Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

periods was not at once discovered even by learned men who opposed the views ofthose who were looking for Christ’s coming. Scholars declared that Mr. Miller wasright in his calculation of the time, though they disputed him in regard to the event thatwould crown that period. But they, and the waiting people of God, were in a commonerror on the question of time.We fully believe that God, in His wisdom, designed that His people should meetwith a disappointment, which was well calculated to reveal hearts and develop the truecharacters of those who had professed to look for and rejoice in the coming of theLord. Those who embraced the first angel’s message (see Revelation 14:6, 7) throughfear of the wrath of God’s judgments, not because they loved the truth and desired aninheritance in the kingdom of heaven, now appeared in their true light. They wereamong the first to ridicule the disappointed ones who sincerely longed for and lovedthe appearing of Jesus.Those who had been disappointed were not long left in darkness; for in searchingthe prophetic periods with earnest prayer, the error was discovered, and the tracing ofthe prophetic pencil down through the tarrying time. In the joyful expectation of thecoming of Christ the apparent tarrying of the vision had not been taken into account,and was a sad and unlooked-for surprise. Yet this very trial was necessary to developand strengthen the sincere believers in the truth.Our hopes now centered on the coming of the Lord in 1844. This was also the timefor the message of the second angel, who, flying through the midst of heaven, cried:“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city.” That message was first proclaimed by theservants of God in the summer of 1844. As a result, many left the fallen churches.In connection with this message the midnight cry [See Matthew 25:1-13.] was given:“Behold, the53