Manuscripts and Memories of Minneapolis

PATIENTLY WAITING STILL

How the Seventh Day Adventists
Have Been Waiting for Forty Years
for the Coming of Christ.

The Seventh-day Adventists now holding their conference in Minneapolis are not only a very simple-minded people, well satisfied with a small portion of this world’s goods, but they are moreover the most patient people that the annals of the century has chronicled. Now, for over forty years they have been in almost daily expectation of the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. This is one of the corner stones of their religion. The circumstances attending the first appearance of this peculiar religious sect are still vivid in the minds of many of the old pioneers. At that time it was given out that Christ would be on earth on a certain day and that the end of the earth was then at hand. The Adventists themselves had such absolute faith in the truth of the prophecy that many of them, prior to the time set for the event, sold all their goods and chattels and distributed the money among the poor, while they themselves made their ascension robes and enjoyed the few days left to them without a care for the morrow. The day came and went and the old world moved on as usual. The good people were in terrible consternation, and in something of a fix financially, too. They were in fact bankrupt, and many in their old age and bowed down by infirmities had to begin life over again and hustle for a bare living. Those days were days of dread, especially down in Ohio, which at that time was quite an Adventist stronghold. Hundreds of people not of that sect were frightened out of their wits and spent their time in weeping and wailing and lamentation. But it all had a salutary effect, for the bitter experiences of those days has had no repetition. And yet the Adventists still hold to their original theory, and while they are careful not to stake their all on any certain day when all this shall come to pass, they try to so live that they will be ready at any time and under all circumstances for the inevitable crash of worlds. MMM 580.1

An Adventist Sabbath

The Adventists observed yesterday, their day of rest, in a manner peculiar to themselves. They arose a little later than usual in the morning, and it was 9 o’clock before they were called together for divine worship. It being their Sabbath, the meetings were characterized by a larger attendance than usual owing to the presence of many visitors from the country. After the Sabbath school, an institution designed for the older as well as the younger generation, regular services were held. Elder Haskell, who is in truth proving himself one of the pillars of the church, preached the sermon. Mrs. E. G. White addressed the afternoon meeting, while Elder A. P. [sic] Jones spoke in the evening. The Sabbath really ended at sunset, and at the evening meeting some of the business matters of the conference were discussed. Business will again be taken up this morning, and while others rest and worship they will be putting in some telling strikes concerning the temporal affairs of the conference. MMM 581.1

n. a., “Sabbath Disclosures” St. Paul Pioneer Press, (10/22/1888), p. 6.