Seventh Day Adventist Roots, part 7

Joseph Bates, the next personality in our list of four prominent men to associate with the Millerite movement, was born in 1792, in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. His parents were members of the Congregational Church. His father had been a captain in the Revolutionary War. At the age of fifteen, Bates took to the sea, sailing for Europe as cabin boy. He had many thrilling experiences while at sea, including surviving a collision with an iceberg; being commandeered as a gunner on the HMS Rodney, serving on blockade duty in the war between England and France; spending two and a half years as a prisoner of war and finally returning home after a six year absence. Bates married Prudence Nye, in 1818, and continued his work on ocean going vessels, rising to the rank of captain.

On his first trip as captain, he forbade anyone to drink “ardent spirits” aboard ship. On the next trip he determined to stop drinking, and later gave up smoking. In 1826, his wife placed a New Testament in his trunk. This turned out to be the beginning of a spiritual awakening for him. When one of his crewmembers became sick, Bates became anxious and, after a struggle, he began to pray. The death of the crewmember and his own responsibility, as captain, for the funeral service, brought him closer to God. At this point, he surrendered his life to Christ and began to study the Bible and pray every day. When he arrived home, Bates was baptized, and, in 1827, joined the New Bedford Christian Church, the church to which his wife belonged. The minister that baptized him refused to join Bates in his fight against liquor. With the help of the Congregationalist minister in Fairhaven he formed the Fairhaven Temperance Society. At this point, Bates gave up the use of tea and coffee.

Joseph Bates had strong convictions. While aboard ship, he gathered his crew and read them the rules for the voyage. These rules included prohibiting the use of intoxicants, swearing or washing of clothes on Sunday and the mandatory attendance at daily worship. Two of the crew were converted on the voyage. In 1826, he retired from sea service with a comfortable fortune. He turned his energies to serious church work and reform movements, always taking the side of the oppressed. Over the next few years, Bates formed a number of reform movements, each time losing some friends. In the face of opposition, he formed an antislavery society. He planned for a manual training school and, to provide labor, he planted three mulberry orchards to produce silk for market.

In 1839, a ministerial friend invited him to attend a lecture on the Second Advent. When Bates heard the message he exclaimed, “That is the truth.” He and Joshua Himes had been associated in various reform activities. Now Himes also became interested in Miller’s views on the Second Advent. Shortly after obtaining a copy of Miller’s Lectures, Bates fully accepted their teaching regarding premillennialism as the most important reform for that time.

As a member of the authorizing committee for the first General Conference, at Boston, in 1841, Bates invited Miller to hold a series of meetings in Fairhaven. He soon after became an active and successful Millerite minister. He was chosen chairman of the conference that authorized the production of lithographs of Fitch’s “1843 Chart,” and approved the conducting of campmeetings that were very successful.

Opposition to the advent message soon developed among the members of the Fairhaven Christian Church, leading him to withdraw from its membership. “In 1843 he sold his home, and most of his other real estate, and prepared to go where needed to herald the Second Coming of Christ. He had a burden to go down to the slaveholding States of the South, where other lecturers had been driven out by hostile inhabitants. Bates was warned that he would probably be killed because of his well-known abolitionist principles. Undeterred, he went into Maryland and preached to large numbers, H. S. Gurney, baritone singer, accompanying him. Their success aroused resentment and opposition, and a fiery Methodist class leader threatened to have them ridden out of town on a rail. Bates made the instant but telling rejoinder, ‘If you will put a saddle on it, we would rather ride than walk.’ This nimble reply disconcerted the man, and Bates continued: ‘You must not think that we have come six hundred miles through the ice and snow, at our own expense to give you the Midnight Cry, without first sitting down and counting the cost. And now, if the Lord has no more for us to do, we had as lief [gladly] lie at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay as anywhere else until the Lord comes. But if He has any more work for us to do, you can’t touch us.’

“The Baltimore Patriot learned of the episode and after relating the story, said significantly: ‘The crush of matter and the wreck of worlds would be nothing to such men.’ In another incident in a little Maryland town, Bates made this reply: ‘Yes, Judge, I am an abolitionist, and have come to get your slaves and you too! As to getting your slaves from you, we have no such intention, for if you should give us all you have (and I was informed he owned quite a number), we should not know what to do with them. We teach that Christ is coming, and we want you all saved.’ ” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 548.

On the journey home, by boat, Bates hung up the prophetic chart, sang an advent hymn and gave a lecture on the coming crisis. When they transferred to a train he continued lecturing. He visited a number of islands along the coast of Massachusetts and many were converted to the Second Advent faith.

By 1848, Bates had accepted the Sabbath and was instrumental in the proclamation of that message. He held key positions all through the Advent Movement from 1840 on. He wrote a short history of the advent cause from 1840 –1847 titled, Second Advent Way Marks and High Heaps, the first of its kind.

“Bates pioneering spirit led him west to Michigan in 1849, where, in time, he gathered a company of converts in Jackson. In 1852, he went on to Battle Creek. Arriving early in the morning, and asking the postmaster for the name of the most honest man in town, he was directed to a Presbyterian by the name of David Hewitt. Bates was soon rapping on Hewitt’s door, telling him that he had some important Bible truth for him. The Hewitts became the first converts in Battle Creek, and their home the meeting place for a growing group.

“That episode was characteristic of Bates. He would go where there were no believers, secure a schoolhouse, hall, church, or even a home, hang up his chart, and preach the new-found light on the prophecies, and churches would come into being. When, in 1860, the Sabbatarian Adventists met in conference to effect their first organization, Bates, in the chair guided the conference.

“Bates played a prominent part in the ‘Sabbath Conferences,’ which began in 1848, and helped to give shape to the infant SDA movement. He, together with White, Edson, Pierce, Andrews, and others, studied out the doctrines from the Bible. In fact Joseph Bates, with James White, was widely recognized as cofounder of the SDA denomination.” Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 108, 109.

 

Joshua Himes—Energetic Leader

 

The fourth in our list of ministerial associates close to William Miller is Joshua V. Himes. “Judged by any standard of measurement, Joshua Vaughan Himes (1805-1895) was a remarkable character. Courageous, versatile, and a born leader, he was the great publicist, promoter, and organizer of the Millerite movement. While he was a power in the pulpit, he was an even greater power in the editorial chair. He was a really remarkable publisher, with the knack of knowing how to appeal to the public. His daring and his swiftness of action are illustrated by the speed with which he produced the first copy of the Signs of the Times. After Miller’s first suggestion, coupled with his own conviction of its need, it was under way within one week, starting from nothing.

“He had business acumen and organizational ability to a marked degree—managing conferences and giant campmeetings, as well as evangelistic and revival meetings, and keeping a great publishing and distribution project going smoothly and without needless duplication. Under his guidance the best publishing facilities the country afforded were enlisted to send forth the advent message. It was perhaps not too much to say that his was a feat unequaled in the annals of American church history, or of any other land so far as we know.” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, 549, 550.

Himes was born in Rhode Island. His father wanted him to attend Brown University, but, because of a financial crisis in the family, Joshua went to New Bedford to learn a trade. His conversion

occurred in 1823 and he joined the First Christian Church. His ability as an evangelist quickly surfaced and he felt called to preach. He was invited to begin holding meetings in various schoolhouses and soon was holding many types of revival meetings.

In 1825, Himes began his life work in the ministry and began to preach in Plymouth. Eventually, he was appointed evangelist by the Massachusetts Christian Conference. He raised up a church of 125 at Fall River and he was soon called to become pastor of the First Christian Church of Boston. He resigned in 1837 to organize and build the Second Christian Church, with its Chardon Street Chapel. The Advent message first came to him in that chapel.

Being a reformer at heart, Himes was constantly crusading against the evils of his day. He was an assistant to William Lloyd Garrison in the battle against slavery, and it was in this chapel that Garrison’s New England Antislavery Society was initiated. He promoted a manual labor school and was a cofounder of the Peace Society, for the prevention of war. The Chardon Street Chapel became the center for many kinds of reform meetings.

On November 12, 1839, a conference of Christian Connection ministers was convened in Exeter. The day before, William Miller began a series of meetings, and out of curiosity the conference adjourned to go listen to Miller and asked him every sort of question. Himes was among the group. “Greatly impressed with Miller’s humble yet effective answers to the many pointed and sometimes tricky questions put to him, Himes invited him to hold a series of meetings in his own church in Boston. Miller accepted, and that eventful day marked a turning point in both lives and launched a new epoch in the advent cause and movement.” Ibid., 551.

“Himes combined deep spirituality and strict integrity with a true instinct for popular presentation. He was just thirty-five, pleasant and genial, neat in dress, and possessed of a charming personality. He was the embodiment of energy, and had marked initiative. And his entire manner begot confidence and gave assurance of his honesty and sincerity. He was dignified in bearing, but was ever a restless and energetic promoter of some cause in which he believed. Miller stayed in Hime’s home while giving his first series of lectures in Boston. Here they had many talks about Miller’s position on the second advent and on the millennium and the prophecies related thereto.” Ibid., 552.

Himes was convinced of the general points and felt a burden to get the premillennial truth before the public. He asked Miller why he had not preached in the larger cities. Miller replied that he had not been invited but that he would go wherever he was invited to preach. Himes told Miller to prepare for a great campaign, that the doors would be opened in every state east of the Mississippi. This prediction was literally fulfilled far beyond Miller’s expectations.

Feeling the need for a publication to get his views before the public and to shield him from abusive stories circulated, Miller conveyed this to Himes who immediately agreed to start the Signs of the Times. The next week (February 28, 1840), without any subscribers and only one-dollar, Himes produced the first edition.

Believers in the advent received the paper with joy while opponents were alarmed. At the outset it was a forum for both believers and opponents to voice their opinions. With the passing of time the paper was restricted to the presentation of the positions of the Adventists.

Himes published two more editions of Miller’s Lectures and was henceforth in charge of the publication and distribution of Advent literature. Among his publications were charts, pamphlets, books, tracts, songbooks, broadsides and handbills. In order to acquaint New York City with the message of the advent, Himes began publishing the Midnight Cry in connection with an evangelistic series. Ten thousand copies each day were printed and distributed in the city. When the meetings closed, the publication continued as a weekly.

“Himes was noblehearted, generous, and selfdenying. The funds accruing from the publication venture were turned to the spread of the tidings of the second advent. He traveled some twenty thousand miles, giving a lecture a day much of the time, and held some five thousand meetings, including a remarkable series of all-day camp meetings. In many ways Himes was the leading figure in the Millerite movement—a human dynamo of energy, ever pushing the cause of publishing and preaching, organizing the various enterprises connected with the movement. Although Miller was the actual leader, he delegated much authority to Himes, who had his complete confidence. The relationship between the two was like that of father and son. Of this fellowship Himes touchingly said: ‘We had rather be associated with such a man as William Miller, and stand with him in gloom or glory, in the cause of the living God, than to be associated with his enemies, and enjoy all the honors of this world.’ ” Ibid., 554.