In olden time the prophet on Patmos wrote of the glory of the second coming of the Lord, as he had seen it in vision. He told about the New Jerusalem. “I John saw the holy city,” he wrote. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” He saw the world-wide gospel movement rise, as the hour of God’s judgment came. He saw the people come in 1844, keeping God’s commandments. With the rise of the movement he saw the gift of the Spirit of prophecy restored in the remnant church. The aged apostle and prophet wrote it on the page, and laid down the pen of the Revelation. SPIAM 23.3
Nineteen centuries later, in 1844, a youthful agent in the advent movement took up the pen of prophecy, and began to write to tell of visions of the glories of Christ’s coming and of the New Jerusalem and the heavenly land,—the same themes that the prophet on Patmos had written of, but now presented as glories soon to be revealed. SPIAM 23.4
There had been no failure in the prophecies of the Revelation. The time had come, the people of the prophecy appeared, and they had the gift which had been foretold. SPIAM 24.1