MODERN CHURCH FESTIVALS

Up to the passing of the time in April, 1844, such gatherings as modern church festivals, which have since, in some instances, been carried to great extremes, were unknown. When the circumstances of their origin are given, the accuracy of the fulfilment of the prediction concerning them will be understood. The first of such entertainments known to the writer was in the city of Rochester, N. Y., in May, 1844. While Brother Miller was meeting with hundreds of the Adventist believers in a large hall in the city, encouraging them to hold fast,—although there was a “tarrying” in the fulfilment of their hopes, the Lord would give the light to His people in due time,—a different scene, new to the people of that place, was enacted in another part of the city. The following quoted paragraph is Brother Miller’s own description of it:—LDT 158.2

“One of the D. D.’s, in Rochester, Mr. -----, of the M----- Church, ^{13This minister was president of a theological school.} wrote a pamphlet against Millerism, called his lords and ladies into the house of the Lord, made a great feast of oysters and other ‘picnics,’ Belshazzar-like, drank their coffee and tea, ate their costly delicacies, and sold their ice-cream and sweetmeats, and his pamphlets against the second advent of the dear Saviour. The night before I left, another of the reverend gentlemen had a picnic feast at a public house, or hall, and sold, as above, his tickets, ice-cream, and sweetmeats. I was happy to hear that some of the churches of the different sects did not approve of such Babylonian feasts; and I do hope, in my soul, that not all of these sectarian churches will be found ‘eating and drinking with the drunken’ when Christ comes. I am astonished that these reverend gentlemen do not see themselves in the glass of God’s word; and I would recommend them to read Luke 14:12-14; Matthew 24:48-51; Luke 13:25-28; 2 Peter 2:13; Jude 10-21. These are the last times, surely.”LDT 159.1