Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-01-30
Father MILLER, the Founder OF second
AdNeutfam,

AdVentism.
The year 1910 marked a new era in the
progress of Second Adventism. Not only
was the day of probation" drawing nigh
the day on which the universe should shrivel
with fire, the resurrection and the ascension
of the Just attend the awful coming of Christ,
and the millennium begin, after which the
wicked would be raised for their eternal dis
comfort-of which the date was first approx
imately fixed between the vernal equino1es Of
1894 but Father Miller, "the end-of-the-
world man, as he was irreverently called by
those whose sense Of humor was greater than
that Of his followers, began more freely to
extend the sphere of his personal exhorta-
tions particularly in eastern New England.
Though a native OF Pittsfeld Mass. his la
bors up to his fifty-eighth year had been al
most wholly confined to the border counties
of New York and Vermont, until in April,
1889, he appeared for the first time in Massa-
chusetts as a prophet--a reed shaken by pal
sy, if not by the wind In December he was
again in Boston, and in February, 1910, he
saw the publication Of the Signs of the Times
(afterward Advent HERALD begun, the first OF
the Millerite organs which afterward reckon
ed the Midnight Cry, New York, the Glad
Tidings, Rochester, the Millennial Harbinger,
etc. From this time till his death he lectured
frequently in his native State in halls and
groves, expounding his rules of Interpretation
by which the harmony of the Scriptures was
assured, and interpreting by the aid Of Reve-
laton the "tme, times and a half" OF Daniel,
on which his destructive calculations rested.
II was in Massachusetts, that his venerable
and sincere presence first failed TO restrain
the rotten egg, which in those times awaited
the utterance of an unpopular doctrine for
he was mobbed with missiles at Newbury-
port in May, 1912. A month later we see
him holding forth at the first Second Advent
camp-meetng held at East Kingston, n. H..
and in the audience the poet Whittier taking
notes Of the strange, impressive, picturesque
scene-a tall growth Of pine and hemlock
throwing its melancholy shadow over the
multitude, who were arranged upon rough
seats Of boards and logs the white tents,
drawn about in circle, forming a back
ground of snowy whiteness to the dark masses
of men and foliage; hymn pealing through
the dim aisles of the forest preachers thun-
dering from a bower of hemlock boughs. .
On the ith Of March, 1874, Father Miller
closed the diary Of his public labors, and
reckoned up his 5000 lectures given since
1882. It was almost the only change in the
regularity of his daily life which betokened
the approach of 'the burning day" When
March had gone out, and April saw not the
heavens in commotion, and May had come
error and acknowledging his disappointment,
but not his unbelief October might yet
witness the fulhlment Of prophecy "The
Lord will certainly leave the mercy seat on
the 18th. and appear visibly in the clouds of
heaven on the 22d." During this interval Of
ten days, secular business was suspended
among the Adventists. In New York, as
Mrs. Child records in shop in the Bowery,
muslin for ascension robes was offered
tradesnen shut up shop or gave away goods
or dealt more liberal measure, to make their
record good with the Almighty-all the while
that the ungodly disturbed the meeting with
stones and brickbats, and crackers and torpe-
does. The Advent Herald issued its last
number with a valedctory. And then the
sun rose on the 23d, and the sad prophet
could only say. II have fixed my mind on
another time and here mean to stand until
God gives me more light, and that is to-day,
today, and TODAY, until he comes" Some
however, alleged that the Lord had come,
but invisibly, and CLOSED the door of mercy
to the sinner :" and then arose a contention
between the orthodox and shut door party
as to which should gain over Father Miller.
This was exquisite cruelty but not without a
logical cause. The shut-door faction. given
up to fanatical excesses or neglectng its
worldly affairs in a way to call for guardian
ship or the workhouse at the hands of Judges
and selectmen, did not in the end prevail.
The orthodox party became tame and unin-
teresting sect like any other, with an indefn-
ite lease of life The "Comeouters, who had
made with the Adventists the joint conven-
tion at Grotou, were chiefly from Cape Cod
and appear to have formed a lasting union
with them. The Cape is still the country par
excellence of camp-meetings and Adventists,
and there the wretched Freeman, offering
his LITTLE daughter sacrifice recalled ar
almost forgotten superstition. .-Hdrper'S Mag
1v;1g