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own ungodly lusts. Then the authors of the evil charged it all upon
Adventists.
While drawing crowded houses of intelligent and attentive hearers,
Miller’s name was seldom mentioned by the religious press except
by way of ridicule or denunciation. The careless and ungodly em-
boldened by the position of religious teachers, resorted to opprobrious
epithets, to base and blasphemous witticisms, in their efforts to heap
contumely upon him and his work. The gray-headed man who had
left a comfortable home to travel at his own expense from city to city,
from town to town, toiling unceasingly to bear to the world the solemn
warning of the judgment near, was sneeringly denounced as a fanatic,
a liar, a speculating knave.
The ridicule, falsehood, and abuse heaped upon him called forth
indignant remonstrance, even from the secular press. “To treat a
subject of such overwhelming majesty and fearful consequences,” with
lightness and ribaldry was declared by worldly men to be “not merely
to sport with the feelings of its propagators and advocates,” but “to
make a jest of the day of judgment, to scoff at the Deity Himself, and
contemn the terrors of His judgment bar.”—Bliss, page 183.
The instigator of all evil sought not only to counteract the effect of
the advent message, but to destroy the messenger himself. Miller made
a practical application of Scripture truth to the hearts of his hearers,
reproving their sins and disturbing their self-satisfaction, and his plain
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and cutting words aroused their enmity. The opposition manifested by
church members toward his message emboldened the baser classes to
go to greater lengths; and enemies plotted to take his life as he should
leave the place of meeting. But holy angels were in the throng, and
one of these, in the form of a man, took the arm of this servant of the
Lord and led him in safety from the angry mob. His work was not yet
done, and Satan and his emissaries were disappointed in their purpose.
Despite all opposition, the interest in the advent movement had
continued to increase. From scores and hundreds, the congregations
had grown to as many thousands. Large accessions had been made
to the various churches, but after a time the spirit of opposition was
manifested even against these converts, and the churches began to take
disciplinary steps with those who had embraced Miller’s views. This
action called forth a response from his pen, in an address to Christians