TARRYING TIME

In confirmation of the above statement, please read the following quotation from the Midnight Cry of May 9, 1844: “We believe that we are occupying that period spoken of by the Saviour, when the bridegroom tarries (Matthew 25:5), to which the kingdom of heaven should be likened, when ‘that evil servant [there having been an apparent failure in the time] shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken,’ and the lord should come in a day they look not for him.LDT 166.1

“We shall continue, God willing, to proclaim, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh! go ye out to meet Him;’ and, ‘The hour of His judgment is come!’ and we trust we shall not fail to continue to cry aloud to the world and church to arouse themselves from their songs of ‘peace,’ and to listen to God’s overtures of mercy. We intend to continue waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord, believing that it is just upon us.”LDT 166.2

In the Advent Herald, of Boston, Mass., we have the following quotation in an article called “Vindication,” by Brethren Himes, Bliss, and Hale. In speaking of the passing of the time in April, 1844, they say: “But the time-the year 1843, the Jewish year-passed, and we were disappointed in not beholding the King in His beauty; and all who opposed us, honestly supposed that every distinctive characteristic of our belief had been demonstrated to be false, and that we should, as honest men, abandon our whole position. And therefore it was with surprise that they saw us still clinging to our hope, and still expecting our King. We, however, in our disappointment, saw no reason for discouragement. We saw that the Scriptures indicated that there must be a tarrying time, and that while the vision tarried, we must wait for it.... We frankly and freely admitted to the world that we were mistaken in the definite point to which we had looked with so much confidence; but while we were thus mistaken, we can see the hand of the Lord in that matter. We can see that He has made use of that proclamation as an alarm to the world, and a test to the church. It placed His people in an attitude of expectation. It called out those who were willing to suffer for His name’s sake. It demonstrated to whom the cry of the Lord’s coming was tidings of great joy, and to whom it was an unwelcome sound in their ears. It was shown to the universe who would welcome the Lord’s return, and who would reject Him at His second coming, as the Jews did at His first advent; and we regard it as a step in the accomplishment of God’s purpose, in this ‘day of His preparation,’ that He might lead forth a people who should only seek the will of the Lord, that they might be prepared for His coming.”LDT 166.3