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The Great Controversy 1888
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 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
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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 receive
the mantle of consecration to the prophetic office, so was William
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,
leading his hearers down, step by step, through the prophetic periods
to the second appearing of Christ. With every effort he gained strength
and courage as he saw the widespread interest excited by his words.
It was only at the solicitation of his brethren, in whose words
he heard the call of God, that Miller consented to present his views
in public. He was now fifty years of age, unaccustomed to public
speaking, and burdened with a sense of unfitness for the work before
him. But from the first his labors were blessed in a remarkable manner
to the salvation of souls. His first lecture was followed by a religious
awakening, in which thirty entire families, with the exception of two