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by Samuel Sheffield Snow (Author), George Storrs (Author), Apollos Hale (Author)
"No one knows the day and the hour!"
This was the common objection raised by those who opposed the Advent message before 1844. William Miller himself was initially cautious about specifying an exact date for the Second Coming of Christ. Yet, as the movement grew, some who proclaimed the Advent hope-though not necessarily its leaders-began to suggest a definite time.
By the summer of 1844, Samuel Snow's views on the prophetic periods and their end were gaining ground among Advent believers. Snow taught that, just as the spring festivals in Leviticus 23 had been fulfilled at Christ's first coming, so the autumn festivals would be fulfilled at His second coming. Because all the autumn feasts occurred in the seventh month of the biblical calendar, the movement that embraced this teaching became known as "The Seventh-Month Movement."
This book does not seek to retell the story of the Midnight Cry of 1844, but to present the message itself-through the actual words of those who first proclaimed it. This first volume focuses on how that message was reflected in The Advent Herald and Signs of the Times Reporter, one of the leading Adventist periodicals of the time.
Although the editors of the Herald did not fully endorse the Seventh-Month message until October 1844, they had allowed Samuel Snow to publish some of his views on prophetic time periods in their pages. His "Midnight Cry" served as a refinement of William Miller's prophetic understanding and placed special emphasis on biblical typology-particularly the annual Old Testament festivals.
Even before accepting the message in full, Joshua V. Himes and his co-editors acknowledged the significance of the seventh-month festivals. However, they remained hesitant to accept that the Day of Atonement in 1844 would mark the close of the prophetic periods and usher in the Judgment Hour.
