About this time I visited sister H., one of our
Advent sisters, whose heart was knit with mine. In the morning we bowed
at the family altar. It was not an exciting occasion. There were but
five of us present, all females. While praying, the power of God came
upon me as I never had felt it before.
I was surrounded with light, and was rising higher
and higher from the earth. 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 further end of the
path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the
path, which an angel told me was the Midnight Cry. This shone all along
the path, and gave light for their feet that they might not stumble. And
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 they 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 bright light which waved over the Advent people, and they
shouted, Hallelujah! 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 got their eyes off the mark, and lost sight 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 knew
and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an
earthquake. When God spake the time, he poured on us the Holy Spirit,
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 the
wicked would fall helpless to the ground. Then it was that the synagogue
of Satan knew that God had loved us, 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 it, and around the cloud were ten thousand angels singing a most
lovely song. And on it sat the Son of man, on his head were crowns, his
hair was white and curly and lay on his shoulders. 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 a pure heart 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 sung 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, Hallelujah! 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, when Jesus brought along the crowns
and with his own right hand placed them on our heads. He gave us harps
of gold and palms of victory.
Here on the sea of glass the 144,000 stood in a
perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others not so
bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others had but few.
All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all
clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet.
Angels were all about us as we marched over the
sea of glass to the gate of the city. Jesus raised his mighty, glorious
arm, laid hold of the pearly gate and swung it back on its glittering
hinges, and said to us, You have washed your robes in my blood, stood
stiffly for my truth, enter in.
We all marched in, and felt we had a perfect right
in the city. Here we saw the tree of life and the throne of God. Out of
the throne came a pure river of water, and on either side of the river
was the tree of life. On one side of the river was a trunk of a tree,
and a trunk on the other side of the river, both like pure, transparent
gold. At first I thought I saw two trees. I looked again and saw they
were united at the top in one tree. So it was the tree of life, on
either side of the river of life. Its branches bowed to the place where
we stood; and the fruit was glorious, which looked like gold mixed with
silver.
We all went under the tree, and sat down to look
at the glory of the place, when Brn. Fitch and Stockman, who had
preached the gospel of the kingdom, and whom God had laid in the grave
to save them, came up to us and asked us what we had passed through
while they were sleeping. We tried to call up our greatest trials, but
they looked so small compared with the far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory that surrounded us, that we could not speak them out,
and we all cried out, Alleluia! heaven is cheap enough, and we touched
our golden harps and made heaven's arches ring.