Digging For Truth

In 1833 the last of the signs appeared which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent: “The stars shall fall from heaven.” And John in the Revelation declared, “The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:13. This prophecy received a striking fulfillment in the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833, the most extensive and wonderful display of falling stars ever recorded. “Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion. ... From two o’clock until broad daylight, the sky being perfectly serene and cloudless, an incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens.” “It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted—thousands swiftly followed in the tracks of thousands, as if created for the occasion.” “A more correct picture of a fig tree casting its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to behold.” { HF 208.2 } 

In the New York Journal of Commerce of November 14, 1833, appeared a long article regarding this phenomenon: “No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars, ... in the only sense in which it is possible to be literally true.” { HF 209.1 }

In 1833 Miller received a license to preach, from the Baptist Church, of which he was a member. A large number of the ministers of his denomination also approved his work, and it was with their formal sanction that he continued his labors. He traveled and preached unceasingly, though his personal labors were confined principally to the New England and Middle States. For several years his expenses were met wholly from his own private purse, and he never afterward received enough to meet the expense of travel to the places where he was invited. Thus his public labors, so far from being a pecuniary benefit, were a heavy tax upon his property, which gradually diminished during this period of his life. He was the father of a large family, but as they were all frugal and industrious, his farm sufficed for their maintenance as well as his own. { GC 332.1} 

The same evening she arrived in Torre Pellice, Ellen White witnessed an unusual occurrence, a spectacular star shower. She had been but a girl of five when the “stars fell” on November 13, 1833, and probably slept through it all. [A spectacular part of the 1833 star shower occurred very early in the morning in Portland, Maine, her home town. (See The Great Controversy, 332-334.)] But she didn’t miss this November star shower. { EGWE 237.3} 

“Here I was looking upon a sight I never expected to see—the starry heavens ablaze with shooting, falling stars, each leaving a tail of light in its passage across the heavens, and then disappearing. They were crisscrossing in every direction, yet we could not miss any of these bright jets of light. With emotions I cannot described, we looked for hours upon these shooting, flashing meteors. I looked upon the snowcapped Alps, and the flashing lights seemed to fall directly upon them.... What did it mean? { EGWE 237.4} 

“When we returned at midnight the same scenes continued. But for all the hundreds of stars flying across the heavens, we could not miss one—not a single glory in the starry host seemed to be missing. The following nights we had no such scene repeated. God’s host still shines in the firmament of the heavens.”—Manuscript 73, 1886. { EGWE 237.5} 

We are told by the early risers ... that the sky yesterday morning [November 13], before sunrise, was full of meteors and luminous traces, shooting athwart the heavens in all directions. The sky, some say, seemed to be on fire—others add that the stars appeared to be falling.—November 15, 1833. { 1BIO 19.3 } 

A few hundred miles away in Low Hampton, New York, a farmer and former Army officer named William Miller was just beginning a new career as a preacher. He was telling the world what he had discovered in the prophecies—that Christ was coming soon, yes, within ten years. Miller’s first published work, a sixty-four-page pamphlet, appeared in 1833. That was the year he received his license to preach, and his traveling, preaching, and correspondence were increasing rapidly (F. D. Nichol, The Midnight Cry, pp. 52-57). { 1BIO 19.4 } 

But in nearby Gorham little Ellen slept soundly through the night when the stars fell. She knew nothing yet of William Miller and his message, and in November, 1833, she was probably just starting to attend school. It is logical to assume that like any healthy youngster she must have used the carefree moments of her childhood to learn more about the things around her. { 1BIO 19.5 }  Read entire Chapter 1