“‘Bro. Himes, give us the signification of the word Watch. Yours as ever, looking, &c.
“‘Wm. Miller.’
Again Mr. Miller wrote on the 18th of November from Low Hampton:—
“‘Dear Bro. Himes: Be patient, establish your heart, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. For you have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. This is the time for patience, it is the last trial the dear Second Advent brethren are to experience. For this will carry us to the coming of the Lord. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” James 5:7. This is the way God will sanctify his host. Now there will be a great falling away, for the want of this grace, patience. But all that endure this last trial unto the end, the same shall be saved. 2 Pet. 1:4-11. As our father Abraham did, who hoped against hope, and so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. It is evident as the sun at noon that we are in this time of patience. We have done the will of God in this thing. We have written the vision and made it plain, we have run all our published time out, and the world say that “every vision faileth,” and therefore we have now need of patience, to wait unto the coming of the Holy One. Then let us have patience, and exercise it; for we can see, this trial will bring joy and the hope of glory. Rom. 5:2-5. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” James 1:12. Hearken, then, my brother, is not the trial of our faith more precious than gold? and shall we not stand in this last trial of our faith by patience? “For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.” Rom. 15:4, 5. Then whatever was written, was for our example who live in this our last day; let us then through patience have hope. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13.
“‘We have done our work in warning sinners, and in trying to awake a formal church. God, in his providence, has shut the door;[27] we can only stir one another up to be patient, and be diligent to make our calling and election sure. We are now living in the time specified by Malachi 3:18; also Daniel 12:10; Rev. 22:10-12. In this passage we cannot help but see that, a little while before Christ should come, there would be a separation between the just and unjust, the righteous and wicked, between those who love his appearing and those who hate it. And never since the days of the apostles has there been such a division line drawn as was drawn about the 10th or 23d day of the 7th Jewish month. Since that time, they say, “they have no confidence in us.”
“‘We have need of patience after we have done the will of God, that we may receive the promise; for he says, “Behold, I come quickly, to reward every one as his work shall be.” You may inquire, how long quickly means. The false-hearted professor will tell you it may mean ages upon ages yet to come; but the real lover of Christ will hope it is near. Christ has told us how near. Matt. 24:32, 33. Again, the apostle James has told us that we are to have patience, for it is nigh. He then tells us that the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. How long then does the husbandman wait? The former rains, in Judea, fell after the autumnal equinox, at their seed time, to quicken the grain; and the latter rains, after the vernal equinox, to insure a plentiful crop. [Carpenter’s Introduction, p. 334.] “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” How nigh? It cannot be seen, by the reading of the passage, that we are to be in this patient waiting for his coming, after we have done the will of God, sown the seed, given the midnight cry, longer; and it may be much less than the husbandman waited. Therefore let us stablish our hearts, be determined to go forward, let us not look back, “Remember Lot’s wife.”
“‘I think the event for which we look cannot be afar off. I know of no rule by which we can fix on any day or hour. But Christ tells us we may know when it is near even at the door. James 5:9, tells us, when this time of patient waiting comes, then, “Behold, the Judge standeth before the door.” I feel as confident as ever that God will justify us in fixing the year. And I believe as firmly that this Jewish year will not terminate before this wicked and corrupted earth’s history will all be told. The amount of scoffing and mocking at the present time is beyond any calculation. We can hardly pass a man, professor or non-professor, but what he scoffingly inquires, “You have not gone up,” or “God cannot burn the world,” &c., ridiculing the Bible itself, and blaspheming the word and power of God. And yet ministers and moral editors wink at it. And some of them are performing the same, to the no small joy of the most depraved characters in the community.
“‘If this is not a sign of the last day, we are sure never to see fulfilled 2 Pet. 3:3, 4, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;” nor Jude 18, “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.” I pity the inhabitants who may live in an age of the world that is worse than this. I cannot believe this earth will ever again be so cursed. Where are our moral judges and rulers? Has virtue fled from the earth? and is there no fear of God in all the land?
“‘Come, Lord Jesus, oh! come quickly, or we shall be as when God overthrew the cities of the plain, like unto Sodom and Gomorrah. Where are the watchmen upon the walls of Zion? Can the sign of Peter and Jude be fulfilled before their eyes, and they not see it? Do they not know that one sign plainly fulfilled is proof enough? for God is not man that he should lie, nor is like unto the sons of men that he should be mistaken. I would beg to know what could be called scoffing and mocking, if the conduct of all classes of men opposing the Second Advent doctrine is not. Paul tells us, 1 Thess. 4:17, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” And some are tauntingly inquiring, “Have you not gone up?” Even little children in the streets are shouting continually to passers-by, “Have you a ticket to go up?” The public prints, of the most fashionable and popular kind, in the great Sodoms of our country, are caricaturing in the most shameful manner the “white robes of the saints,” Rev. 6:11, the “going up,” and the great day of “burning.” Even the pulpits are desecrated by the repetition of scandalous and false reports concerning the “ascension robes,” and priests are using their powers and pens to fill the catalogue of scoffing in the most scandalous periodicals of the day. England and France, with their sinks of pollution, London and Paris, cannot, will not, and dare not, compete with our Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, in scoffing. If these will not open the eyes of our good men in these cities, then I shall believe there is none there. And at any rate, the world must and will be burned up, and few men left. Adieu, my brother, I am patiently waiting for my King, &c.
“‘Wm. Miller.’