The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

VII. Crosier-Writer of Epochal “Sanctuary” Article

Edson’s junior associate, OWEN R. L. CROSIER (1820-1913), writer of the epoch-making Day-Star Extra article, of February 7, 1846, on the cleansing of the sanctuary, was born at Canandaigua, ¹⁵ New York. Orphaned at two, he had a lonesome boyhood. At sixteen he was converted at a Methodist revival and became a daily reader of the New Testament, which he thenceforth always carried in his pocket. An avid reader of history and related subjects, he was coached two evenings a week by the well-educated Dr. Dayton, a local celebrity, who saw the lad’s potentialities. ¹⁶ PFF4 890.3

Crosier attended Genesee Academy and then the Wesleyan Seminary at Lima. He taught successively in Gorham, Rochester, East Avon, and Lima, and was active in church work as class leader and Sunday school superintendent. Sometime during 1843 he embraced the doctrine of the imminent second advent He soon became persuaded that the Bible teaches the second coming of Christ will precede the millennium, and that evil will continue to be predominant in this old world until the end, just as in the days of Noah. He now began the serious study of the chronological and time prophecies in their consecutive order—the four prophetic empires, the subsequent division of Rome, and further events climaxing with the coming of the Lord. This he believed to be imminent. Meantime, the Methodist church had split over episcopacy and slavery, and part of the congregation formed a Wesleyan church, which Crosier joined. PFF4 891.1

The Congregationalists, the Methodists, and the Wesleyans each offered to educate Crosier for the ministry—the latter even issued him a license to preach. But he felt he must not be under obligation to any one group. He went to Dr. Franklin B. Hahn, president of the village corporation and secretary of the Ontario County Medical Society, ¹⁷ to obtain use of the town hall for a series of lectures on the prophecies. Later he was invited to give a series in the schoolhouse, Dr. Hahn wholeheartedly accepting the advent message at that time. Thenceforth the two were fast friends, Crosier often making the former’s house his home when in Canandaigua. Hahn was also a good Bible student, and the Canandaigua company of Millerites frequently met in his house. PFF4 891.2

In the summer of 1844 a large Millerite camp meeting was held on Dr. Hahn’s farm, on the shore of Lake Canandaigua, and many-including the doctor and his wife-were baptized by immersion. Crosier had received baptism the preceding fall from a Baptist pastor, E. R. Pinney, who was at the same time an ardent believer in the imminent second advent. After the camp meeting Crosier decided to devote his full time to the advent cause. He published the Day-Dawn at Canandaigua, in order to herald the advent message locally. After the October Disappointment—and Edson’s deep impression concerning Christ’s entering into, instead of coming out of, the holy of holies-Crosier wrote, “It became important to know what the cleansing of the Sanctuary meant.” ¹⁸ Crosier and Hahn were the two who joined Edson in intensive study of this theme in the winter of 1844-1845, and at Dr. Hahn’s house Crosier wrote out their joint findings on the subject, which became the early standard exposition of the new position held by the Sabbatarian Adventists. PFF4 892.1