Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1867-01-24
Another Disappointed FrOpii'
rFrum the Indiana Journal. /


The Second Adveniists are bad guess
ers. They have assigned a definite date
for the world to- come to an end every two
years since 1888. but it rolls right along
through the perilous period as indifierently
as if it expected TO keep going forever.
William Miller thought he saw the fatal
day in October, 1912, and with the help oi
Daniels perplcxing combination of singu-
lar, plural and fractional ''time" and the
mystical predictions of the PatmOs exile.
he made a hundred thousand others as
confident as himself. They made ascen-
sion robes of white muslin. and waited for
the coming ofthc Lord on house tops and
in open fields. The dav passed and they
pulled off their robes. and corrected their
calculations. They put the end back six
months into April, 1913. The robes were
as good as new and expectations were
higher for the previous disappointment.
But the April showers fell as usual. and the
flowers sprang up as blithely as ever. May
came. but not the end of the seasons. The
Adventists began to feel that Interpreting
prohpecies into arithmeiical formul9 was
a very uncertain way of getting at the
Prophets meaning, and many 0fthem con-
cluded to wait the Lords good time in
stead of trying TO hurry il by reminders OF
what they thought his messengers had
promised. But Joshua V. Hines and Mr..
Miller would not take mo" for an answer,
though il had been very emphatically pro-
nounced and repeated They fixed sue
cessfuly IS47, 1913, 1857, 1861, for the
great catastrophe, but still it fingered, if il
had ever started. About quarter Of a
century ago, they received strong rein
forcemenf of erudition and eloquence, il
not of prophetic gifts, in the celebrated
Doctor John Cumming, of London. But
the mysteries of the Apocalypse seem to
have been as impcnetrable to learning as to
ignorance, and Dr. Cummings 'Dies hG'
was no more punctual than the Pitsfeid
preachers Twenty years ago, the London
papers say, he affirmed positively. and not
as conjecture directed by plausible inter
pretatiOns of Scripture, that the end would
come within four years. not figuratively, in
some rearrangement of ecclesiastical or Sc
cular affairs, but literally, as the words
would be applied to the destruction of "a
building. 1t seems to have been well
attested prediction, as correspondent OF
the London Advertiser says that it was
made i'm Exeter Hall, in the bearing of five
thousand persons, among whom so un-
qualified an assertion of the approach of
an event so fearful to at least four thousand
nine hundred and ninety-nine who were
unfit to meet il, produced great excite
ment ifnot CONSERVATION. His disappoint-
ment. like Miller's, instead of instilling res
ignation, only inspired more determined
application of arithmetic to the the rhapso-
dies of the Beloved Apostle. He kept on
calculating. and at last announced that the
world and the year 1866 would die togeth-
er. When the last hour of the year took
wing to join the millions of dead ages that
had proceeded it, ''time would be no
more" Fis followers confidently waited
to hear the last trump till ''the. chimes tn
rrn~ the old year ont" realed from the
chrrch stecplrs. Then they gave up all
hope and concluded tn live till thev died.
IKE other people. The Reverend Doctor
now insists that he never assigned posi-