THIRD WO, - IS IT COME?

“And I beheld and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, “Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound.” Revelation 8:13. In 14. chap. 6 v., John says, “I saw another angel,” etc., referring to one before, which must be this with the three woes. When the fifth angel had sounded 150 years the first wo passed, 9. chap. 1, 12. When the sixth angel had sounded 391 years and 15 days, the second wo passed. 9:13; 11:14. See also J. Litch’s Prophetic Prophecy, Vol.II.BP2 88.3

What I wish to show here is, that there is no distinction between the woes and trumpets. I think no one will be able to show any. Therefore the three woes and the three trumpets are the same. The messengers in examining this subject declared that the sixth trumpet ceased to sound and the second wo passed on the 11th day of August, 1840.BP2 89.1

It is then declared that “the second wo is past, and behold the third wo, or the seventh trumpet, by a voice which is the same, “cometh quickly.” This word denotes a short period in almost every instance in the scriptures. In this case we say it was four years and two months. Then of course it is clear if the seventh angel is sounding, the third wo is come.BP2 89.2

If the wars and various calamities which fell upon men under the fifth trumpet, made it a wo trumpet, and the wo under the sixth trumpet still more severe in the wars and cholera, and various epidemics, do not the awful calamities which have and are taking place in the world, teach us plainly that a greater wo than these has already come? I think Jesus has taught us this plainly in 22 Luke, in the signs which should precede his coming, viz. “Distress of nations, with perplexity, sea and waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” And then the Son of Man will come. Since the fall of 1844, these have been increasing in various ways, until men’s hearts now begin to fail. Here lies before me a pamphlet of 83 pages, entitled, the voice of God, or an account of the unparalleled Fires, Hurricanes, Floods, and Earthquakes, beginning with 1845; also Pestilence, Famine, and Crime - compiled by Thomas M. Preble. Since this work was issued at the beginning of this year, the periodicals of foreign countries and those of our own boasted happy Republic, show that these calamities among men are still increasing to a fearful extent. The inhabitants of many nations are at their wits’ end. A great portion of them have heard that the people of the United States are happy, and have got bread enough and to spare, and they are crowding with their friends and families on ship board, and are almost daily reaching our sea-ports, helpless, sickly, and dependent, crowding on the wharves and streets of the cities, filling up the dispensaries and hospitals, and almost all places of public charity, and railroad and canal depots, to be conveyed to towns and cities in the interior. Bread they want, and must have or perish, and I trust we shall be willing to share with them until our storehouses are “suddenly emptied.” Then I suppose we shall begin to think (if not before) that the third wo has come upon this nation, this boasted land of liberty; this heaven-daring, soul-destroying, slave-holding, neighbor-murdering country! What mean these illuminated cities, roaring of cannon, and pealing of bells, and exultations through the land? Is it because Christ is coming to set up his everlasting kingdom here? Oh no. It is the nation’s te deum in honor of the mighty victory obtained by our gallant murderers (for they would be considered such in every case, until they were licensed by the rulers, chosen by the people). What have they done? Why, they have killed or murdered thousands more of their neighbors than they have had murdered of their own. They have desolated their country for 1200 miles, dispersing their neighbors into caverns, forests and mountains, and in the last great victory they have taken their citadel and fort, and murdered some say from 1000 to 500, mostly women and children; and then let loose between three and four thousand of their enemies famished and starving murderers, that by last accounts were ravaging, pillaging, and devastating all that is pleasant to the eye before them. And they say the whole nation is in a state of anarchy, confusion, distress and revolution! What caused this mighty uproar? Why out of about 7,000,000 of slaves in the Christian world we of this continent can boast of having about 6,000,000 of them. Our neighbors, the Mexicans, undertook some years ago to obey God by breaking the yoke of their slaves. This was too much for the most enlightened nation under the sun to bear. So a revolt ensued, and finally we took a part of their territory from them; from hence has come this havoc and murder. And one portion of the professed church in this boasted land of Bibles and converts have held a convention, and in their zeal for God, (as they would have it,) have chosen the chief murderer, with some of his principal associates, and made them honorary members of the Methodist Missionary Society during their lives. That is to assist them to convert the world. Nashville, Tenn. (From the Boston Liberator, Dec. 25, 1846.BP2 89.3

This was before the last great battle. What honors await them from the professed followers of the Prince of Peace, for this last horrid sanguinary murder of human beings, we do not hear. But the Devil, without any doubt, will instruct his voting religionists how to still honor and sustain these their beloved brethren in the missionary cause! Is there any feature in this picture that looks like the conversion of the world under the third and last wo?BP2 91.1

But the book quoted from - THE VOICE OF GOD - read it, and also Burrett’s One Week in Ireland, (and then the story is not half told,) and tell me if you can what all these calamities mean. If it is not the third wo that is rumbling through the nations of the earth, and hastening greatly to form its focal centre for “such a time of trouble as never was since there was a nation.” This book is advertised in the leading advent papers, and they say read it, and of course would have you believe it, and every other startling calamity respecting distress among nations, which they publish. Tell them you do read and believe, and it is your solemn conviction it is the third and last wo under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and what is the result? Scorn and contempt, by some; ridicule and fanaticism, say others - we don’t want to hear it. Why the third wo can’t come until after immortality; you ought to let these things alone, and be laboring for the conversion of sinners. Where? Why in the world. But you have said the work was done, and we have condemned the world! Well, we have repented of that, and confessed our error, and so ought you. And so we will if you can show us that we were then wrong, and who we must confess to, and that you received your message from heaven. Well, I mean to continue on preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. You have done so; look back two years, and say what have you gained. Experience says leanness, barrenness, and unbelief. Why so? Because this was not the peculiar work for God’s “peculiar people” after Oct. 1844. See 14. Rev. from 12th v. onward to the 17th ch and elsewhere in prophecies. One of the editors of the Herald, after having sufficient time to consider this subject, in 1845, says, “We can no more resume our old plans of spreading the advent doctrine than we can labor for the conversion of the world.” A. Hale. Taking this for the truth, then, by what kind of logic has it become fanaticism now?BP2 91.2

Fires. - The entire loss by fires of the last two years amounts to about 65 millions of dollars, about 45 millions in this country. In 1845, about 31 millions of dollars’ worth was destroyed in something like 38 cities and towns; in a majority of cases the heart, or business part, was destroyed; besides the multitude of small fires under twenty-five thousand dollars, and also thousands of acres of woodland, probably swelling the amount to about forty millions of dollars, and according to numerous accounts, in a majority of instances they raged beyond the control of man. The National Preacher said, “Men have indulged in their own boasted mastery over this great element. New York, Pittsburg and Quebec, on the land - the Lexington, the Pulaski, and the Missouri on the water; are the fearful utterances of judgment addressed to the nation within a few years past, which have started us from our fancied security, and made men tremble at the cry of fire! They said “God in the great fire.” And where was the skeptic, I ask, that doubted it then? It is just as true now as then. “And another angel came out from the altar which had power over fire.” Revelation 14. “Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and a great noise with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” Isa.BP2 91.3

Sea and waves roaring. - The tremendous gales and storms of 1845, and many in ‘46, certainly have not been surpassed in past ages. If I remember right, the lost and missing vessels of this country exceeded 500 sail, and with a great part of those, all hands perished. The coasts of Europe were also visited in a similar manner. Who will soon forget that awful hurricane, commencing in the Gulf of Mexico and Havana, and sweeping the broad Atlantic? Says the account from Havana, “Out of 100 vessels, only 6 have escaped, besides about 50 coasting vessels. The wrecks lay here three deep. Says Commodore Sloat at Key West, “I really never beheld such havoc made on dry land, by the fury of the elements,” and as to the gale, he said “as long as he had been to sea, it was the most furious that ever raged between heaven and earth.” Pages might be written of these disasters. Surely distressed widows, children, and insurance offices, that generally are the living witnesses, could say such a wo has never befell us before. “The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and until he have performed the thoughts of his heart, in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly”. Jeremiah 23:20.BP2 92.1

Floods and inundations in 1845-6 - Since the days of Noah I believe we have no such records. On the shores of the Yellow Sea, whole provinces with population larger than some of the second class kingdoms of Europe, were entirely submerged, carrying death and desolation in its train, sending of them that were spared (upwards of seventeen millions of starving human beings) into the adjacent provinces, crying for bread. Read of that awful one in France; and of 93 villages swept away in Egypt; and in Hungary, and Italy, and many other parts of Europe; and Pennsylvania, Hallowell, Me., Vermont, Pittsburgh, Delaware, Ohio, etc. etc. Surely these have felt the dreadful wo.BP2 92.2

Earthquakes. - I will not stop here to enumerate. The Scientific American records upwards of fifty in 1846. The earth cracking and rending, and “waxing old like a garment.”BP2 93.1

“Thou shalt be visited with thunder, and with earthquake, and a great noise.” Isa.BP2 93.2

Pestilence. - The Asiatic cholera, a dreadful pestilence, God’s flying messenger with a drawn sword in his hand; see 2 Samuel 24:13-25. No wonder that it is described as sailing along the shores of the Yellow Sea, touching here and there, sweeping off 8000 in one place in 72 hours. One account says, “So sudden was death with some, that they were seized, cramped, collapsed, dead, almost as fast as I have written the words.” According to accounts, it is making rapid strides into Europe, as in 1831, under the second wo. And who can stay this angel’s flight across the great Atlantic?BP2 93.3

But why need I go on to state these direful calamities, plagues and famines that are floating on every breeze, and by almost every arrival, and passing the electric wires as the lightning? We know it well. We know, too, that they are the mighty plagues, the last wo, that is rolling through the earth like pealing thunder, giving the warning of the great day of God Almighty! What does God say? “In the latter days ye shall consider it P E R F E C T L Y.” If you do not understand it now, you will not long be left in doubt; the work is being accomplished.BP2 93.4

The prophet says, “The store-houses shall be suddenly emptied.” Where are they? In the United States! How will they be emptied? By the famine in Europe. Take one fact. It is stated in the papers that the deficiency of food in Great Britain is estimated at 16,000,000 quarters. We call this 224,000 tons, which would require 746 ships carrying each 300 tons to transport it. Accounts say 45 ships arrived at Cork in three days, with provisions from the United States, and the prices have fallen. But don’t you see this is not a sixteenth part of the demand? There can be no harvest under 150 days; besides the demand many of the starving nations of the continent are making upon us. It is stated that the poor in Hungary are grinding the bark of trees for food, and Belgium is almost as destitute as Ireland. According to statements, 1500 ship loads will not suffice. Will the store-houses be suddenly emptied? Yes, “you will or shall understand it perfectly.” Last arrival states that gloom and consternation appear to pervade the entire mass of European society.BP2 93.5

The Liverpool accounts say “God only knows what will be the end of this tide of emigration of the Irish to the United States.” Our ships almost constantly leaving our shores laden with provision for their relief, and freighted back with the thousands on thousands of the still destitute and hungry. The New York papers state that 1000 per day arrived in that city from the 1st to the 16th of April. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts on the earth.” Jeremiah 25. These mighty agencies (judgments of God,) that make the nations tremble, is the whirlwind that is now raising up, from the coasts of the earth, under the sounding of the third wo trumpet, emphatically the last plagues on Babylon and the seat of the beast, leading directly down to the time of “Jacob’s trouble.” I think I have proved that this way mark is in the pathway; that is, the third wo has come, the seventh angel has been sounding since Oct.1844. “And when he began to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” I know it is objected to, because of the professed converts since that time. I think we shall find just such a time prophesied of in the last days, see Hosea 5:6-7; Amos 8:11, 12; Ezekiel 7:26; Revelation 18:7, 8. How honest men can look at these passages and not admit their fulfilment before the resurrection. I know not; of this I am clear, that a “thus saith the Lord” is of more weight with me than all the assertions of men. Make me believe God has not said these things, and you have gained your point. Make me believe that God has sent out any one to warn the world, and so fulfil prophecy the second time, and I am ready. I don’t dispute what is said concerning converts in the main, because Hosea v. proves it. But I have no faith in them. If they were to take the decided stand that the little flock are required to, now, to be saved, it would look more like it. Their standard is no higher than their leaders, and theirs is every where on the wane.BP2 94.1

I am aware of the arguments that are resorted to, to resist these clear scriptural fulfilments in advent history. We hear (say they) there are souls converted. So your argument won’t stand. I think the scripture argument will stand ten thousand times firmer than all the said be converts since this trumpet has been sounding. How can you have faith in Babylonish revivals, after Babylon has fallen? Oh, we don’t believe that they can have any converts, for God has rejected them; (this opinion has become almost universal with professed Adventists,) it is their backsliders that we are after; we want to get them out to our meetings, that they may hear us preach the doctrine of the kingdom, and be converted, and become good and substantial Adventists, so that we can continue to say in our publications, in such and such places the advent believers are increasing, and the congregations are becoming large and respectable. I speak advisedly. One of the leading lecturers stated to me that this was his business, viz. to draw backsliders out of the churches, and there is now hardly one of that class that have not followed in his track. I do not know in what dictionary or where in the bible to find the definition of backsliders in a fallen church, (it appears to me they must all be backsliders,) except Jude has given it like those that are “twice dead and plucked up by the roots.” If this be it, where is the hope of their becoming sound in the faith? Well, we mean backsliders in the advent, too! This, to be sure, is rather more tenable ground. But how can you hope to save such, that have fallen by your neglect to encourage and strengthen them in the present truth since 1844. You know you have left God’s peeled and scattered people like sheep upon the mountains without a shepherd. You acknowledged if there were any to be saved, it must be these that were alarmed, and aroused in that mighty searching Cry at Midnight, and trimmed their lamps. If you could not move the other then, how is it possible for you to do it after the disappointment, when they turn upon you and say that you deceived them, and Millerism is a perfect failure? But you say we did not leave them. You certainly did do it in various ways. Look at your publications, and your Albany and subsequent conferences, all tending to establish the belief that it was yours and all advent believer’s duty to be preaching and spreading the doctrine that we had been giving previous to the fall of 1844 - to save backsliders and sinners that you had in various ways acknowledged were already condemned. All such as did not subscribe to this creed and countenance this organization, and of course yield up their former views, have been treated as disorganizers and fanatics. This was too much for some that were then valiant for the truth, such as the leaders of the advent paper, the Hope of Israel, and afterwards Hope within the Vale, at Portland, Me. They must change their position, and make their acknowledgments to your regular organizations, before it should become too late to save their characters. Such treachery as this in Israel’s camp spread dismay all around. The Day Star of Cincinnati, with its editor and a portion of his subscribers, turned their substance and influence into the Shaker camps. The Jubilee Trumpet of New York, which had stood so fearlessly for the truth, fell through, for want of support. Its editor, and many of his adherents, have since taken ground so extremely opposite that their hope if persevered in, will lead them almost any where but to the kingdom - while many others, through lack of stability, moral courage or pure love for the truth, made the best of their way to your congregations, (now composed principally of backsliders in the advent,) and made their confession that they were wrong in believing the seventh trumpet had began to sound, bridegroom come, door shut. This was enough to secure your favor; when if some of them had attempted to confess the fancied, unscriptural and demoralizing doctrines which they had (during this faith) been practicing instead of setting a watch over them, that they may not deceive the respectable congregations, you would rather have believed that it would have been a stigma on the cause of God for them to believe such a Bible doctrine. The Advent Standard moreover had published in the spring of 1844 that “we neither expect nor desire any other organization until we reach the New Jerusalem, and organize under the king of kings:” page 91. Sometimes it looked dark and dreary. At this crisis the Day Dawn came, edited by O. R. L. Crosier, of Canandaigua, N.Y. This is now all the paper that endeavors to sustain the present truth. Now I verily believe if the present truth was allowed to be held up and declared in the organized advent congregations, that seven-eighths of them would disband and flee! The other eighth might possibly remain and hear, and believe. Such is my belief and such my views, and I think they correspond with the prophet Jeremiah. Hear him: “Behold a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury. In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.’ “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from the evil of their doings;” Jeremiah 23:19, 22. In opening my Bible for a passage of scripture to apply here - this was the first reading that caught my eye. As it is given for the last days, it must mean a certain class of teachers which had been in the service of God proclaiming that which he had not authorized them to. I don’t know how it will apply except to such as are repeating the messages of 1843 and ‘44, since the sounding of this seventh trumpet and third wo, as it is said when he begins to sound the mystery of God should be finished. This way mark with high heaps is distinctly in the pathway. This leads us to the next.BP2 95.1