The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: The Parting of the Ways

Thus the impressive Millerite movement came to its tragic close, so far as its original form is concerned. The great stream ceased its onward flow and was dissipated, to use the figure aptly employed by Nichol, like a river absorbed in the torrid sands of the desert. Here is his graphic portrayal. PFF4 827.1

“The erstwhile fast-moving stream poured out over an arid, uncharted waste. The scorching sun of disappointment beat down, and the burning winds of ridicule swept in from every side. The river suddenly lost its velocity. There was no momentum to cut a clearly marked channel in this new, parched land. Sun and wind quickly began to play havoc with this directionless body of water, now spread thinly over a wide area. While a central stream of what had once been an impressive river, was more or less well defined, there were many lesser streams, which often ended in miniature dead seas, where stagnation and evaporation soon did their work. Indeed, no small part of the once large river, when evaporated under the scorching sun of disappointment, was finally returned to the sources from whence it came, the other rivers in the religious world.” ¹ PFF4 827.2

Other developments will be traced in Part III. But the Albany Conference, called in April, 1845, was the final attempt to hold the Millerite movement together, as such. But it drew only part of the leadership. Difficult times lay ahead. Under the advent expectancy there had been no provision for church order, or a discipline that could restrain certain unruly elements that arose to plague what was left of the movement. Confusion and division were inevitable, and the remains of the movement split three ways: PFF4 827.3

(1) The larger group that was associated with the Albany Conference out of which came the Evangelical Adventists, now defunct, and from which branched out the still surviving Advent Christian body; (2) a small segment of extremists that broke away from all others, but soon burned themselves out in fanaticism, and disappeared within a few years; and (3) still another group unassociated with the Albany Conference—and not to be confused with the extremists—who erelong became Sabbatarians in practice, and in time developed into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Now let us trace the process of this breakup. PFF4 828.1