Memoirs of William Miller - Sylvester Bliss

Revolution, -- soft gleams of heaven’s light rising
over the hill of man’s passions and crimes, -- the
glorious ideal of Shelley, who, atheist as he was,
through prejudice and early defective education,
saw the horizon of the world’s future kindling with
the light of a better day, -- that hope and that faith
which constitute, as it were, the world’s life, and
without which it would be dark and dead, -- cannot
be in vain.”
Thus moralized one who was merely a
spectator. Occupying his position, it is easy to
conceive the intense interest and pleasure felt by
those to whom the near-coming of their Saviour
was a welcome reality.
The time immediately preceding the 22nd of
October was one of great calmness of mind and of
pleasurable expectation on the part of those who
regarded that point of time with interest. There was
a nearness of approach to God, and a sweetness of
communion with him, to which those who
experienced it will ever recur with pleasure. During
the last ten days, secular business was, for the most
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