IN THE very year marked by the prophecy of the 2300 days, 1844, God restored the gift of prophecy to His remnant church in fulfillment of Revelation 12:17. GoPH 140.1
The time had come. The movement was about to begin that would carry to all the world in the last generation the truths of the threefold message, and raise up a people who would “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12.) Just before the disappointment of October 22, 1844, God gave a vision to a young man connected with the Advent movement of that time. His name was Hazen Foss. He lived in Poland, Maine. He was a strong believer in the message of the Lord’s coming on October 22. lie was a man of pleasing personality, good education, and of fine appearance, but of considerable timidity. GoPH 140.2
The Spirit of God came on this young believer, and gave him a vision of the future of the Adventist movement, and the trials of the coming experiences of the Adventist people. In connection with this view he was com missioned to deliver certain messages of warning. He was also permitted to see his own future experiences in case he faithfully carried out the mission upon which he was sent. GoPH 140.3
In his vision he saw a large platform, on which large numbers of people were standing, the Adventist people. Then these people stepped to a second platform, somewhat higher. Finally there was a third platform to which they moved, and this extended to the gates of the holy city itself. Those who advanced to this platform were joined by a great company of people, and finally from the level of this platform they entered the kingdom of God. GoPH 141.1
Mr. Foss did not understand this part of the vision. He expected the Lord Jesus to come in a very short time, on the completion of the preaching of the first and second angels’ messages. This vision, understood later, disclosed the fact that a third message was to follow, and that it was on the platform of that message that the believers were to be taken into the kingdom. GoPH 141.2
Mr. Foss was commanded in the vision to make known to his fellow believers the in-formation and instruction which he had received in this way. GoPH 141.3
Having been shown in vision the hardships ho would ho called upon to endure if he carried out God’s mission for him, and bring proud as well as timid, he shrank from the reproach that he knew he would have to suffer if he related what he had seen. Opportunity to relate his experience was presented to him in the meetings of the believers. He did not take the opportunity. GoPH 141.4
Then the vision was given him again, and on this occasion he was plainly told that should he still refuse to give the benefit of this divine instruction to the believers, this spiritual gift would be removed from him and conferred on another—one of the very weakest of the children of the Lord—who would carry out with fidelity and precision the mission given of the Lord. GoPH 142.1
Still Mr. Foss, though desiring to do God’s will, permitted his pride and timidity to prevail. He did not tell his brethren the revelation he had received. Then the Lord spoke to him the third time, telling him he was released from the burden, which was laid now upon another, “one of the weakest of the weak,” who would be faithful in doing the bidding of the Lord. GoPH 142.2
Frightened by the possibility that the Lord was forsaking him, the young man decided he would no longer allow his fears to deter him from carrying out the desire of his Lord. He called a meeting of his fellow believers. They responded and gathered together in meeting. He related his experience, telling them that the Lord had shown him a vision and commanded him to convey it to them, of how he had been rebellious, refusing to do as the Lord commanded. He told of the warning he had received of what the result of refusing would be, and that he still held back. Ho related the third experience, the word that he was now released, and how this nerved him on to relate the vision. “And now,” he continued, “I will tell you what the Lord showed me, and what He wanted me to relate to you.” GoPH 142.3
He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. A surprised and startled look came into his eyes. In fear and anguish he finally cried out, “I cannot recall the vision. It is gone.” Wringing his hands in his intense distress, he continued, “God has done as He said; He has taken the vision from me.” He rushed out, crying, ” I am a lost man.” GoPH 143.1
Hazen Foss lived for nearly fifty years after this, but never again attended a meeting of the Adventist believers, or manifested any interest in religious things. It seemed clear that God had departed from him. GoPH 143.2
Shortly after this, it became apparent who it was that the Lord meant by the words “one of the weakest of the weak,” and who it was upon whom He laid the burden of receiving the gift of prophecy. Among the believers there was a young woman, seventeen years of age, by the name of Ellen G. Harmon. She had accepted the Adventist teachings a few years previously, under the preaching of William Miller, though she had been an earnest Christian from early childhood. She was, at this time, in failing health, which had brought her to a serious condition. Her physician reported her to be afflicted with dropsical consumption, her right lung being decayed, and the left lung considerably diseased, while at the same time her heart was affected. So critical, indeed, was her condition that she had no hope of living very long. The physician said her life would be very short, and her condition was such that she might die at any moment. It was necessary for her to be propped in a semi reclining position in order to breathe with any ease. Her physical strength was greatly reduced by constant spells of coughing and hemorrhages of the lungs. She was awaiting the day of her death. GoPH 144.1
It was to this suffering Christian girl that the Lord chose to reveal Himself and through her to restore the gift of prophecy to His remnant people. In December, 1844, Miss Harmon was staying at the home of one of the believers in Portland, Maine, a woman by the name of Haines. In the morning five women knelt in family worship in this home. Each one prayed, and lastly Miss Harmon began to pray, speaking only in a whisper, so weak was she. Suddenly, in the midst of her prayer, the power of God came down in a most striking manner, affecting every person in the room, as Paul’s companions were affected on the road to Damascus when he saw his Lord (Acts 9:7), and as the attendants of Daniel were affected (Daniel 10:7). In a moment this slight, weak girl was carried away in her first vision, lost to all that was taking place about her. GoPH 144.2
In the next meeting of the Portland believers she told what she had seen in vision. Later she wrote it. These are her words: “While praying, the power of God came upon me as I had never felt it before. I was surrounded with light, and was rising higher and higher from the earth. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, ‘Look again, and look a little higher.’ At this I raised 10 my eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the ‘midnight cry.’ This shone all along the path, and gave light for their feet, that they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon some grew weary; they said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a bright light, which waved over the Advent people, and they shouted, Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind these went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark, and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below. Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming. The living saints knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spake the time, He poured on us the Holy Spirit, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mount Sinai.” GoPH 145.1
About one week after her first vision Miss Harmon was given a second. She was then in her father’s house. In this vision she was instructed, as Hazen Foss had been, to make known to her fellow believers what God had shown to her. Not knowing how she could carry out such a command in the weakened condition in which she then was, having, as she thought, but a short time to live, and suffering much actual physical pain, being unused to society and so naturally timid and retiring that it was painful for her to talk to strangers, she prayed most earnestly for days, often far into the night, importuning the Lord to remove this duty and lay it upon someone better fitted to perform it. GoPH 147.1
A third vision was given her, and she heard the words, “Make known to others what I have revealed to you.” Determined to do the Lord’s will, she consented. It was revealed to her that she should go to Poland, Maine, the home of Hazen Foss, and there narrate what she had seen. She did so, calling a meeting there in a private home. Hazen Foss was approached by one of the brethren and asked to attend this meeting. He would not consent to attend, being in despair, but he entered an adjoining room, and heard Miss Harmon relate what she had been shown. Hearing this, he said afterwards, “The vision she has related is as near like what was shown to me, and what I was unable to recall, as two persons could describe the same thing. That is the instrument on whom the Lord has laid this burden.” Miss Harmon did not die in the short time given to her by her physician. She lived, and continued to receive revelations from the Lord. During seventy years God used her in this important work, imparting instruction to her for the guidance of His great final message of the gospel. On August 30, 1846, she was married to Elder James White, one of the pioneer ministers of this movement, and over since has been known affectionately by the people of the Adventist faith as “Sister White.” She died July 16, 1915, eighty-seven years of age, after seventy years of earnest labor in many parts of the world as God’s messenger. During this long period of time she was honored with many revelations from heaven. These she faithfully wrote out for the instruction of God’s people. Her writings have filled many books, and these have been translated into many languages, and circulated by the hundreds of thousands in many countries of the world. She has been accepted as one pos-sessing the genuine gift of prophecy by Seventh day Adventists around the world. By these her experiences and work are believed to be in fulfillment of Revelation 12:17. GoPH 147.2
“We have heard from the bright, the holy land,
We have heard and our hearts are glad;
For we were a lonely pilgrim band,
And weary, and worn, and sad.
They tell us the saints have a dwelling there—
No longer are homeless ones;
And we know that the goodly land is fair,
Where life’s pure river runs.” GoPH 149.1
-W.H Hyde, written after hearing one of the early visions of the gift of prophecy.