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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
or vacillating, quietly deserted the cause. I thought, If Christ had surely
come, what would have become of those weak and changing ones?
They professed to love and long for the coming of Jesus; but when He
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failed to appear, they seemed greatly relieved, and went back to a state
of carelessness and disregard of true religion.
We were perplexed and disappointed, yet did not renounce our
faith. Many still clung to the hope that Jesus would not long delay His
coming; the word of the Lord was sure, it could not fail. We felt that
we had done our duty, we had lived up to our precious faith; we were
disappointed, but not discouraged. The signs of the times denoted that
the end of all things was at hand; we must watch and hold ourselves in
readiness for the coming of the Master at any time. We must wait with
hope and trust, not neglecting the assembling of ourselves together for
instruction, encouragement, and comfort, that our light might shine
forth into the darkness of the world.
Calculation of the time was so simple and plain that even children
could understand it. From the date of the decree of the king of Persia,
found in
Ezra 7
, which was given in 457 before Christ, the 2300 years
of
Daniel 8:14
must terminate with 1843. Accordingly we looked
to the end of this year for the coming of the Lord. We were sadly
disappointed when the year entirely passed away and the Saviour had
not come.
It was not at first perceived that if the decree did not go forth at the
beginning of the year 457 B.C., the 2300 years would not be completed
at the close of 1843. But it was ascertained that the decree was given
near the close of the year 457 B.C., and therefore the prophetic period
must reach to the fall of the year 1844. Therefore the vision of time
did not tarry, though it had seemed to do so. We learned to rest upon
the language of the prophet. “For the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for
it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
God tested and proved His people by the passing of the time in
1843. The mistake made in reckoning the prophetic periods was not at
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once discovered even by learned men who opposed the views of those
who were looking for Christ’s coming. Scholars declared that Mr.
Miller was right in his calculation of the time, though they disputed
him in regard to the event that would crown that period. But they, and