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"Miller's Meetings: Hysteria" |
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A Response to the Video:
Seventh-day Adventism, the Spirit Behind the Church
by Bob Pickle
Answers to Questions Raised by:
Mark Martin, Sydney Cleveland
Dale Ratzlaff, The White Lie
. . . and Others
Discern Fact from Fiction
The Millerite Movement
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#8: "William Miller's meetings were marked by much emotionalism and
a great deal of hysteria over
Christ's imminent return."—David Snyder. |
#8: They were marked by emotionalism
and hysteria. Not at all. The fact is that Miller and his associates suppressed
this kind
of thing. Perhaps Mr. Snyder is confusing the Millerite Movement of the 1830's and 1840's
with what happened in Kentucky during the Great
Revival of 1800 (Froom, vol. 4, pp. 38-46).
In a vast ecumenical movement like the Millerite Movement, many people of many
beliefs and worship styles come together. There were
some in the movement who would have felt comfortable in the more emotional services of
modern Pentecostal and charismatic churches, but
Miller and his associates consistently sought to repress such things and even called them
fanaticism.
The eyewitness account of Pastor L. D. Fleming of Portland, Maine, has already been
cited where he said, "There is nothing like extravagant
excitement, but an almost universal solemnity on the minds of all the people." He also
testified:
"The interest awakened by his lectures is of the most deliberate and dispassionate kind,
and though it is the greatest revival I ever saw, yet there
is the least passionate excitement. . . . It seems to me that this must be a
little the nearest like apostolic revivals of anything modern times have
witnessed." Miller, vol. 1, p. 17.
Unitarian minister A. P. Peabody of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said pretty much
the same (Bliss, p. 143).
Miller himself warned those looking for the Advent that Satan would attempt to "get us
from the word of God" by "his wild-fire of fanaticism
and speculation."—Ibid., p. 173. In a December 1844 letter he called vocal
responses from the congregation during meetings fanaticism. The
one example he gives is, "Bless God," showing to what lengths he went in his opposition to
"emotionalism" and "hysteria." He then went on
to write, "I have often obtained more evidence of inward piety from a kindling
eye, a wet cheek, and a
choked utterance, than from all the
noise in Christendom."—Ibid., p. 282.
Regarding the seventh-month movement in particular, Miller testified:
There is something in this present waking up different from anything I have ever
before seen. 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.—Ibid., pp.
270, 271.
Joshua V. Himes, Miller's closest associate and ardent publicist, had this to
say:
Not only Mr. Miller, but all who were in his confidence, took a decided position
against all fanatical extravagances. They never gave them any
quarter; while those who regarded them with favor soon arrayed themselves against Mr.
Miller and his adherents. Their fanaticism increased; and
though opposed by Mr. Miller and his friends, the religious and secular press very generally,
but unjustly, connected his name with it;—he being
no more responsible for it than Luther and Wesley were for similar manifestations in their
day.—Ibid., p. 239. [p. 20]
So where exactly did this slander originate? Himes
endeavors to show its origin by describing some incidents he is all too familiar with (pp.
229 ff.). In October 1842 John Starkweather, an Orthodox Congregationalist, became the
assistant pastor at Himes's church, since Himes was
often on the road with Miller. According to Himes,
[Starkweather] taught that conversion, however full and thorough, did not fit one for
God's favor without a second work; and that this second
work was usually indicated by some bodily sensation.—Ibid., p. 232.
Near the end of April 1843, things were such that Himes felt the matter had to be
confronted. He addressed the congregation about the dangers
of fanaticism, to which address Starkweather gave a vehement reply. So Himes gave another
address, "exposing the nature of the exercises that
had appeared among them, and their pernicious tendency."
This so shocked the sensibilities of those who regarded them as the "great power of
God," that they cried out and stopped their ears. Some
jumped upon their feet, and some ran out of the house. "You will drive out the Holy Ghost!"
cried one. "You are throwing on cold water!" said
another.
"Throwing on cold water!" said Mr. Himes; "I would throw on the Atlantic Ocean
before I would be identified with such abominations as these,
or suffer them in this place unrebuked."
Starkweather immediately announced that "the saints" would thenceforth meet at
another place than the Chardonstreet Chapel; and, retiring,
his followers withdrew with him.
From this time he was the leader of a party, held separate meetings, and, by extending
his visits to other places, he gained a number of adherents.
He was not countenanced by the friends of Mr. Miller; but the public identified him and his
movement with Mr. Miller and his.
This was most unjust to Mr. Miller . . . .—Ibid.,
p. 233)
That it was. And it still is.
The documentation package gives no documentation for this charge
whatsoever. Indeed, none can be found.
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