“9. When the high priest came out of the holy of holies after making the atonement, he blessed the people. Lev. 9:22, 23; 2 Sam. 6:18. So will our great High Priest. Heb. 9:28. This was on the seventh month, tenth day.
“10. This was in harvest time, the feast of harvest was kept in the seventh month, from the tenth day to the seventeenth. Lev. 23:10. And the end of the world is compared to the harvest. Matt. 13:30. Christ says plain in “harvest time.”
“11. Also in the feast of tabernacles, in the great day of the feast in the last day. John 7:2, 37. So in the last great day, Jesus’ voice will call forth the righteous dead. John 5:28, 29; 1 Thess. 4:16.”— Wm. Miller in Sings of the Times for May 17, 1843.
[27] Here Mr. Miller expresses the views and feelings of the Adventists generally for a time after the disappointment in October, 1844. Many of the leading men in the movement soon became impatient, and backed out of this position by rashly condemning the time movements of 1843 and 1844 as the result of error, and they took the majority of believers with them. This division left those who took good heed to the godly exhortations of Mr. Miller exposed to great trials and the ravages of fanaticism.
God had the great sanctuary question in reserve for the Adventists, which, in connection with the three messages of Rev. 14, if they had waited patiently in the position where his word and providence had brought them, would have explained the past, given certainty to the then present, and would have opened before them the future work of the third message.
J. W.
[28] From this communication, the reader will be able to gather much relative to the trials of the time when it was written. Mr. Miller had not the true light upon the sanctuary question, consequently held that the 2300 and 1335 days reached to the second coming of Christ. But at the same time, his convictions were so very strong that the hand of God had been in the distinct movements of 1843 and 1844, that leading Adventists could not influence him to reject the work of God in his past deep experience. This communication called out a reply nearly twice its length from the editors of the Herald. He respected and loved these his fellow-laborers; and any statement that he was not influenced by them to a greater or less extent would be unreasonable. And although at a later period he did enter the lecturing field, he held firmly, to the day of his death, that he was fully justified in preaching the time.
J. W.
[29] The leading object in giving matter of this kind from the pen of Mr. Miller is to let the Christian character and tender spirit of the man appear, whom God had raised up to do a great work. He had been a brave soldier in the service of his country, and had fearlessly stood in defense of unpopular truth, and had dared to meet opposition, scoffs, and even scandal, from the popular churches. But now, under the most trying circumstances, we see the aged Christian warrior, clothed with humility as with a garment, and his spirit all softened and sweetened by divine grace, tenderly entreating his brethren to be patient, gentle, true, and kind.
J. W.