“THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
“At this juncture, when the storm of opposition grew heavy, the providence of God raised up a man for this work also. The unwearied friend of this cause, J. V. Himes, who has so nobly stood in the front of the hosts and the hottest of the fire, came forward and threw himself into the enterprise, to make up the breach. On the 20th of March, 1840, without money, patrons, or scarcely friends, he issued the first number of the Signs of the Times. The appearance of that sheet was hailed with joy by many a longing heart, waiting for the consolation of Israel. The paper was sustained for the first year at a considerable expense to the editor, besides his own unrequited toil. As might be expected, the enemies of the cause were greatly discommoded by the appearance of such a weapon, both offensive and defensive. Nothing which a heart surcharged with gall could invent, or the tongue of envy utter, was left unsaid or unwritten against the editor. But his language was, None of these things move me. He was sufficiently convinced of the truth of the doctrine to know that it was worthy, at least, of a full and candid investigation, and this he determined it should have, so far as he was able to gain thus much for it.
“The paper thus started was published for two years as a semi-monthly, and, since then, as a weekly periodical. It has been read by multitudes throughout the United States, and in the British provinces, with the deepest interest, and has been to thousands an angel of mercy and love; the good it has accomplished will only be known in the great day of the Lord.
“During the same winter (1839-40) Mr. Miller was invited to lecture in Portsmouth, N. H., and Portland, Me. In both these places, as well as in Boston and vicinity, his labors were attended with refreshing showers of divine grace. Numbers embraced the doctrine of the Lord’s speedy coming, who are yet strong in the faith, giving glory to God. This winter’s campaign produced an excitement throughout New England, and raised up friends in almost every town.
“As the spring opened and the summer came, the entire community were excited, and expectation on tip-toe, in reference to the 11th of August and its anticipated events, the fall of the Ottoman empire, &c., &c. Many were the predictions that when that day should have passed by, as it certainly would do, without the event being realized, then the spell would be broken, and Adventism would die. But the time came; and it must be confessed it was for a few weeks a time of trial to many. Yet ‘He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,’ had compassion on his little ones, and did not suffer them to be tempted above what they were able to bear. And few, very few, even under that trial, shrunk from their faith. The time came and passed by; and, as a matter of course, the distance from Constantinople could not be passed without consuming some considerable period of time. But when the fact did reach us, it was found that on the very day anticipated, the 11th of August, a transfer was made of the supremacy of that empire from Mahometan hands. This fact entirely discomfited the hosts of the enemy. The cause again revived, and careered on its way with still greater power than ever before.”