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Tarrying Time
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far off. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: There
shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which
I have spoken shall be done.” [
Ezekiel 12:21-25, 27, 28
.]
The waiting ones rejoiced that He who knows the end from the
beginning had looked down through the ages, and, foreseeing their
disappointment, had given them words of courage and hope. Had it
not been for such portions of Scripture, showing that they were in
the right path, their faith would have failed in that trying hour.
In the parable of the ten virgins,
Matthew 25
, the experience
of Adventists is illustrated by the incidents of an Eastern marriage.
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“Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins,
which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.”
“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” The
wide-spread movement under the proclamation of the first message,
answered to the going forth of the virgins, while the passing of
the time of expectation, the disappointment, and the delay, were
represented by the tarrying of the bridegroom. After the definite
time had passed, the true believers were still united in the belief that
the end of all things was at hand; but it soon became evident that
they were losing, to some extent, their zeal and devotion, and were
falling into the state denoted in the parable by the slumbering of the
virgins during the tarrying time.
About this time, fanaticism began to appear. Some who pro-
fessed to be zealous believers in the message rejected the word of
God as the one infallible guide, and, claiming to be led by the Spirit,
gave themselves up to the control of their own feelings, impressions,
and imaginations. There were some who manifested a blind and
bigoted zeal, denouncing all who would not sanction their course.
Their fanatical ideas and exercises met with no sympathy from the
great body of Adventists; yet they served to bring reproach upon the
cause of truth.
Satan was seeking by this means to oppose and destroy the work
of God. The people had been greatly stirred by the Advent move-
ment, thousands of sinners had been converted, and faithful men
were giving themselves to the work of proclaiming the truth, even
in the tarrying time. The prince of evil was losing his subjects;
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and in order to bring reproach upon the cause of God, he sought to
deceive those who professed the faith, and to drive them to extremes.