THE KEYNOTE OF THE MESSAGE.
By Editor
In the stirring report of his experience, given in another column, Brother Washington Morse, speaking of the subject of the sanctuary, says, “Brethren, this is the keynote of the message.” And his experience on this trip, and the favor he met with from professors in other denominations, seem to confirm his declaration. From our own point of view, this is emphatically true. The subject of the sanctuary is the keynote of the message we have to present. It dissolved the doubt and perplexity the Adventist body found themselves involved in at the passing of the time in 1844. It threw a great flood of light on the situation. It revealed clearly the position we were then in, in the fulfillment of some prophecies. It threw light on the parable of the ten virgins of Matthew 25. It explained the entering in with Christ to the marriage, the wedding garment, and the presumptuous guest who ventured into the marriage without that garment on (Matt. 22:12), and illumined the whole galaxy of truths that clustered around our then position, and which would have been involved in darkness without the light shed upon us by the subject of the sanctuary. It showed us that we had not been wandering in the dark in making known the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, that there had been no failure; and so we were begotten again to a new hope and to lively faith and fresh courage. And that light has followed us all the way along, shedding new luster on important truths. It throws light upon the message to the Laodiceans, of Revelation 3, the last one of the seven churches which fill out and close the present Christian age. It reveals the final and closing work of the judgment, a period upon which we have now entered, and fifty-seven years of which have already passed. The closing up of the work of our High Priest and Advocate on high is the finishing of the gospel, predicted in Rev. 10:7. There is no more inspiring and important topic for our people at the present time than the subject of the sanctuary. It is the keynote of the Third Angel’s Message. Study it till you understand it, and become imbued with its spirit.