WILLIAM MILLER, STUDENT OF PROPHECY
BY RUTH HYDE KIRKPATRICK
ONE reads the story of William Miller with mingled feelings of joy and sorrow, of admiration and pity. He is known as the founder of the Adventist sect or Millerites as they are often called. To one familiar with Bahá’í history his story and belief have great interest and significance. For he it was in America, who after diligent study of the Scriptures received assurance that the second coming of Christ was near at hand. The date which his studies led him to accept as the time of the Coming was marvelously close to the time when the Sun dawned in Persia in the person of the illumined and radiant youth known as the Báb.
William Miller's life covered the years 1782 to 1849. He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, but his father soon moved to Low Hampton in eastern New York and there with the exception of a few years when he was first married he dwelt for the rest of his life. Brought up as he was under pioneer conditions he received little schooling but he had a deep craving for knowledge and made up for the school deficiency by eagerly reading and studying by himself. Like his father he made his livelihood by farming and was a man of standing and influence in his community. During the war of 1812 he served as captain in the army.
In his early years his thinking and philosophy were influenced by such authors as Hume, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and like many of his time he became an avowed deist. He denied divine revelation and the inspiration of the Bible although he supported the church in his community and often read the sermon in the absence of the preacher. When he was about thirty-four, influenced by a certain sermon, his own doubts, and a sincere desire for truth, he undertook a thorough study of the Scriptures in order to let his own mind and heart answer the question as to their divine inspiration. That he might be uninfluenced by the opinions of others he discarded all commentaries. The text of the Bible, the marginal references and Cruden’s Concordance were his only tools. He found his self-imposed task most absorbing and was soon devoting all his spare time to it. He evolved a systematic method of study, most painstaking and conscientious, in which he laid down exact rules for himself to follow as to how to understand parables, figures, visions, doctrine, the relation of history to prophecy. Literal interpretation had the preference. “If a word makes good sense as it stands,” he said, “and does no violence to the simple laws of nature, it is to be understood literally; if not, figuratively.“1
At the end of two years he had carefully gone through the Bible, verse by verse. How this intensive study changed his views he himself told in his later years: “I had denied the Bible for twelve years. I used to read it to see how curiously men would act and contradict each other. But suddenly I became more solemn; its truth began to dawn upon my mind; and I was in great darkness for six months. . . . I saw that, if the Bible was true, Christ was the only Saviour of men. I then began to study the Scriptures more fully—determined to study, text by text, till I was fully satisfied as to their import. In comparing scripture with scripture, such a light broke in upon my mind as I had never before seen. I was about two years in going through the Bible in this manner; and I found it a perfect piece of order and beauty. And, though, I have been greatly disappointed, yet I have never ceased to love and regard the authority of the Scriptures.”2
Among the several conclusions at which
he arrived was that the Lord Jesus Christ
would soon appear again in the body on
earth, that He would destroy the wicked and
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rule the world in peace and righteousness for
a thousand years. He wrote: "I was thus
brought, in 1818, at the close of my two
years’ study of the Scriptures, to the solemn
conclusion that in about twenty—five years
from that time all of the affairs of our present
state would be wound up; that all its
pride and power, pomp and vanity, wickedness
and oppression, would come to an end;
The site at East Rindge, New Hampshire, which tradition cherishes as the place where the Millerites gathered in sincere expectation of being “taken up to heaven.”
and that in the place of the kingdoms of this world, the peaceful and long-desired kingdom of the Messiah would be established under the whole heaven; and that in about twenty-five years, the glory of the Lord would be revealed, and all flesh would see it together—the desert bud and blossom as the rose, the fir-tree come up instead of the thorn, and instead of the briar, the myrtle-tree—the curse be removed from off the earth, death be destroyed, reward be given to the servants of God, the prophets and saints, and them who fear his name and those be destroyed who destroy the earth.”3
The date which he set for the second coming of Christ was sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844, and was based on the prophecies concerning the 2,300 days and the seventy weeks given in the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel.4
A number of years intervened before Mr. Miller began to give public lectures on his belief in the early coming of Christ. But from 1831 until his death in 1849 he devoted his time and means to public labors. He became widely known and exerted a great influence throughout the country. He says:
“I was overwhelmed with invitations to labor in different places. . . . I labored extensively in all the New England and Middle States, in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and in Canada East and West, giving about four thousand lectures in something like five hundred different towns.”5 Many ministers embraced his views. These and others began to preach and lecture on the Second Coming. Miller had no desire to establish a separate denomination but was finally driven to it by opposition. “My whole object,” he wrote in reviewing his life work, “was a desire to convert souls to God, to notify the world of a coming judgment, and to induce my fellowmen to make that preparation of heart, which will enable them to meet their God in peace.”6
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He estimated that about 50,000 embraced his belief.
As the expected time drew near opposition increased and false accusations and violent denunciations were published and spread. “Our motives were assailed, our principles misrepresented, and our characters traduced. Time passed on, and the 21st of March, 1844, passed by without our witnessing the appearing of our Lord. Our disappointment was great, and many walked no more with us,”7 he wrote.
There was a tendency toward fanaticism and excitement among some of his followers. Both these Mr. Miller strongly condemned as he did sectarianism, bigotry, disputations, denunciations and all that led to disorder and uneasiness.
When the 22nd of March, 1844, passed and the longed-for event failed to take place there was quite a general turning to the “seventh month,” and October 22nd was looked forward to with great certainty by many. The belief in this day was held by his followers rather than by Mr. Miller, though he too accepted it as the day drew near. Mr. Miller’s biographer speaks as follows in regard to this time: “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 part, suspended; and those who looked for the advent gave themselves to the work of preparation for that event, as they would for death.“8
Other dates seem to have been set by different groups but they had no authority from Mr. Miller. Quoting again from Mr. Miller’s biographer we learn: “This (October 22nd, 1844) was the only specific day which was regarded by intelligent Adventists with any positiveness. There were other days named by those whose opinions were received with no favor.”9
There are stories still current that on the appointed day groups of believers donned ascension robes and went to a hill-top there to await Christ’s appearance. Such traditions prevail quite generally. At East Rindge, New Hampshire, was a group of Millerites under the leadership of a certain Ezra Carr. As the day approached, these believers, we are told, began to dispose of their property and prepare their ascension robes. A certain hill is pointed out as the one the group ascended to await the great appearance. One very aged woman, the only one living in the community whose memory reaches back to that time, when asked whether she could recall that incident stated “that the only thing that she remembers of the occasion was the disappointment of a (then) small boy whom Mrs. Carr had promised to ‘take up’ with her, telling him he could be an angel.”10 That Mr. Miller had no part in anything of this kind seems plain. There were evidently some cases of extravagances but the published accounts of them were greatly exaggerated. In regard to this, Mr. Miller’s biographer says: “All reports respecting the preparation of ascension robes, etc., and which are still by many believed, were demonstrated over and over again to be false and scandalous. In the investigation of the truth of such, no labor and expense was spared; and it became morally certain that no instance of the kind anywhere occurred.”11 He relates one instance where a group of a hundred and fifty from the city of Philadelphia, misled by the pretended vision of one of their number, camped in a field outside the city in two large tents for one night but, convinced of their folly, returned the next morning to their homes and duties.
In spite of his disappointment as to time Mr. ‘Miller continued to preach the early coming of Christ, acknowledging his mistake but believing it only a slight one in chronology. To this belief he was clinging when he passed into the next world in 1849.
We close the book containing the “Christian
Life and Public Labors of William Miller” with
a feeling of deep respect for this
strong, God-fearing man, upright and
conscientious in every respect, with a feeling too
of yearning that his vision might have been
enlarged so that he could have seen the true
fulfillment of the prophecies he so thoroughly
and lovingly studied. We close the book and
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turn to another book, “The Dawn-Breakers,”
and read the pages where is recorded the story
of the finding of the Promised One, the story
of how the Báb made himself known to the
seeker, Mullá Ḥusayn. The contrast between
the two stories is startling. A spirit-essence
and absolute assurance pervades this
latter account as it is told in The Dawn-
Breakers. Briefly this is the story.
On the evening of May 23rd, 1844, in the city of Shíráz in the south of Persia in an upper room of the home of a young merchant two young men conversed. The one, the young merchant, was the host; the other, Mullá Ḥusayn, was a scholar, a pupil of Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim who taught that the day of the coming of the Promised One was near at hand. In his earnest quest for the Beloved, in prayer and great humility, Mullá Ḥusayn had come to this city. The conversation was concerning this all-important event, for nothing else mattered to Mullá Ḥusayn, the seeker. Time passed all unnoticed as he listened to the words of wisdom and knowledge that flowed from the lips of his host, and gradually Mullá Ḥusayn became conscious that he was in the presence of the One he so earnestly sought. His own words as recorded in The Dawn-Breakers will best give us the depth of this experience:
“I sat spellbound by His utterance, oblivious of time and of those who awaited me. Suddenly the call of the mu’adhdhin summoning the faithful to their morning prayer, awakened me from the state of ecstasy into which I seemed to have fallen. All the delights, all the ineffable glories, which the Almighty has recounted in His Book as the priceless possessions of the people of Paradise —these I seem to have been experiencing that night. . . . I was enthralled by the music of that voice which rose and fell as He chanted; now swelling forth as He revealed verses . . . again acquiring subtle harmonies as He uttered the prayers He was revealing. At the end of each invocation He would repeat this verse: ‘Far from the glory of thy Lord, the All-Glorious, be that which His creatures affirm of Him! And peace be upon His Messengers! And praise be to God, the Lord of all beings!’
“He then addressed me in these words: ‘O thou who art the first to believe in Me! Verily I say, I am the Báb, the Gate of God, and thou are the Bábu’l-Báb, the gate of that Gate.’"
Further Mullá Ḥusayn says: “This Revelation, so suddenly and impetuously thrust upon me, came as a thunderbolt which, for a time, seemed to have benumbed my faculties. I was blinded by its dazzling splendor and overwhelmed by its crushing force. Excitement, joy, awe, and wonder stirred the depths of my soul. Predominant among these emotions was a sense of gladness and strength which seemed to have transfigured me. . . . I seemed to be the Voice of Gabriel personified, calling unto all mankind: ‘Awake, for, lo! the morning Light has broken. Arise, for His Cause is made manifest. The portal of His grace is open wide; enter therein, O peoples of the world! For He who is your promised One is come!’”12
So it was given to Mullá Ḥusayn to see the Promised One, to behold His reality. His search was rewarded, his prayers answered. Many saw Him daily as He went about His business, but their eyes were holden.
Our thoughts turn again to William Miller and the Western World which he represented. No, the crude imagination and undeveloped spiritual capacities of the New World would never have discovered the Beloved had He appeared here. A background of centuries of spiritual culture, an atmosphere totally unlike that of pioneer America, was necessary to produce one who could successfully explore the hidden mysteries, could recognize the Promised Beloved and understand the signs.
The vision of William Miller was limited by the environment into which he was born. He belonged to a time of superstition and imagination, an age which craved a sign, a sign of its own creation, spectacular and staggering.
But the signs were fulfilled, unknown to all but a few in the world. Ponder these words of Bahá’u’lláh:
"Oh ye who seek the lights of My face!
Superstitions have enveloped the inhabitants
of the earth, and prevented them from
turning toward the horizon of certainty; . . .
Among men, some say: ‘Have the verses
descended?’ Answer: ‘Yes, by the Lord of
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the Heavens!’ ‘Has the hour come?’ ‘Much
more, it has passed, by the manifestation of
the arguments! Verily the True Thing has
arrived and the True One has appeared with
His proofs and His demonstrations. Yea, the
plain and the desert of judgment have been
revealed by broad daylight in the midst of
horrors and anxiety; while earthquakes have
broken loose, and the cries of nations have
arisen in the fear of God, the strong, the
all-powerful.’ ‘Has the trump of Judgment
Day been heard?’ ‘Yes, the Day of God has
come.’ ‘Is the catastrophe finished?’
Answer: ‘Yes, by the Lord of Hosts!’ ‘Has
the resurrection come?’ ‘Much more, He
who subsists by Himself has come, with the
Kingdom of signs!’”13
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References:
1Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller, by James White. Seventh Day Adventist Association, Battle Creek, Mich., 1875. p 50.
2Idem, p. 357.
3Idem, p. 57.
4See Some Answered Questions, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í Publishing Committee, New York, for the Bahá’í interpretation of these prophecies.
5Life of Miller above cited, p. 360.
6Idem, p. 361.
7Idem, p. 363.
8Idem, p. 298.
9Idem, p. 299.
10Quoted from a letter written by the present owner of this property, dated September 18, 1933.
11Life of Miller above cited, p. 299.
12The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's Narrative, Bahá’í Publishing Committee, New York. pp. 62 and ff.
13 Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’í Publishing Committee, New York. p. 101.
The writer is indebted to Mr. M. Touty of Shanghai, China, for the following information concerning others in different parts of the world who believed that Christ would again appear on earth about 1844:
(1) In one of his lectures Miller made this statement: “One or two on every quarter of the globe have proclaimed the news and agree in the time—Wolff, of Asia; Irwin, late of England; Mason of Scotland; Davis of South Carolina; and quite a number in this region are or have been giving the cry.” (Quoted from “Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ about the Year 1843.” William Miller, Lecture 16, p. 238. Boston, Joshua V. Hines, 1842. Quoted by Edwin R. Thiele in North China News, Shanghai, October 14, 1931.)
(2) A pamphlet by Leonard Heinrich Kelber printed at Stuttgart, 1835, contains the statement, “ . . . for not 1836, but the year 1843 is the terminus, at which the great struggle between light and darkness will be finished, and the long expected reign of peace of our Lord Jesus will commence on earth.
(3) In England in the early part of the nineteenth century under the inspiration of Edward Irving a group of clergymen and laymen met together every year for five years and “spent six full days in close and laborious examination of the Scriptures,” in order to find what the Bible revealed in regard to the second coming of Christ. The date set by this group of students was 1847. (See the life of Edward Irving, Mrs. Oliphant, London, Hurst and Blackett.)
