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284
The Story of Redemption
be mistaken pointed to the coming of Christ as near. The believers
could not explain their disappointment; yet they felt assured that
God had led them in their past experience.
Their faith was greatly strengthened by the direct and forcible
application of those scriptures which set forth a tarrying time. As
early as 1842, the Spirit of God had moved upon Charles Fitch to de-
vise the prophetic chart, which was generally regarded by Adventists
as a fulfillment of the command given by the prophet Habakkuk, to
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“write the vision, and make it plain upon tables.” No one, however,
then saw the tarrying time which was brought to view in the same
prophecy. After the disappointment the full meaning of this scripture
became apparent. Thus speaks the prophet: “Write the vision, and
make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the
vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and
not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will
not tarry.”
Habakkuk 2:2, 3
.
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.
“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 widespread 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.
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About this time fanaticism began to appear. Some who professed
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