In 1837 a traumatic event occurred in the life of a small girl in Portland, Maine. This event eventually would have far-reaching consequences in all parts of the world. In 1837 the groundswell of expectation that Christ would come in 1844 was moving toward a crisis. In 1837 appointments for lectures in Vermont alone filled many pages in William Miller's memorandum book.
In 1837 the United States was struck by a depression. Robert Harmon, a hatmaker and father of eight, the youngest being his 9-year-old twins, Ellen and Elizabeth, had moved his family from the rural farm in Gorham, Maine, to the city of Portland, where he thought to find a better market for hats. But even the hat business had been affected. So one day in the winter of 1837-1838 he decided to take his supply of hats to Georgia in hope of a more ready sale. Doubtless there was an air of excitement in the family the night before he was to leave, as they helped wrap the hats and place them in a large leather bag.
In imagination we can see the whole family following the father to the stage depot early the next morning. Together they walked the dirt paths near their home, and then on the wooden sidewalks down to the old "Elm House" to catch the western stage for Boston and points south.
As Robert Harmon placed his hat box on top of the stage, he climbed in and turned to wave goodbye. Lovingly he looked at the cheerful, well-formed features of Ellen's face. The next time he was to see his precious daughter she would be much changed.
It was mid-afternoon. Ellen and Elizabeth, with a classmate, were crossing a park when they noticed that an older girl who also attended Portland's Brackett Street School was following them. Carrying a stone, she shouted some angry words. The Harmon children had been taught never to retaliate, so they ran toward home.
As they ran, Ellen turned to see how far behind them the girl was. When she turned, the stone hit her directly in the face. She fell to the ground unconscious, blood streaming from her nose and staining her clothes. Someone gave her first aid in a nearby store. Then a customer, a total stranger, offered to take Ellen home in his carriage. But Ellen, fearing that she might soil his carriage with blood, refused. However, as she made the attempt by foot, she soon became faint and collapsed to the ground. Elizabeth and the classmate managed to carry her home, a block or two away.
Anxious days followed. Ellen lay in a coma for three weeks. When consciousness returned, she remembered nothing of the experience. All she knew was that she was lying on her cot in great weakness. Then one day she heard a visitor say, "What a pity! I should not know her."
"Let me see," Ellen said.
They handed her a mirror. The shock was almost more than she could bear.
Every feature of my face seemed changed.... The bone of my nose proved to be broken. The idea of carrying my misfortune through life was insupportable. I could see no pleasure in my life. I did not wish to live, and I dared not die, for I was not prepared (Spiritual Gifts, 2:9).
Ellen soon learned the tremendous difference one's personal appearance makes in the way one is treated. Though she slowly regained her strength for play, her young friends spurned her.
Another consequence of her accident was that she found it impossible to study. She could not retain what she learned, and her hand was too unsteady to write. Her teacher advised her to drop out of school until her health improved. She recalled:
It was the hardest struggle of my young life to yield to my feebleness and decide that I must leave my studies and give up the hope of gaining an education (Testimonies for the Church, 1:13).
Ellen often felt unreconciled to being a near-invalid. She also felt a deep sense of sin and guilt. At times, almost overwhelmed with distress, she turned to Jesus for comfort, and received from Him consolation.
"I believed that Jesus did love even me," she said (Spiritual Gifts, 2:11).
Later on Ellen realized that the cruel blow that made her life miserable proved to be a blessing in disguise. "I might never have known Jesus, had not the sorrow that clouded my early years led me to seek comfort in Him" (The Review and Herald, November 25, 1884).
In March 1840 William Miller conducted a series of revival meetings in Portland, Maine. In the series he lectured on the second coming of Christ and other Bible prophecies. Earnestly he preached that the end of the world was near. With her family and friends Ellen attended the meetings. Miller's powerful and solemn sermons brought "terrible conviction" to the entire city, and comfort and hope to 12-year-old Ellen (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 137).
Ellen's Developing Christian Experience
In the summer of 1842 Ellen and her parents attended the Methodist camp meeting at Buxton, Maine. One sermon in particular led her to an understanding of justification by faith. Later she wrote:
In his remarks the speaker referred to those who were wavering between hope and fear, longing to be saved from their sins and receive the pardoning love of Christ, yet held in doubt and bondage by timidity and fear of failure. He counseled such ones to surrender themselves to God and venture upon His mercy without delay (Ibid., 140).
Soon after her return to Portland from the camp meeting Ellen was taken into the Methodist Church on probation, with baptism to follow. In those days baptism as a means of acceptance into the Methodist Church was administered either by sprinkling or immersion. Ellen chose immersion. On Sunday afternoon, June 26, 1842, she and 11 others were baptized in the rather rough waters of Portland's Casco Bay.
About this time--in 1842--William Miller was back in Portland for another series of meetings on the Second Advent. Ellen attended faithfully and observed closely his demeanor and manner of preaching. Convinced that the doctrine he preached was the truth, she fully accepted his message, as did her older brother, Robert. Both decided it was their duty and privilege to prepare for the Saviour's coming.
In spite of her faith, Ellen's joy and confidence often were shadowed by periods of perplexity and deep concern. When she confided her anxieties to her mother, she was advised to ask counsel from Levi F. Stockman, who was then preaching the Advent doctrine in Portland.
Ellen told Elder Stockman about a dream she had had in which she was taken up some steps to see Jesus. Jesus received her with a smile and said, "Fear not."
Elder Stockman placed his hand on her head and said, with tears in his eyes, "Ellen, you are only a child. Yours is a most singular experience for one of your tender age. Jesus must be preparing you for some special work" (Ibid., 158).
This was the turning point in Ellen's experience. That evening she attended a prayer meeting and offered her first prayer in public.
"I praised God from the depths of my heart," she said. "Everything seemed shut out from me but Jesus and His glory, and I lost consciousness of what was passing around me" (Ibid., 159).
From this time forward Ellen's whole purpose in life was to do the will of God and keep Jesus continually in mind. She shared this newfound joy with her young friends, arranging meetings with them and telling them in a simple way the story of her experience.
Bearing Public Witness
Ellen's father and mother, Robert and Eunice Harmon, had been faithful members of the Chestnut Street Methodist Church for several years. They also were earnest believers in the soon coming of Christ. Young Robert and Ellen often attended class meetings in private homes. At one such meeting Ellen told in a simple way of her recent experience and the blessings she enjoyed as her life had been brought into full conformity to the will of God and confidence in Jesus' soon coming. She expected that her friends would understand and rejoice with her, but she was disappointed.
The class leader questioned her and suggested it would be better to look forward to the temporal millennium when the earth would be filled with the knowledge of God.
On another occasion, when it came time for her to testify, Ellen's heart was so full that she again spoke of looking forward in glad expectation to soon meeting her Redeemer. She said that this hope stirred her to seek sanctification of the Spirit of God.
"You received sanctification through Methodism," interjected the class leader. "Through Methodism, sister, not through an erroneous theory."
Ellen felt compelled to confess the truth. It was not through Methodism that she had received the new blessing, but by the stirring truths related to the soon coming of Jesus. This was the last testimony Ellen was to bear to this Methodist class.
Her brother, Robert, followed with a clear and impressive talk. Although some were much moved, others coughed with dissent and seemed quite uneasy. After leaving the classroom, Robert and Ellen again talked over their faith and marveled that their Christian brothers and sisters could not endure having their Saviour's coming discussed. They decided that they should no longer attend the Methodist class meeting.
Cast Out From The Methodist Church
Not long after this, the officers of the Chestnut Street Methodist Church took steps to separate the Harmon family from its membership. The minister made them a special visit. He did not inquire as to the reasons for their beliefs, but stated that they had adopted a new and strange belief that the Methodist Church could not accept.
"This is a very old doctrine," said Mr. Harmon, "and bears no taint of heresy." Mr. Harmon was prepared to quote Scripture in defense of his faith, including the promise of Jesus Himself that He would come again. But the minister was not willing to enter into any discussion. He advised the family to withdraw quietly from the church and avoid the publicity of a trial. But this proposition Robert Harmon refused to accept. Soon the family was notified to be present at a meeting to be held in the church vestry. Of this meeting Ellen reported:
There were but few present. The influence of my father and my family was such that our opposers had no desire to present our cases before a larger number of the congregation. The single charge preferred was that we had walked contrary to their rules (Ibid., 174).
Thus, on a Sunday in September 1843, the presiding elder read off the seven names of the Harmon family as discontinued from the church. He stated that they were not expelled on account of any wrong or immoral conduct, but because they were guilty of walking contrary to the rules of the Methodist Church. He also declared that all who were guilty of a similar breach of the rules would be dealt with in like manner.
1844--And Following
During the last few weeks leading up to April 21, 1844--the time first thought to be the end of the 2300-day prophecy--preparations for the glorious advent of Christ intensified. The rich and the poor, the high and the low, ministers and laymen, crowded into Portland's Beethoven Hall to hear the final exhortations to repent. Ellen White recalled the unity and peace among those of the sincere believers in her circle of friends and family:
How carefully and tremblingly did we approach the time of expectation. We sought, as a people, with solemn earnestness to purify our lives that we might be ready to meet the Saviour at His coming....
Worldly business was for the most part laid aside for a few weeks. We carefully scrutinized every thought and emotion of our hearts as if upon our deathbeds.... There was no making "ascension robes" for the great event; we felt the need of internal evidence that we were prepared to meet Christ....
But the time of expectation passed.... The disappointment of God's waiting people was great (Ibid., 180-184).
Although perplexed and disappointed, they did not renounce their faith. Ellen said:
We fully believed that God, in His wisdom, designed that His people should meet with a disappointment, which was well calculated to reveal hearts and develop the true characters of those who had professed to look for and rejoice in the coming of the Lord (Ibid., 186).
Their confidence seemed well founded, for even scholars who had no conviction about the near advent of Christ saw no flaw in the reckoning of the prophecy. Ardently the believers had proclaimed what they understood to be the message of the first angel of Revelation, "The hour of his judgment is come" (Revelation 14:7). The Bible contained numerous prophecies concerning the second advent of Christ, foremost of which was given by Jesus Himself: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2, 3).
Some of these promises seemed linked with the judgment. Basic was the prophecy of Daniel 8:14: "Unto two thousand three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." They thought this earth to be the sanctuary; it would be cleansed by fire at the second advent of Christ.
When April 21, 1844, passed and Jesus did not come, the believers checked and rechecked the basis of their reckoning.
Calculation of the time was so simple and plain that even the children could understand it. From the date of the decree of the king of Persia, found in Ezra 7, which was given in 457 before Christ, the 2300 years of Daniel 8:14 must terminate with 1843. Accordingly we looked to the end of this year for the coming of the Lord. We were sadly disappointed when the year entirely passed away and the Saviour had not come.
It was not at first perceived that if the decree did not go forth at the beginning of the year 457 B.C., the 2300 years would not be completed at the close of 1843. But it was ascertained that the decree was given near the close of the year 457 B.C.... Therefore the vision of time did not tarry, though it had seemed to do so (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 185, 186).
A careful study of types and antitypes led to the observation that the crucifixion of Christ took place on the very day in the yearly round of ceremonies given to Israel when the Passover lamb was slain. Would not the cleansing of the sanctuary typified in the Day of Atonement--falling on the tenth day of the seventh month--likewise take place on the very day in the year celebrated in the type? This, according to the true Mosaic reckoning of time, would be October 22.
Early in August 1844, at a camp meeting at Exeter, New Hampshire, this view was presented and accepted as the date for the fulfillment of the prophecy of the 2300 days. The parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1-13 took on particular significance--the tarrying of the bridegroom, the waiting and slumbering of those who awaited the marriage, the cry at midnight, the shutting of the door, etc. The message that Christ was coming on October 22 came to be known as the "midnight cry." "The 'midnight cry,'" wrote Ellen White, "was heralded by thousands of believers" (The Great Controversy, 400).
Their hopes now centered in the coming of the Lord on October 22, 1844.
This was also the time for the message of the second angel, who, flying through the midst of heaven, cried, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city." Many left the churches in obedience to the message of the second angel. Near its close the Midnight Cry was given: "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him"! (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 187).
This was "the happiest year of my life," recalled Ellen. "My heart was full of glad expectation; but I felt great pity and anxiety for those who were in discouragement and had no hope in Jesus."
Light was being given concerning this message in every part of the land, and the cry aroused thousands. It went from city to city, from village to village, and into the remote country regions. It reached the learned and talented, as well as the obscure and humble (ibid).
In spite of the evidences of a work sweeping across the land and drawing thousands into the fellowship of the Second Advent, and some 200 ministers from various churches united in spreading the message, * the Protestant churches as a whole spurned it and used every means at their command to prevent the belief in Christ's soon coming from spreading. No one dared to mention in a church service the hope of the soon coming of Jesus, but to those awaiting the event it was quite different. Ellen White described what it was like:
Every moment seemed precious and of the utmost importance to me. I felt that we were doing work for eternity, and that the careless and uninterested were in the greatest peril. My faith was unclouded, and I appropriated the precious promises of Jesus to myself....
With diligent searching of hearts and humble confession we came prayerfully up to the time of expectation. Every morning we felt that it was our first business to secure the evidence that our lives were right before God. We realized that if we were not advancing in holiness we were sure to retrograde. Our interest for each other increased; we prayed much with and for one another.
We assembled in the orchards and groves to commune with God and to offer up our petitions to Him, feeling more clearly His presence when surrounded by His natural works. The joys of salvation were more necessary to us than our food and drink. If clouds obscured our minds we dared not rest or sleep till they were swept away by the consciousness of our acceptance with the Lord (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 188, 189).
The Great Disappointment Of October 22, 1844
With bated breath the Adventists, no fewer than 50,000 and probably nearer 100,000 scattered largely across the northeastern portion of North America, arose to greet the eventful day, Tuesday, October 22, 1844.
Some sought vantage points where they could peer into the clear heavens, hoping to catch a first glimpse of the coming of their returning Lord. When would Jesus come? The morning hours passed slowly. Noon came, then midafternoon. Finally darkness settled upon the earth. But it was still October 22, and it would be till midnight. At last that hour came, but Jesus did not come.
Their disappointment was almost beyond description. In later years some wrote of the experience. Hiram Edson gave a vivid account of how they looked for the coming of the Lord "until the clock tolled twelve at midnight. Then our disappointment became a certainty."
Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept and wept, till the day dawn.
I mused in my own heart, saying, "My advent experience has been the richest and brightest of all my Christian experience. If this has proved a failure, what was the rest of my Christian experience worth? Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God, no heaven, no golden home city, no Paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there no reality to our fondest hopes and expectation of these things?" And thus we had something to grieve and weep over, if all our fondest hopes were lost. And as I said, we wept, till the day dawn (DF 588, Hiram Edson manuscript [see also The Review and Herald, June 23, 1921]).
Ellen White gave this eyewitness account:
We were disappointed but not disheartened. We resolved to submit patiently to the process of purifying that God deemed needful for us; to refrain from murmuring at the trying ordeal by which the Lord was purging us from the dross and refining us like gold in the furnace. We resolved to wait with patient hope for the Saviour to redeem His tried and faithful ones.
We were firm in the belief that the preaching of definite time was of God. It was this that led men to search the Bible diligently, discovering truths they had not before perceived....
Our disappointment was not so great as that of the disciples. When the Son of man rode triumphantly into Jerusalem they expected Him to be crowned king.... Yet in a few days these very disciples saw their beloved Master, whom they believed would reign on David's throne, stretched upon the cruel cross above the mocking, taunting Pharisees. Their high hopes were drowned in bitter disappointment, and the darkness of death closed about them. Yet Christ was true to His promises (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 190-192).
Ellen Harmon Receives Her First Vision
During this period of uncertainty and bitter disappointment Ellen's health, already impaired, worsened rapidly. Tuberculosis, it seemed, would take her life. She could speak only in a whisper or broken voice. Her heart was seriously affected. She found it difficult to breathe lying down, and at night was often bolstered to almost a sitting position. She was frequently awakened from sleep by coughing and bleeding in her lungs.
While in this condition Ellen responded to an invitation from a close friend, Mrs. Elizabeth Haines, just a little older than she, to visit her in her home across the causeway in south Portland. It was December, and cold, but even so Ellen went to spend a few days with her. Mrs. Haines was perplexed because of the seeming failure of the fulfillment of prophecy in October. Ellen, too, no longer had confidence in the validity of the October date. For her and her fellow believers, October 22 seemed to have no real significance. They now considered as yet in the future the events they had expected to take place on October 22 (Letter 3, 1847; A Word to the Little Flock, 22).
At morning family worship three other young women joined Mrs. Haines and Ellen. The commonly held belief is that this worship experience occurred in a second-floor room of the house at the corner of Ocean and C streets. The exact date is not known, but in 1847 Ellen White placed it in December 1844. She later recalled:
While I was praying at the family altar, the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, "Look again, and look a little higher."
At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the Advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the beginning of the path, which an angel told me was the Midnight Cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so that they might not stumble. If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe.
But soon some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising His glorious right arm, and from His arm came a light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, "Alleluia!"
Others rashly denied the light behind them and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind them went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below. Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming. The living saints, 144,000 in number, knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spoke the time, He poured upon us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses' did when he came down from Mount Sinai.
The 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious star containing Jesus' new name.
At our happy, holy state the wicked were enraged, and would rush violently up to lay hands on us to thrust us into prison, when we would stretch forth the hand in the name of the Lord, and they would fall helpless to the ground. Then it was that the synagogue of Satan knew that God had loved us who could wash one another's feet and salute the brethren with a holy kiss, and they worshiped at our feet.
Soon our eyes were drawn to the east, for a small black cloud * had appeared, about half as large as a man's hand, which we all knew was the sign of the Son of man. We all in solemn silence gazed on the cloud as it drew nearer and became lighter, glorious, and still more glorious, till it was a great white cloud. The bottom appeared like fire; a rainbow was over the cloud, while around it were ten thousand angels, singing a most lovely song; and upon it sat the Son of man. His hair was white and curly and lay on His shoulders; and upon His head were many crowns. His feet had the appearance of fire; in His right hand was a sharp sickle; in His left, a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire, which searched His children through and through.
Then all faces gathered paleness, and those that God had rejected gathered blackness. Then we all cried out, "Who shall be able to stand? Is my robe spotless?" Then the angels ceased to sing, and there was some time of awful silence, when Jesus spoke: "Those who have clean hands and pure hearts shall be able to stand; My grace is sufficient for you." At this our faces lighted up, and joy filled every heart. And the angels struck a note higher and sang again, while the cloud drew still nearer the earth.
Then Jesus' silver trumpet sounded, as He descended on the cloud, wrapped in flames of fire. He gazed on the graves of the sleeping saints, then raised His eyes and hands to heaven, and cried, "Awake! awake! awake! ye that sleep in the dust, and arise." Then there was a mighty earthquake. The graves opened, and the dead came up clothed with immortality. The 144,000 shouted, "Alleluia!" as they recognized their friends who had been torn from them by death, and in the same moment we were changed and caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.
We all entered the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass (Early Writings, 14-16 [see also The Day-Star, January 24, 1846]).