The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Elder Bates’s Testimony on the Visions

Elder Bates states his own experience thus:— GSAM 263.1

“Although I could see nothing in them that militated against the word, yet I felt alarmed and tried exceedingly and for a long time unwilling to believe that it was anything more than what was produced by a protracted debilitated state of her body. GSAM 263.2

“I therefore sought opportunities in presence of others, when her mind seemed free from excitement (out of meeting), to question and cross-question her, and her friends who accompanied her, especially her elder sister, to get, if possible, at the truth. During the number of visits she has made to New Bedford and Fairhaven since, while at our meetings, I have seen her in vision a number of times, and also in Topsham, Maine; and those who were present during some of those exciting scenes know well with what interest and intensity I listened to every word, and watched every move, to detect deception or mesmeric influence. And I thank God for the opportunity I have had with others to witness these things. I can now confidently speak for myself. I believe the work is of God, and is given to comfort and strengthen his ‘scattered,’ ‘torn,’ and ‘peeled people,’ since the closing up of our work ... in October, 1844. The distracted state of ‘Lo, here’s!’ and ‘Lo, there’s!’ since that time has exceedingly perplexed God’s honest, willing people, and made it exceedingly difficult for such as were not able to expound the many conflicting texts that have been presented to their view. I confess that I have received light and instruction on many passages that I could not before clearly understand. I believe her to be a self-sacrificing, honest, willing child of God.” ¹⁰ GSAM 263.3

“The author does not ‘obtain the sentiments’ of her visions ‘from previous teachings or study.’ When she received her first vision, December, 1844, she and all the band in Portland, Maine (where her parents then resided), had given up the “midnight cry” as being in the past. It was then that the Lord showed her in vision the error into which she and the band in Portland had fallen. She then related her vision to the band, and they acknowledged their seventh-month experience to be the work of God.” ¹¹ GSAM 263.4