corrected the evils that were shutting
them away from Him. Had they received the message from heaven, humbling
their hearts before the Lord, and seeking in sincerity a preparation to
stand in His presence, the Spirit and power of God would have been
manifested among them. The church would again have reached that blessed
state of unity, faith, and love, which existed in apostolic days, when the
believers "were of one heart and of one soul," and "spake the word of God
with boldness," when "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be
saved."(621)

If God's professed people would receive the light as it shines upon them
from His word, they would reach that unity for which Christ prayed, that
which the apostle describes, "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace." "There is," he says, "_one_ body, and _one_ Spirit, even as ye are
called in _one_ hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one
baptism."(622)

Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the advent
message. They came from different denominations, and their denominational
barriers were hurled to the ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to
atoms; the unscriptural hope of a temporal millennium was abandoned, false
views of the second advent were corrected, pride and conformity to the
world were swept away; wrongs were made right; hearts were united in the
sweetest fellowship, and love and joy reigned supreme. If this doctrine
did this for the few who did receive it, it would have done the same for
all, if all had received it.

But the churches generally did not accept the warning. Their ministers,
who, as "watchmen unto the house of Israel," should have been the first to
discern the tokens of Jesus' coming, had failed to learn the truth, either
from the testimony of the prophets or from the signs of the times. As
worldly hopes and ambitions filled the heart, love for God and faith in
His word had grown cold; and when the advent doctrine was presented, it
only aroused their prejudice and unbelief. The fact that the message was,
to a great extent, preached by laymen, was urged as an argument against
it. As of old, the plain testimony of God's word was met with the inquiry,
"Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed?" And finding how
difficult a task it was to refute the arguments drawn from the prophetic
periods, many discouraged the study of the prophecies, teaching that the
prophetic books were sealed, and were not t