was the first camp meeting that I had ever attended. It was quite a novel thing to see such a variety of tents pitched around the ministers’ stand, among the tall, shady trees. At the opening of the meeting, we learned that those who occupied them were families from the various towns in the vicinity of the camp, and the city of Lowell, who were interested in the Advent doctrine.

The subject of the prophecies, connected with the second coming of our blessed Lord and Saviour, was the theme of ministers and people. All, except a mob who came to break up the meeting, seemed deeply interested; and these after becoming

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acquainted with the nature of the meeting, ceased to trouble us, and peace, harmony and love prevailed during the entire meeting.

During this meeting, Eld. Millard, on his way home from a tour in Palestine, stopped at the camp ground. Eld. Litch asked him a number of questions before the congregation, in relation to his mission-what he had learned while abroad in that country relative to the doctrine of the second advent. He replied that it was known and spoken of there. This information was reliable and cheering. We had believed, but this was knowledge from another quarter, that the message of the flying angel was crossing land and sea to every nation,

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kindred, tongue and people. On Sunday, it was judged that there were ten thousand people in the camp. The clear, weighty and solemn preaching of the second coming of Christ, and the fervent prayers and animated singing of the new Second-advent hymns, accompanied by the Spirit of the living God, sent such thrills through the camp, that many were shouting aloud for joy.

In about four weeks another camp meeting commenced about three miles back of Salem city, Mass. This surpassed any meeting for interest and numbers that I had ever attended. Eld. Joshua V. Himes had the charge and pitched his big tent

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there-said to hold about seven thousand people. On approaching this meeting from the city of Salem, the main streets, cross roads, lanes, and paths, seemed almost utterly jammed and crowded with teams and carriages loaded with people, beside the jam of foot passengers-all crowding through the thick, smothering dust, to the camp ground. Here in the large stone-wall pasture ground, interspersed with high, ragged rocks, clumps of bushes and straggling trees, bounded by woods on two sides and water on another, the city of Salem in the distance in another direction, were pitched the numerous tents for the great meeting. The big tent loomed above them all like a light-house, pointing to the looked-for harbor of the mariner, inviting the pressing multitude to enter and listen to the messengers of God proclaiming with stentorian voices the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When the preaching meetings closed, prayer meetings and praying circles for the unconverted commenced in the tents. The evenings were more especially devoted to this part of the work.

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Anxious souls who became fully convinced by listening to the truth, sought and found relief in these praying circles. Sometimes after listening to the united, earnest prayers, the shout of victory would follow, and then the rush to the tents to learn who was converted, and to hear them tell what Jesus had done for them, and how they loved his appearing. And those who wished to see the onward progress of this work of God, could join with the groups of men and women with their selected ministers passing down to the waterbound side of the camp, and there, in accordance with their faith, and in obedience to Him who had set them free from sin, see them buried with him by baptism, and while returning on their way rejoicing, meet with others going to be buried in like manner.

At the time the train of cars was coming in from Newburyport, N.H., to Boston, Bro. Litch

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had reached a point in his discourse respecting the prophecy of Nahum, how that “in the day of His preparation the chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings,” when he cried out, “Don’t you hear them?” Yes, we did; for they were then dashing by us like a streak of light for the Salem station. The time and manner to prove to his audience the fulfillment of this prophecy, and make us feel that we had most clearly entered into the day of God’s preparation, produced a thrilling sensation in the camp.

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Second-advent publications were now multiplying, and through the daily journals it was astonishing to learn with what rapidity this glorious doctrine was being proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the Union and the Canadas. The people in the various States, counties, towns, cities, and villages, were all being aroused to hear the glad tidings.

Elder E.R. Pinney, of New York, in his exposition of Matt.xxiv, says: “As early as 1842, Second-advent publications had been sent to every missionary station in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and both sides of the Rocky Mountains.”

As no work of God had ever aroused the nations of the earth in such a powerful and sudden manner since the first advent of the Saviour and day of Pentecost, the evidence was powerful and prevailing that this work was the fulfilling of the prophecy of the flying angel “in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgement is come.”

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Chapter 24

Opposition to the Proclamation of the Second Advent of the Saviour-Mr. Miller’s Statement of Facts, from his “Apology and Defense”-The singular Manner in which he was Called out to Proclaim the Advent Doctrine-Signs and Wonders in the Heavens

AS Second-advent Conferences, prayer-meetings, and social occasions were multiplying in various directions in the land, so in like manner opposition arose. Presidents and Professors of theological seminaries, learned and unlearned, ministers and laymen, religious and political newspapers, and prejudiced individuals, labored hard, by fair means and foul, to disprove what they called Miller’s doctrine. Many of them assailed his character, and denounced him in most violent terms. That they were unacquainted with his reputation, and also the work in which he was engaged, will be manifestly evident from the following extracts from his Apology and Defense.

He dates his conversion from A. D. 1816, and says:

“I was constrained to admit that the Scriptures must be a revelation from God; they became my delight, and in Jesus I found a friend. I then devoted myself to prayer and reading of the word.... I commenced with Genesis, and read verse by verse, proceeding no faster than the meaning of the several passages should be so unfolded as to leave me free from embarrassment respecting any mysticism or contradictions. Whenever I found anything obscure, my practice was to compare it with all collateral passages; and by the help of Cruden, I examined all the texts of Scripture in which were found any of the prominent words contained in any obscure

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portion. Then by letting every word have its proper bearing on the subject of the text, if my view of it harmonized with every collateral passage in the Bible, it ceased to be a difficulty. In this way I pursued the study of the Bible, in my first perusal of it, for about two years, and was fully satisfied that it is its own interpreter.

“I continued to study the Scriptures, and was more and more convinced that I had a personal duty to perform respecting the matter. When I was about my business, it was continually ringing in my ears, “Go and tell the world of their danger.’ This text was constantly occurring to me: Ezekiel 33:8, 9.

“I did all I could to avoid the conviction that anything was required of me; and I thought that by freely speaking of it to all, I should perform my duty, and that God would raise up the necessary instrumentality for the accomplishment of the work. I prayed that some minister might see the truth, and devote himself to its promulgation; but still I was impressed, ‘Go and tell it to the world; their blood will I require at thy hand.’ ... I tried to excuse myself to the Lord for not going out and proclaiming it to the world. I told the Lord that I was not used to public speaking, that I had not the necessary qualifications to gain the attention of an audience, that I was very diffident, and feared to go before the world, that they would not believe me, nor hearken to my voice, that I was slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. But I could get no relief. In this way I struggled on for nine years longer, pursuing the study of the Bible.... I was then fifty years old, and it seemed impossible for me to surmount the obstacles which lay in my path to successfully present it in a public manner.

“One Saturday, after breakfast, in the summer of 1833, I sat down at my desk to examine some point, and as I arose to go out to work, it came home to me with more force than ever, ‘Go and tell it to the world.’ The impression was so

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sudden, and it came with such force, that I settled down into my chair, saying, ‘I can’t go, Lord.’ ‘Why not,’ seemed to be the response; and then all my excuses came up, my want of ability, & c.; but my distress became so great, I entered into solemn covenant with God that if he would open the way I would go and perform my duty to the world. ‘What do you mean by opening the way?’ seemed to come to me. ‘Why,” said I, ‘if I should have an invitation to speak publicly in any place, I will go and tell them what I find in the Bible about the Lord’s coming.’ Instantly all my burden was gone, and I rejoiced that I should not probably be thus called upon; for I had never had such an invitation: my trials were not known, and I had but little expectation of being invited to any field of labor.

“The next day, which, as nearly as I can remember, was about the first Sunday in August, 1833, I delivered my first public lecture on the second advent. The house was well filled with an attentive audience. As soon as I commenced speaking, all my diffidence and embarrassment were gone, and I felt impressed only with the greatness of the subject, which, by the providence of God, I was enabled to present. At the close of the services I was requested to remain and lecture during the week, with which I complied. They flocked in from the neighboring towns, a revival commenced, and it

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was said that in thirteen families all but two persons were hopefully converted. On Monday following I returned home, and found a letter from Eld. Fuller, of Poultney, Vermont, requesting me to go and lecture there on the same subject.

“From the commencement of that publication (‘Signs of the Times,’ in 1840) I was overwhelmed with invitations to labor in various places, with which I complied as far as my health and time would allow. I labored extensively in all the New England and Middle States, in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and in Canada East and West, giving about four thousand lectures in something like five hundred different towns.

“I should think that about two hundred ministers embraced my views, in all the different parts of the United States and Canada, and that there have been about five hundred public lecturers. In nearly a thousand places Advent congregations have been raised up, numbering, as near as I can estimate, some fifty thousand believers. On recalling to mind the several places of my labors, I can reckon up about six thousand instances of conversion from nature’s darkness to God’s marvelous light, the result of my personal labors alone; and I should judge the number to be much greater. Of this number, I can call to mind about seven hundred who were, previous to attending my lectures, infidels; and their number may have been twice as great. Great results have also followed from the labors of my brethren, many of whom I would like to mention here, if my limits would permit.”

From the foregoing statement of facts we learn, first, how deeply Mr. Miller’s mind was impressed

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with the importance and necessity of proclaiming the doctrine of the second advent of Christ, after his first two years’ study of the Bible; second, how that he continued to make the Bible his study fourteen years longer, under the same conviction that he must proclaim it to the world; third, the peculiar and clear manner in which he was finally moved out to proclaim it; and then the final results of his labors, all go to prove that he was moved upon in a most extraordinary manner to discharge his duty, by leading out in the proclamation of this important doctrine, and that, too, as we have before shown, in the right time.

During the time of this phenomenon, many sought to quiet their feelings by saying it was a comet; but without proof. I will here give a few statements from different authors, selected from a small pamphlet entitled, “Modern Phenomena of the Heavens,” by Henry Jones.

From the “New York Herald:”

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From the Hydrographical office, Washington, D.C.:

“THE STRANGE LIGHT.-Soon after we had retired, the officer of the watch announced the appearance of the comet in the west. The phenomenon was sublime and beautiful. The needle was greatly agitated, and a strongly-marked pencil of light was streaming up from the path of the sun, in an oblique direction, to the southward and eastward; its edges were parallel. It was about 1° 30' (ninety miles) broad, and 30° (eighteen hundred miles) long.”–M.F. Maury, Lieut. U. S. N.

Henry Jones makes the following statement concerning the appearance of this phenomenon in Connecticut:

“MESSRS. EDITORS: On the evening of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th, instant, or commencing with Sunday evening last, the inhabitants of this town witnessed such a phenomenon as they had never seen or heard of, being seen for about the space of an hour on each occasion, and mostly between seven and eight o’clock. Just about in the west on each of these evenings, the heavens being clear, there appeared a white streak of light, similar in color to the more common light in the north. It seemed about twice the width of the sun when in the same direction, and arose from the place of the setting sun.”–East Hampton, Ct., March 10, 1843.

He further says:

“Bro. Geo. Storrs, late of this city, and having recently called here on his way from the South, informs us that at Norfolk, Va., the late streak of light in the west, or the great comet, so called, appeared of a blood red color, that it caused great excitement among the inhabitants.”

In closing his statement, he adds:

“With regard to further notices of the comet, I have before me a host of them in print which need not now be copied concerning it, all combining to establish the important facts that the same phenomenon was seen during about the same

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“In regard to the natural cause of this wonder of the world I would be the last man to attempt to assign any other than that Jehovah himself is the sole cause of it, that he has done it by his own omnipotence to fulfill his word of promise concerning it, and to apprise his oppressed, cast down, and suffering saints, that he is now very soon coming for their deliverance.”

Should the reader desire any further facts about this strange light of 1843, or other signs equally startling, he can be gratified by reading the pamphlet referred to in this article.