PREPARING TO MEET THE LORD

The people who accepted the message watched with great longing for the coming of their Saviour. The time they expected to meet Jesus was near. The people were calm. They solemnly prayed to God. Jesus' coming was a promise of the peace that was to be theirs in the bright future. No person who experienced this hope and trust could ever forget those precious hours of waiting.SRme 1.1596

A few weeks before Jesus was to return, the believers stopped their worldly business. They examined every thought and feeling of their hearts as carefully as if they were about to die. No person made special clothes to wear to heaven. Everyone felt the need to know they were prepared to meet the Saviour. The only white clothes these people had were their purity of soul and characters cleansed from sin by the redeeming blood of Jesus.SRme 1.1597

God planned to prove His people. God's hand covered a mistake in the counting of the prophetic time. Adventists did not discover the error. And the most learned of the Adventists' enemies did not discover the error. These enemies said, "Your counting of the prophetic time is correct. Some wonderful event is about to happen. But the event is not what William Miller says will happen. Instead, the event is the conversion of the world, not the second coming of Christ."SRme 1.1598

The time set for Jesus' coming passed. Jesus did not come to deliver His people. People who had waited for their Saviour with sincere faith and love, were bitterly disappointed. But the Lord had succeeded in His purpose. Jesus had tested the hearts of people who said they were waiting for Him.SRme 1.1599

Among the people waiting for Jesus were many persons who had joined the Adventists because of fear. They pretended to believe the message, but their hearts and lives had not changed. When Jesus did not come, these persons said they were not disappointed. They said they had never truly believed Jesus would come. They were among the first people to laugh at the sadness and disappointment of the true believers.SRme 1.1600

But Jesus and all the angels watched the tested, faithful, disappointed believers. They watched with love and sympathy. If people could have seen the angels, they would have seen these heavenly messengers protecting the believers from being hurt by the mean things people said.SRme 1.1601