Prophecies Fulfilled
339
religious teachers and worldly-wise men, and which had stood firm
against the combined forces of learning and eloquence, and the taunts
and revilings alike of the honorable and the base.
True, there had been a failure as to the expected event, but even this
could not shake their faith in the word of God. When Jonah proclaimed
in the streets of Nineveh that within forty days the city would be
overthrown, the Lord accepted the humiliation of the Ninevites and
extended their period of probation; yet the message of Jonah was sent
of God, and Nineveh was tested according to His will. Adventists
believed that in like manner God had led them to give the warning of
the judgment. “It has,” they declared, “tested the hearts of all who
heard it, and awakened a love for the Lord’s appearing; or it has called
forth a hatred, more or less perceivable, but known to God, of His
coming. It has drawn a line, ... so that those who will examine their
own hearts, may know on which side of it they would have been found,
had the Lord then come—whether they would have exclaimed, ‘Lo!
this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us;’ or
whether they would have called to the rocks and mountains to fall on
them to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and
from the wrath of the Lamb. God thus, as we believe, has tested His
people, has tried their faith, has proved them, and seen whether they
would shrink, in the hour of trial, from the position in which He might
see fit to place them; and whether they would relinquish this world
and rely with implicit confidence in the word of God.”—The Advent
Herald and Signs of the Times Reporter, vol. 8, No. 14 (Nov 13, 1844).
The feelings of those who still believed that God had led them in
their past experience are expressed in the words of William Miller:
“Were I to live my life over again, with the same evidence that I then
[407]
had, to be honest with God and man I should have to do as I have
done.” “I hope that I have cleansed my garments from the blood of
souls. I feel that, as far as it was in my power, I have freed myself
from all guilt in their condemnation.” “Although I have been twice
disappointed,” wrote this man of God, “I am not yet cast down or
discouraged.... My hope in the coming of Christ is as strong as ever. I
have done only what, after years of solemn consideration, I felt it my
solemn duty to do. If I have erred, it has been on the side of charity,
love to my fellow men, and conviction of duty to God.” “One thing I
do know, I have preached nothing but what I believed; and God has