Suffice it to say that by a process of loose reasoning and careless chronology Miller came to the conclusion that the Second Advent would take place in the spring of 1844.
He had spent two years in the study of the Bible, when, in 1818, he had reached this point, being thirty-six years old. Why did he not at once warn an unbelieving world of its impending doom? But no, another five years were spent reviewing the evidences. Seeing they all lay in two chapters of Daniel, with the aid of marginal references and a concordance, he was fairly deliberate. Even then for a further nine years he contented himself with presenting his views in private. If the angels had guided his mind, to know what the Scripture tells us it did not know itself; and, as he tells us himself, " It was continually ringing in my ears, Go and tell the world of their danger." how is it that although ostensibly learning his great secret when he was thirty-six years old, he did not publicly testify to the same till he was about fifty?