The judgment hour cry, in 6th and 7th verses, was the only one that was designed to go to all the nations of the earth; and that of itself was sufficient to condemn a world of sinners and false professors that rejected it. Other tests were required, especially in this land, more than England and other lands, because the light of the church was, and still is, in these middle and northern states. Here also, is where this doctrine emanated from; hence the other messages to test and bring out the true. Then those who reject the messages are the false ones; but the unlettered slave and those who have been, as it were, enshrouded in moral darkness, and have been honestly following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, as far as they knew, have not rejected this light as have the advent believers in this land; therefore they are not under the same condemnation.
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write: Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their _labors_ and their works do follow them,” 15th verse.
I understand this verse as still referring to the same messengers and their adherents, who had been laboring almost incessantly to convince their friends of the reality of the messages, in an especial manner, during a cry at midnight, where they closed with the world. If it was not true of them then as a body, then there is no history since John had this vision, to show any thing like it; and it looks like making scripture, to attempt its application in the future, disconnected with the labor in the preceding verses. The inference is natural, and it is just like God’s order every where, that these his honest believers, should rest from their labors with the world, to get their own minds cloudy and calmly fixed on the great event before them. Isaiah saw it; see xxvi: 20, 21, and xxv: 19. How can God’s children be shut away in their chambers from the world, and then say at his coming we have _waited_ for him, if they were not resting from their labors with the world, doing what he says, in his 40th chapter 1st verse. It is also in perfect harmony with the type.
Do stop here a little while, and turn to Lev. xxii: 27-32, and show, if you can, where the harmony, anti-type, or clear fulfillment of these verses are, if they are not found in Revelations xiv: 12th and 13th verses.