The Lord showed me that the message must go, and that it must never be hung on time, for time never will be a test again. I saw that some were getting a false excitement arising from preaching time;²

This warning to Sabbatarian Adventists against setting a definite time for the Second Advent is an amplification of the brief caution contained in Ellen White's vision some months earlier, on October 23, 1850. In a way, these warnings are quite surprising since Sabbatarians had eschewed time setting and had often made the point that it was the non-Sabbatarian Adventists who had set time after time in the years following 1844. In 1850-1851, however, a brief flurry of time-setting broke out among some Sabbatarians, mostly in Vermont and New Hampshire. Joseph Bates appears to have been the prime mover, having published a pamphlet sometime during 1850 arguing briefly (and almost incidentally) for the Second Advent in the autumn of 1851. His ideas, however, were never given any support in the Review; indeed, James White wrote against them in the summer of 1851. This, together with the warnings in the visions (both of which were published in the Review), weakened the movement well before the predicted time.

See: Ellen G. White, Ms 15, 1850 (Oct. 23); Joseph Bates, An Explanation of the Typical and Anti-Typical Sanctuary, pp. 10, 11; “Our Present Work,” Review, Aug. 19, 1851, p. 13. For an overview of the 1851 time-setting episode, see Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: The Early Years, pp. 207-210.

that the third angel's message can stand on its own foundation, and that it needs not time to strengthen it, and that it will go in mighty power and do its work, and will be cut short in righteousness.1EGWLM 286.5

I saw that some were making everything bend to the time of this next fall, that is, making their calculations and disposing of their property in reference to that time. I saw that this was wrong, for this reason: instead of their going to God daily, and earnestly desiring to know their present duty, they looked ahead and made their calculations as though they knew the work would end this fall, without inquiring their duty of God daily.1EGWLM 286.6

E. G. White

[As later edited by E. G. White. Date of editing unknown.]1EGWLM 287.1

Copy of a Vision the Lord Gave Sister White, June 21, 1851, at Camden, N.Y.1EGWLM 287.2

The Lord has instructed me that the message must go, and that it must not hang on time, for time never will be a test again. I saw that some were getting up a false excitement from preaching time; the third angel's message can stand on its own foundation, and it needs not time to strengthen it, and that it will go in mighty power and do its work and will be cut short in righteousness.1EGWLM 287.3

I saw that the First Day Adventists are setting the time³

For a contemporary survey of non-Sabbatarian Adventist time-setting, see Joseph Bates, “Midnight Cry in the Past,” Review, December 1850, p. 23. P. Gerard Damsteegt provides a detailed analysis in “Early Adventist Timesettings and Their Implications for Today,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 4, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 151-168; Alberto R. Timm, The Sanctuary and the Three Angels’ Messages, pp. 53 (note 9), 156 (note 139).

and some of our own people were making everything bend to this next fall—that is—making their calculations and disposing of their property in reference to that time, and some of our people are in error here. I saw that this was wrong for this reason: instead of their going to God daily and earnestly, desiring to know their present duty, they looked ahead and made their calculations as though they knew the work would end this fall, without inquiring their duty of God daily.1EGWLM 287.4

Ms 9, 1851

Ms 2, 1851