Chapter 23—The First Angel’s Message
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. Ministers were convicted and convinced
of the correctness of the positions taken on the prophetic periods,
and they left their pride, their salaries, and their churches, to go forth
from place to place and proclaim the message. But as the message
from heaven could find a place in the hearts of but a very 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. Ministers
laid aside their sectarian views and feelings, and united in proclaiming
the coming of Jesus. The people were moved everywhere the message
reached them. Sinners repented, wept and prayed for forgiveness, 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 rel-
[134]
atives, 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 the most hardened that would not
yield to such a weight of evidence set home by heart-felt warnings.
This soul-purifying work led the affections away from worldly things,
to a consecration never before experienced. Thousands were led to
embrace the truth preached by Wm. Miller, and servants of God were
raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah to proclaim the message.
Those who preached this solemn message, like John the forerunner of
Jesus, felt compelled to lay the axe 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 they raised the solemn warning to flee from
90