Yet God accomplished His own beneficent purpose in permitting the warning of the judgment to be given just as it was . The great day was at hand , and in His providence the people were brought to the test of a definite time , in order to reveal to them what was in their hearts . The message was designed for the testing and purification of the church . They were to be led to see whether their affections were set upon this world or upon Christ and heaven . They professed to love the Saviour ; now they were to prove their love . Were they ready to renounce their worldly hopes and ambitions , and welcome with joy the advent of their Lord ? The message was designed to enable them to discern their true spiritual state ; it was sent in mercy to arouse them to seek the Lord with repentance and humiliation .
The disappointment also , though the result of their own misapprehension of the message which they gave , was to be overruled for good . It would test the hearts of those who had professed to receive the warning . In the face of their disappointment would they rashly give up their experience and cast away their confidence in God ' s word ? or would they , in prayer and humility , seek to discern where they had failed to comprehend the significance of the prophecy ? How many had moved from fear , or from impulse and excitement ? How many were halfhearted and unbelieving ? Multitudes professed to love the appearing of the Lord . When called to endure the scoffs and reproach of the world , and the test of delay and disappointment , would they renounce the faith ? Because they did not immediately understand the dealings of God with them , would they cast aside truths sustained by the clearest testimony of His word ?
This test would reveal the strength of those who with real faith had obeyed what they believed to be the teaching of the word and the Spirit of God . It would teach them , as only such an experience could , the danger of accepting the theories and interpretations of men , instead of making the Bible its own interpreter . To the children of faith the perplexity and sorrow resulting from their error would work the needed correction . They would be led to a closer study of the prophetic word . They would be taught to examine more carefully the foundation of their faith , and to reject everything , however widely accepted by the Christian world , that was not founded upon the Scriptures of truth .
With these believers , as with the first disciples , that which in the hour of trial seemed dark to their understanding would afterward be made plain . When they should see the " end of the Lord " they would know that , notwithstanding the trial resulting from their errors , His purposes of love toward them had been steadily fulfilling . They would learn by a blessed experience that He is " very pitiful , and of tender mercy ;" that all His paths " are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies ."
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