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opposition of popular religious teachers and worldly-wise men, and
which had stood firm against the combined forces of learning and
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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 for 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 work [word] of God.”
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
had, to be honest with God and men I should have to do as I have
done.” “I hope I have cleansed my garments from the blood of souls; I
feel that, as far as possible, 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
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the coming of Christ is as strong as ever. I have done only what, after
years of sober consideration, I felt it my solemn duty to do. If I have
erred, it has been on the side of charity, the love of my fellow-man,
and my conviction of duty to God.” “One thing I do know, I have
preached nothing but what I believed; and God’s hand has been with