ANNIE SMITH BEGINS AGAIN
She was late. Annie Smith quickened her steps as she scanned the houses along the unfamiliar street. She’d left her dorm room early, knowing that she would need to navigate her way through Boston to get to this meeting but she was still late!
A strange nagging sensation nudged at the edges of her mind but she brushed it away impatiently. She was late and she needed to find the correct house.
She slowed her pace and strained her eyes trying to focus on the number plates of the passing houses. She had damaged her eyes a few months prior and her eyesight was terrible.
No one was really sure what had happened but she suspected that she may have strained her eyes while trying to do a sketch of Boston from the Charlestown Female Seminary where she was a student.
Suddenly a hazy set of numbers blurred into focus and Annie stopped short narrowing her eyes to see better.
“There it is!” she exclaimed out loud squinting at the numbers on the door. Relief washed over her. This was the house she was looking for. She lifted the latch on the gate and hurried up the path to the front door.
Annie Smith was not particularly interested in the subject matter being presented at the meeting she was attending. She was only going because her mother had asked her to.
Slipping into the house as quietly as possible, Annie let out a small sigh as her mind wound back to her mother’s letter.
Rebekah Smith was worried about her children’s spiritual condition and had written to Annie in an attempt to provide some guidance. Joseph Bates had visited Annie’s hometown of West Wilton, New Hampshire, and Rebekah had attended his meetings. Bates had preached about the Sabbath and Mrs. Smith has been one of many who had accepted the new truth.
She had spent some time talking to Joseph Bates who enquired after her children. Rebekah told him how both Annie and Uriah had been offered lucrative teaching positions but that their spirituality was at a low ebb.
“I’m worried about them” she confessed softly
As he watched the weariness on Rebekah Smith’s face Joseph Bates’ heart was touched. His mind whirred into action piecing together a plan.
“Sister Smith,” he said enthusiastically “I’ll be preaching in Boston in a few days, not too far from where Annie’s school is. How about you write to her and tell her to come see me preach? I’ll write out the directions for you so you can send them to her”
Rebekah was thrilled and took him up on the offer, dashing off a letter to Annie in the mail as soon as she was able to.
When Annie received her mother’s letter her first reaction was to retreat. She didn’t really want to attend a series of meetings by Joseph Bates. The great disappointment had left her discouraged and spiritually depleted. She’d taken up the offer to study at the Charlestown Women’s Seminary and also accepted a few well-paying teaching positions in the aftermath of the disappointment.
She figured that if Jesus wasn’t coming she would need an education and a way to support herself financially. But she had to admit that her hold on God was fraying. She had first committed her life to God when she was a young girl and had been baptized into the fellowship of the local Baptist Church her family attended.
In the summer of 1844 she, along with the rest of her family had heard the Advent message. Her mother, her brother Uriah and herself had chosen to throw in their lot with the Millerite movement but the great disappointment had dealt a crushing blow to her faith. She knew she was drifting but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be brought back to shore. The entire experience had been too painful.
She stared at the letter in her hand for a long moment, contemplating her mother’s request.
Come on Annie she finally told herself it’s not like you’re doing anything else. You don’t have any classes and you certainly don’t have anything else planned. Just go! Besides, it’ll make Mother happy.
Sighing she folded the letter and slipped it back into the envelope. It was decided. She would go.
Now, slipping into the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Temple, Annie shut the door quietly behind her. Walking into the room where the meeting was being held she looked around and noticed that there was only one remaining seat. A chair by the door. At the front of the room stood a tall pleasant looking man whom she assumed was Elder Bates. As he started to speak he referred to a chart and spoke on the topic of the sanctuary.
As the details of her surroundings sank into Annie’s mind she bolted upright in her seat. The strange nagging sensation she had had before came screeching back into her mind like a freight train.
She had seen all of this before. All of it. In a dream, last night.
Her heart began to hammer in her chest as she mentally ticked off each detail.
In her dream, she had been running late and had come into the room where the meeting was in progress to see there was only one seat left. A chair by the door. She had seen a tall pleasant looking man pointing to a chart and uttering the words “Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
She felt her jaw dropping open involuntarily as she checked off each aspect of her dream.
What she didn’t know was that Joseph Bates had had the same dream, only he had seen it from his perspective at the front of the room.
As he saw the young woman slipping into the room he remembered his dream. In it, he had seen a young woman walking into the room where he was preaching while he preached on the topic of the Sanctuary. She had come in late and had taken the only seat available, a lone chair at the back.
He had been planning to speak on a different subject but as he as his dream unfolding in front of him he immediately switched topics to speak about the sanctuary.
After the meeting, Joseph Bates introduced himself to Annie Smith. He then told her that he had seen her in a dream the previous night.
Startled Annie’s eyes locked on his face as she replied “How strange, I dreamed of you and some of the circumstances of this meeting last night as well”
Impressed that their meeting was no coincidence Elder Bates offered to study the Bible with Annie. An offer she took him up on without hesitation. A few weeks later Annie Smith re-committed herself to the Advent message.
