Ellen G. White and Her Critics

What Hiram Edson Saw

With these facts before us we are prepared to understand the significance of what Hiram Edson saw and told on the morning of October 23. Edson lived in New York State. On the night of October 22, 1844 he, with other Adventists, had been waiting for the Lord to come, until midnight passed, and their disappointment became a certainty. They prayed at dawn for an explanation of their disappointment. And now let him tell the story: EGWC 171.3

“After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, ‘Let us go and see, and encourage some of our brethren.’ We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, that He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth. That He came to the marriage at that time [as mentioned in the parable of the Ten Virgins]; in other words, to the Ancient of days to receive a kingdom, dominion, and glory; and we must wait for His return from the wedding.... EGWC 172.1

“While I was thus standing in the midst of the field, my comrade passed on almost beyond speaking distance, before missing me. He inquired why I was stopping so long. I replied, ‘The Lord was answering our morning prayer, by giving light with regard to our disappointment.’”—Fragment of Manuscript on His Life and Experiences, by Hiram Edson. EGWC 172.2

Edson discussed his view with O. R. L. Crosier and F. B. Hahn, with whom, says he, “I was closely associated.” The three were at that time publishing a little Adventist paper called The Day Dawn. In that paper they published this new view, and “The Day Dawn was sent out bearing the light on the sanctuary subject.”—Ibid. ^* Like most of the short-lived Adventist papers of that time, the Day Dawn probably had a very small circulation, and thus made a negligible impact on the main body of Adventist believers. However, the issue containing this new view of the sanctuary cleansing “fell into the hands of Elders James White and Joseph Bates [two Adventist ministers in the east], who readily endorsed the view.”—Ibid. EGWC 172.3