I had some things for sale; when any person came to buy, I would let them have these articles. When they wanted to pay for them I would not receive it, telling them that the world was coming to an end by such a time, and I needed no money as it would do me no good. Of course they sometimes stared at me, astonished.—Henry B. Bear, Henry B. Bear’s Advent Experience, date unknown, p. 3.PPP 44.2

The unspoken witnessPPP 44.3

Silas Guilford, William Miller’s brother-in-law, . . . had moved from Dresden to near Oswego, New York. There he and his boys, on their farm, planted a twelve-acre field of potatoes in the spring of 1844. It will be recalled that Adventists had their first disappointment over the Lord’s not coming in April of 1844. Then came the “tarrying time.” At first they set no other date; and so, seeing nothing certainly in the future, they planted their spring crops. But during the summer came the “midnight cry,” with October 22 set as the day of the Advent. Thus it occurred that Adventists, without denying their faith, planted their crops, but some at least would not harvest them.PPP 44.4

Guilford and his family put every dollar they could get into the cause of the Second Advent, and he mortgaged his farm, and put in that money too. He also left his potatoes in the ground that fall, that they might preach his faith in the Lord’s coming. The snows came early in his section, and covered them up, so they stayed over the winter. When it came spring, and the snow was gone, Silas Guilford said to his wife, “I’m going up to the potato field and see if there are any potatoes that are good.”PPP 45.1

“Oh, don’t, Silas,” said his wife. “You’ve been ridiculed so much. And now if they see you up there trying to dig potatoes, it will be just too much.”PPP 45.2

“Well,” he said, “the boys and I are going up anyway.” Irving [Erving], the oldest boy, told this to [Elder James] Shultz when the latter was a lad.PPP 45.3

“I went up with father,” he said. “The ground was thawed out nicely. Father put his fork in. The first hill he dug up—wonderfully nice potatoes! He felt of them; they were solid, not frozen at all, and not a bit of rot. The next hill too! And then he sent me racing back for the other boys, and we dug those whole twelve acres—a fine yield. We got $4.50 a bushel for them, enough to pay off the mortgage and leave a tidy sum.” —Arthur W. Spalding, Footprints of the Pioneers, 1947, pp. 71,72.PPP 45.4

Faith rewardedPPP 45.5

The Lord recognizes sacrifices made for his name’s sake, as will be seen in the case of those who left crops unharvested to show their faith in his near appearing. I will cite one instance, which will serve to illustrate the providences that favored many others. Brother Hastings, of New Ipswich, N.H., had a large field of splendid potatoes which he left undug. His neighbors were anxious about them, and came to him offering to dig them and put them in the cellar for him free, if he would let them, “for” said they, “you may want them.” “No!” said Brother Hastings, “I am going to let that field of potatoes preach my faith in the Lord’s soon appearing.”PPP 45.6

That fall, as may be learned from the Claremont (N. H.) Eagle, the New York True Sun, and various other public journals, the potato crop was almost a total loss from the “potato rot.” As expressed in the Sun, “How painful it is to learn that whole crops of this valuable esculent have been destroyed by the rot. A correspondent of a Philadelphia paper says the potato crop in that State is ruined. The only section from which little complaint is heard, is Maine, but even there the crop has not escaped the disease.”PPP 46.1

As the fall was mild, and Brother Hastings’s potatoes were left in the ground until November, none of them rotted. Consequently he had an abundant supply for himself and his unfortunate neighbors who had been so solicitous for his welfare the previous October, and who, in the spring, were obliged to buy seed potatoes of him, and were glad to get them by paying a good price. What they had supposed was going to be such a calamity to Brother Hastings, God turned to a temporal blessing, not only to him, but to his neighbors also.—John N. Loughborough, Rise and Progress of the Seventh-day Adventists, 1892, pp. 85, 86.PPP 46.2

Closed for Christ’s returnPPP 46.3

MILLERISM. I. T. Hough, tailor and draper, Fifth street, below Market, Philadelphia, has closed his store, and placed the following inscription on his shutters:PPP 46.4

THIS SHOP IS CLOSED IN HONOR
OF THE KING OF KINGS,
WHO WILL APPEAR ABOUT THE
22D OF OCTOBER.
GET READY, FRIENDS, TO CROWN
HIM LORD OF ALL.

—Brief news note appearing in the Portland Tribune, Portland, Maine, October 12, 1844, p. 214 [p. 6], col. 4.PPP 46.5

8. Preparing for Christ’s Return

10. Acceptance of the Seventh-day Sabbath