The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

III. The Movement Enters Its Final Phase

The seventh-month movement was now definitely under way. Bates returned to New Bedford and soon attended an Adventist meeting where Hutchinson, editor of the Montreal Voice of Elijah, was preaching. But Hutchinson became confused, and said, “I can’t continue.” Macomber also seemed unable to explain the message that had been given at Exeter. So Bates, who had just returned from Exeter, presented the new light with freedom and power. In fact, he was asked to repeat it in the afternoon and in other quickly arranged meetings. ¹¹ And James White, likewise returning home from Exeter, preached the seventh-month message at Poland, Maine, and at two camp meetings-Litchfield and Orrington. From then on his chief burden was the “tenth day of the seventh month,” or October 22, as the antitypical Day of Atonement. He often spoke to crowded congregations in two and sometimes three towns in a single day. ¹² PFF4 814.3

Meantime, the prominent leaders had returned from the West. Reluctant at first to accept the seventh-month message, and plainly perturbed at this development in their absence, as well as at its being sponsored by aggressive younger men, they now began to espouse it. And the leading Adventist papers, controlled by these veteran leaders, were similarly persuaded of its soundness. PFF4 815.1

According to Bliss, at the very time the seventh-month emphasis was proclaimed at Exeter, there was a definite awakening among the Adventists generally-a strong conviction prevailing that the coming of the Lord was indeed at the door. They were thus prepared to receive the Exeter message on “definite time.” And all of these factors and influences seemed to meet and commingle at Exeter, blending into a single definite movement. From there the “cry” spread to all points. Men felt that, if true, it must be given without delay. So they carried it far and near with all the eloquence and enthusiasm that such a joyful and probable event could produce. ¹³ And they reclaimed many whose lamps had well nigh gone out. PFF4 815.2

So, within a relatively few short weeks the “cry” had spread to all points through camp meetings, conferences, periodicals, articles, and preaching. The previous heralding, they held, had been preliminary, preparatory, and anticipatory to this, now the true cry. It was like the blowing of the trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, to announce the approaching Day of Atonement on the tenth, these ten days being commonly called the days of repentance. PFF4 815.3

Bates left the record that the Exeter message “flew as it were upon the wings of the wind.” ¹⁴ Men and women sped by rail and water, by stagecoach and horseback, with bundles of books and papers, distributing them as “profusely as the leaves of autumn.” White said, “The work before us was to fly to every part of that wide field, sound the alarm, and wake the slumbering and sleeping ones.” ¹⁵ And Wellcome adds that the movement broke forth like the released waters of a dam. ¹⁶ Fields of ripened grain were left standing un-harvested, and full-grown potatoes left un-dug in the ground. The coming of the Lord was nigh. There was no time now for such earthly things. But one other emphasis must also be noted to complete the picture. PFF4 816.1