The Fellowship of Advent Believers

The advent hope binds God’s people together with a peculiar love like a chain of gold most precious. We saw this in Finland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, and other places in Europe after World War II. In Holland our conferences had not had a session in eight years, prior to their meeting in August, 1946, in The Hague. The Dutch are a stolid and not overemotional folk. But the smiles and tears of joy seen at that first gathering of those who had come through years of want and suffering can hardly be described—all most happy to see one another again. Their former hardships and hunger seemed to give them a purer happiness and a much more concrete yearning for the second advent.FSG 444.3

There is something too holy for expression in meeting a group of Adventists who because of suffering and sorrow have not seen any of their brethren or had any meetings in many years. I remember the first Adventists in 1920 that I met in the lands of persecution in Europe. It was a small group, and they were all in prison. The head officer said to me, “Do you, an American, want to see those hated outcasts? They are a wicked lot.” I replied, “But they are my brethren. We have the same faith in God, and I love them and want to help them.” When I was brought into their dark, damp cell and they were told who I was, they seemed too overjoyed for words, and then they all spoke at once, in three languages.FSG 445.1

There is something about the advent hope that binds us heart to heart in the holy cords of a brotherhood that can never be broken—one faith, one work, one goal, one united and fathomless yearning to see the Lord Jesus.FSG 445.2

As I have talked with these believers in Europe who went through so many tribulations after both these past two wars, I have learned what cheer and comfort the Spirit of prophecy messages brought to them about the trials of the last days. In this respect, too, the fruitage of the prophetic gift is marvelous.FSG 445.3