The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Public Interest in Prophecy Aroused

This striking fulfillment of the prophecy had a tremendous effect upon the public mind. It intensified the interest of the people to hear upon the subject of fulfilled and fulfilling prophecy. Dr. Litch said that within a few months after August 11, 1840, he had received letters from more than one thousand prominent infidels, some of them leaders of infidel clubs, in which they stated that they had given up the battle against the Bible, and had accepted it as God’s revelation to man. Some of these were fully converted to God, and a number of them became able speakers in the great second advent movement. Some expressed themselves to Dr. Litch on this wise: “We have said that expositors of prophecy quote from the musty pages of history to substantiate their claims of prophetic fulfillments; but in this case we have the living facts right before our eyes.” GSAM 132.2

To illustrate how, just at the close of the sixth trumpet, the advent message began to go “with a loud voice,” I will note a case as related to me by one of the actors in this message. GSAM 132.3

In the year 1840, E. C. Williams, an extensive tent and sail maker, of Rochester, N.Y., accepted the message, and invited Elders Miller and Himes to come to Rochester and speak to the thousands of that city. They replied that they lacked the money necessary to secure a hall of sufficient size to accommodate the people. He replied, “I have a circular tent 120 feet in diameter. I will pitch it, seat it, and care for it, free. Come on and proclaim the message.” “They came,” he said to me, “and the tent did not half hold those who came to hear, so I put in a forty-foot splice, making a tent 160 x 120 feet in size. This tent was filled with people daily, and hundreds crowded near on the outside, all eager to hear the word.” GSAM 132.4