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From Here to Forever - Contents
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    “Go and Tell It to the World”

    “When I was about my business,” he said, “it was continually ringing in my ears, ‘Go and tell the world of their danger.’ This text was constantly occurring to me: ‘When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.’ I felt that if the wicked could be effectually warned, multitudes of them would repent; and that if they were not warned, their blood might be required at my hand.”5Ezekiel 33:8; Bliss, p. 92. The words were ever recurring to his mind: “Go and tell it to the world; their blood will I require at thy hand.” For nine years he waited, the burden still pressing upon his soul, until in 1831 he for the first time publicly gave the reasons of his faith.HF 207.1

    He was now fifty, unaccustomed to public speaking, but his labors were blessed. His first lecture was followed by a religious awakening. Thirteen entire families, with the exception of two persons, were converted. He was urged to speak in other places, and in nearly every place sinners were converted. Christians were roused to greater consecration, and deists and infidels were led to acknowledge the truth of the Bible. His preaching aroused the public mind and checked the growing worldliness and sensuality of the age.HF 207.2

    In many places Protestant churches of nearly all denominations were thrown open to him, and invitations usually came from the ministers. It was his rule not to labor in any place to which he had not been invited, yet he soon found himself unable to comply with half the requests that poured in. Many were convinced of the certainty and nearness of Christ's coming and their need of preparation. In some of the large cities, liquor dealers turned their shops into meeting rooms; gambling dens were broken up; infidels and even the most abandoned profligates were reformed. Prayer meetings were established by the various denominations at almost every hour, businessmen assembling at midday for prayer and praise. There was no extravagant excitement. His work, like that of the early Reformers, tended rather to convince the understanding and arouse the conscience than merely to excite emotion.HF 207.3

    In 1833 Miller received a license to preach from the Baptist Church. A large number of the ministers of his denomination approved his work; it was with their formal sanction that he continued his labors. He traveled and preached unceasingly, never receiving enough to meet the expense of travel to the places where he was invited. Thus his public labors were a heavy tax upon his property.HF 208.1

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