Jones’ and Waggoner’s message was "good news" of deliverance from sin, an "easy" conquest by faith of the only remaining hurdle between God’s people and entering their Promised Land. Ellen White soon recognized it as the "beginning" of the long-awaited "Loud Cry" that is to lighten the earth with glory:
The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth.
Frequently she referred to the message as the initial outpouring of the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit. As a farmer’s crops need rain if the harvest is to come, so the Latter Rain is to ripen the "grain" and prepare "for the sickle." This is "the completion of the work of God’s grace in the soul … that prepares the church for the coming of the Son of man." And Satan’s slanderous charges against God can never be silenced and the "great controversy" resolved for the government of God, until His people receive this "completion" of grace "in the soul." Ellen White and the 1888 messengers spoke openly and frankly about getting ready for "translation" then and there.
She also said that Israel’s "leading men" refused the message so that it was shut "away from our people in a great measure" and "by the action of our own [leading] brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world." God’s plan was to give the message first to the leadership; they were to give it to the laity; and the church unitedly was to give it to the world.
Had the purpose of God been carried out in giving the message of mercy to the world, Christ would have come, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God.
Like Israel’s history at Kadesh-Barnea, can any aspect of our history be more important than our preparation for the sealing, our reception of the Latter Rain, and giving of the Loud Cry, and a preparation for the coming of Christ?