The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

The United Labors of Miller and Himes

From 1840 to the autumn of 1844 the labors of Elders Miller and Himes were largely united as they went from city to city, in the summer with their mammoth tent, in the winter in churches and public halls. The great physical force of Elder Himes preserved him till he entered his ninety-second year. His faculties of mind were vigorous to the last. In the year 1894, Sept. 28, he gave a most stirring discourse to a congregation of over three thousand Seventh-day Adventists on the camp-ground in Lansing, Michigan. He seemed to speak with much of the earnestness and vigor of olden days. This was truly marvelous for a man who was three months into his ninety-first year, and who was suffering with an incurable malady from which he died the following year. GSAM 123.3

Elders Miller and Himes, stood, as it were, in the “fore front of the battle” in the second advent movement in America, and were only two among scores who labored with them in proclaiming the doctrine of the advent of Christ, whose leading characteristics were firmness of purpose and sterling integrity. These men were largely of that class called by the world “self-made men,”—men who had developed by contact with the stern realities of life, who had learned to decide upon the merits of a cause from principle and not from policy. They were of the character of those who Elder Miller said usually accepted the message from the churches, “the most pious, devoted, and living members.” This fact was confirmed by the ministers of the various churches, who said, after the final separation of the Adventists from them, “It [the doctrine] has taken the cream of our flock.” GSAM 124.1