The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 352
far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands in blessing, bade them, “Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel,” adding, “Lo, I am with you
alway” (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:20); when on the Day of Pentecost the
promised Comforter descended and the power from on high was given
and the souls of the believers thrilled with the conscious presence of their
ascended Lord—then, even though, like His, their pathway led through
sacrifice and martyrdom, would they have exchanged the ministry of the
gospel of His grace, with the “crown of righteousness” to be received at
His coming, for the glory of an earthly throne, which had been the hope
of their earlier discipleship? He who is “able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think,” had granted them, with the fellowship of
His sufferings, the communion of His joy—the joy of “bringing many
sons unto glory,” joy unspeakable, an “eternal weight of glory,” to which,
says Paul, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” is “not
worthy to be compared.”
The experience of the disciples who preached the “gospel of the
kingdom” at the first advent of Christ, had its counterpart in the
experience of those who proclaimed the message of His second advent.
As the disciples went out preaching, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom
of God is at hand,” so Miller and his associates proclaimed that the
longest and last prophetic period brought to view in the Bible was about
to expire, that the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting kingdom
was to be ushered in. The preaching of the disciples in regard to time
was based on the seventy weeks of Daniel 9. The message given by
Miller and his associates announced the termination of the 2300 days of
Daniel 8:14, of which the seventy weeks form a part. The preaching of
each was based upon the fulfillment of a different portion of the same
great prophetic period.
Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not,
themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they
bore. Errors that had been long established
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