The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Foss Fails to Relate His Vision

This startled the young man, and he decided to relate what had been shown him, and accordingly gave out his appointment. The people crowded together to see and hear. He carefully related his experience, how he had refused to relate what the Lord had shown him, and what would result from his refusal. “Now,” said he, “I will relate the vision.” But alas! it was too late: he stood before the people as dumb as a statue, and finally said in the deepest agony, “I cannot remember a word of the vision.” He wrung his hands in anguish, saying, “God has fulfilled his word. He has taken the vision from me,” and in great distress of mind said, “I am a lost man.” From that time he lost his hope in Christ, and went into a state of despair. He never attended an Adventist meeting again, and had no personal interest in religion. His demeanor in many respects, to say the least, has been that of one deprived of the gentle influence of the Spirit of the Master, of one “left to his own ways, to be filled with his own doings.” In this condition of mind he died in 1893. GSAM 182.2