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William Miller
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encounter opposition from the ungodly, but was confident that all
Christians would rejoice in the hope of meeting the Saviour whom
they professed to love. His only fear was, that in their great joy at
the prospect of glorious deliverance, so soon to be consummated,
many would receive the doctrine without sufficiently examining the
Scriptures in demonstration of its truth. He therefore hesitated to
present it, lest he should be in error, and be the means of misleading
others. He was thus led to review the evidences in support of the
conclusions at which he had arrived, and to consider carefully every
difficulty which presented itself to his mind. He found that objections
vanished before the light of God’s word, as mist before the rays of the
sun. Five years spent thus, left him fully convinced of the correctness
of his position. And now the duty of making known to others what
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he believed to be so clearly taught in the Scriptures, urged itself with
new force upon him. “When I was about my business,” he said, “it
was continually ringing in my ears, Go and tell the world of their
danger. This text was constantly occurring to me: ‘When I say unto
the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not
speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in
his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless,
if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn
from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy
soul.’ [
Ezekiel 33:8, 9
.] I felt that if the wicked could be effectually
warned, multitudes of them would repent; and that if they were not
warned, their blood might be required at my hand.”
He began to present his views in private as he had opportunity,
praying that some minister might feel their force and devote himself
to their promulgation. But he could not banish the conviction that
he had a personal duty to perform in giving the warning. The words
were ever recurring to his mind, “Go and tell it to the world; their
blood will I require at thy hand.” For nine years he waited, the burden
still pressing upon his soul, until in 1831 he for the first time publicly
gave the reasons of his faith.
As Elisha was called from following his oxen in the field, to re-
ceive the mantle of consecration to the prophetic office, so was Wm.
Miller called to leave his plow, and open to the people the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. With trembling he entered upon his work,
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leading his hearers down, step by step, through the prophetic peri-