The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 354

based on the prophecy of Daniel 9, while they failed to perceive that the
death of the Messiah was foretold in the same scripture, so Miller and his
associates preached the message based on Daniel 8:14 and Revelation
14:7, and failed to see that there were still other messages brought to
view in Revelation 14, which were also to be given before the advent of
the Lord. As the disciples were mistaken in regard to the kingdom to
be set up at the end of the seventy weeks, so Adventists were mistaken
in regard to the event to take place at the expiration of the 2300 days.
In both cases there was an acceptance of, or rather an adherence to,
popular errors that blinded the mind to the truth. Both classes fulfilled
the will of God in delivering the message which He desired to be given,
and both, through their own misapprehension of their message, suffered
disappointment.
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

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