The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 402
preparation to meet the Lord was the burden of agonizing spirits. There
was persevering prayer and unreserved consecration to God.
Said Miller in describing that work: “There is no great expression
of joy: that is, as it were, suppressed for a future occasion, when all
heaven and earth will rejoice together with joy unspeakable and full of
glory. There is no shouting: that, too, is reserved for the shout from
heaven. The singers are silent: they are waiting to join the angelic hosts,
the choir from heaven.... There is no clashing of sentiments: all are of
one heart and of one mind.”—Bliss, pages 270, 271.
Another who participated in the movement testified: “It produced
everywhere the most deep searching of heart and humiliation of soul
before the God of high heaven. It caused a weaning of affections from
the things of this world, a healing of controversies and animosities,
a confession of wrongs, a breaking down before God, and penitent,
brokenhearted supplications to Him for pardon and acceptance. It
caused self-abasement and prostration of soul, such as we never before
witnessed. As God by Joel commanded, when the great day of God
should be at hand, it produced a rending of hearts and not of garments,
and a turning unto the Lord with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.
As God said by Zechariah, a spirit of grace and supplication was poured
out upon His children; they looked to Him whom they had pierced, there
was a great mourning in the land, ... and those who were looking for
the Lord afflicted their souls before Him.”—Bliss, in Advent Shield and
Review, vol. I, p. 271 (January, 1845).
Of all the great religious movements since the days of the apostles,
none have been more free from human imperfection and the wiles of
Satan than was that of the autumn of 1844. Even now, after the lapse of
many years, all who shared in that movement and who have stood firm
upon the platform of truth still feel the holy influence of that blessed
work and bear witness that it was of God.
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