Hope Renewed

Our hopes now centered the coming of the Lord in 1844. This was also the time for the message of the second angel, who, flying through the midst of heaven, cried, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city.” That message was first proclaimed by the servants of God in the summer of 1844. As a result, many left the familiar churches. In connection with this message the midnight cry was given: “Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him!” ^{*See Matthew 25:1-13} In every part of the land light was given concerning this message, and the cry aroused thousands. It went from city to city, from village to village, and into remote country regions. It reached the learned and talented, as well as the obscure and humble.LSMS 75.1

“This was the happiest year of my life.” My heart was full of glad expectation; but I felt great pity and anxiety for those who were in discouragement and had no hope in Jesus. We united, as a people, in earnest prayer for a true Christian experience and the unmistakable evidence of our acceptance with God.LSMS 75.2

We needed great patience, for the scoffers were many. We were frequently greeted by scornful allusions to our former disappointment. “You have not gone up yet; when do you expect to go up?” and similar taunts were often vented upon us by our worldly acquaintances, and even by some professed Christians who accepted the Bible, yet failed to learn its great and important truths. Their blinded eyes seemed to see but a vague and distant meaning in the solemn warning, “God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world,” and in the assurance that the saints will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.LSMS 76.1