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Chapter 17—The Midnight Cry
“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And
at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh;
go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed
their lamps.” [
Matthew 25:5-7
.]
In the summer of 1844, Adventists discovered the mistake in
their former reckoning of the prophetic periods, and settled upon the
correct position. The 2300 days of
Daniel 8:14
, which all believed
to extend to the second coming of Christ, had been thought to end in
the spring of 1844; but it was now seen that this period extended to
the autumn of the same year, [See appendix, note 1.] and the minds
of Adventists were fixed upon this point as the time for the Lord’s
appearing. The proclamation of this time message was another step
in the fulfillment of the parable of the marriage, whose application
to the experience of Adventists had already been clearly seen. As in
the parable the cry was raised at midnight announcing the approach
of the bridegroom, so in the fulfillment, midway between the spring
of 1844, when it was first supposed that the 2300 days would close,
and the autumn of 1844, at which time it was afterward found that
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they were really to close, such a cry was raised, in the very words
of Scripture: “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet
him.”
Like a tidal wave the movement swept over the land. From city
to city, from village to village, and into remote country places it
went, until the waiting people of God were fully aroused. Before
this proclamation, fanaticism disappeared, like early frost before
the rising sun. Believers once more found their position, and hope
and courage animated their hearts. The work was free from those
extremes which are ever manifested when there is human excitement
without the controlling influence of the word and Spirit of God. It
was similar in character to those seasons of humiliation and returning
unto the Lord which among ancient Israel followed messages of
reproof from his servants. It bore the characteristics which mark the
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