The Sanctuary

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Nov 3, 1904

(Concluded)

DID anything happen in 1844 that marked the ending of the twenty-three hundred days? How many are there in the room who believed in the coming of the Lord in 1844? [Several hands were raised.] Was there anything in that message that gave you an experience different from what you had had before? — Yes. I remember that in the city of Worcester there was once a very profane man with whom I was acquainted. One day he said, “I want you to tell me why you keep the Sabbath.” We sat down together, and I went over just what I have gone over with you now in a few words, about the coming of the Lord as preached in 1844, and then about our seeing the sanctuary question and the Sabbath. When I looked up, tears were running down his face, and the thought occurred to me that he once believed it. I said, “Did you believe that the Lord would come in 1844?” “Yes,” he said, “and I would to God that I had the same experience now.” There was something in the experience of the people of God then that they could not forget. It continued with them; and wherever you find them to-day, there is still a responsive chord in their hearts. It brought a peace to their souls that they could not forget. When God does something, he leaves an impression that will last as long as the Spirit strives with men.

“Well,” says one, “the Lord did not come.” That is very true, and I suppose that the time argument was studied over by the disappointed ones more than ten thousand times to see where the mistake was, and it came out 1844 every time. Why did they think the Lord would come in 1844? They reasoned that the sanctuary was the earth, and the cleansing of the sanctuary, the cleansing of the earth; that the earth would be cleansed by fire, and the cleansing would take place at the coming of the Lord. They made the text read, Unto two thousand and three hundred days, or years, then shall the Lord come; and they believed it.

Did you ever hear people laugh about it, and say that men back there sold their farms? I have heard them say so, and that they would not be such fools as that. The only question is whether if they really believed it, they would act as if they did. The believers did sell their farms, and left their crops unharvested in the fields. One man in New Hampshire, Leonard Hastings, said, “I thought the Lord would come in the autumn of 1844, and I did not dig my potatoes. The neighbors talked about putting a guardian over me, but they finally concluded that as I was comparatively an old man and good citizen, it would be a disgrace, so they did not do it. That year the potatoes rotted in the cellars, and my neighbors who dug their potatoes lost them. But I waited until the time passed, and the potatoes in the ground were all sound, and I had potatoes to sell to the very ones who were going to put a guardian over me.” Wonderful experiences could be told with reference to that time.

God did not leave our enemies to find out our mistake. That is a wonderful thing; because the word “sanctuary” occurs in the Bible one hundred and forty-seven times, and it is not once called the earth; but we did not know it, and the Lord did not let the devil tell any one of it either. When our mistake was talked about, Professor Bush, of New York, said, “Those who attack William Miller on the time question attack him on his strongest point.” Why did he not see the sanctuary question? Because they had not found it out.

Finally a man by the name of O. R. L. Crosier, wrote in the Day Star an argument that the sanctuary was in heaven, as straight as it has ever been published since, and that Christ entered the most holy place of the sanctuary to cleanse the sanctuary from the sins of God’s people in 1844, and that the day of investigative judgment began at that time.

But did we catch it up, and herald it to begin with? — No. When I first began to keep the Sabbath, I gathered letters that were written at this time by Elder James White and his wife, and I have them in a book. I was looking them over the other day, and I saw in a letter something like this: That they had made it a subject of prayer before they dared to advocate that the sanctuary was in heaven. Finally the testimony came through the Spirit of God that the view taken in regard to the sanctuary was correct. Then they began to preach it. How different from the course followed by those who think they have new light at the present day. They were careful not to introduce anything that had not a solid foundation in the Bible. They were laying the foundation for the structure of a faith that would gather souls from every part of the earth. God gave them a spirit of carefulness that they might not weave into the structure any error. We have never had to renounce one position thus taken.

I could relate circumstances of like nature by the hour. The book “Early Writings” was largely a compilation of testimonies to prove positions taken after much fasting and prayer. To my certain knowledge, nearly every point made in “Early Writings” was made after some new point of truth had first been searched out, and had been made a subject of prayer. Then the Spirit of God set his seal to it that it was truth.

“But,” says one, “is there no new light?” Of course there is new light, and I expect we shall get new light throughout eternity. Just as long as life lasts, there will be an unfolding of the truths of the Bible. But new light will never upset the past truth. It makes it more clear. I see these faces before me, and as I see them, I can not help thinking how you would rejoice if you could only see what God is unfolding, but do not get switched off from the old truths by some new-fangled notion. Let me quote you a text in the third chapter of Genesis and the fifteenth verse, when man was first driven from the garden of Eden: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” How much of the gospel is in that? Is it not all there? Well, if you get all the gospel there, why do you need anything more? The whole Bible is an unfolding of that scripture, and every prophet has been unfolding that precious truth. Has it denied that truth? — No, indeed. But it has made that truth clearer and clearer, and it will continue to do so until Satan’s head is bruised, and he and all who sympathize with him go into the lake of fire.

It has been thus in every reform that has ever been. How much of the gospel of the first advent of Christ may be rejected in these last days? — Not a word of it. How much has changed? — None at all. When the great apostle saw this, he exclaimed: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” And so the third angel’s message is the same old story, it is “the everlasting gospel.” It is a resetting of eternal truths. It is a taking up of the old gospel truths and placing them in the framework of truth. You can never mix the third angel’s message with error. You never can mix the work of God with the world.

Let me illustrate it. We believe in baptism, and we have the same formula as the Baptists. Both baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Suppose I go into a Baptist church and preach baptism. When I preach baptism, I would have to preach what sin is, and then I would have to preach the law. How long would they let me stay there and preach the law? You can not return to the truths that are held by different denominations, and be saved by them. You can not take the truth out of the framework

of truth, and go back to your former experience, and be saved. Why? — Because God has placed it in the framework of truth, and now salvation is in a system of truth.

I wish to tell you how happy we were when we received the light on the sanctuary question. It converted me. I want to tell you who have grown gray in the third angel’s message to cling to the fundamental principles that made us a separate and distinct people. What has made us a separate people? — The chief corner-stone is the sanctuary question.

“Well,” says one, “I got the Sabbath from the Bible.” I want to tell you, If you do not clinch your argument in that sanctuary question, you will be shaken out. I have seen scores give up the Sabbath,—simply keeping the Sabbath outside of the framework of truth will not save you. Now you may think that is strong language, but you have only to look over the past. Noah built his ark for the saving of himself and house. Don’t you suppose there were other people who offered sacrifices back there? But could they make a profession loud enough to save them if they did not have an interest in that ark? Could they have faith enough to save them? I want to tell you that when God gives a message, he walls that message all around, and it is all right. It will prove salvation to every one who takes it. You may take certain truths out of it, and you may think you are going to be saved by them, but you prepare yourself for some delusions.

You remember when David undertook to move the ark? The thirteenth chapter of First Chronicles tells about it. He talked it over with the leaders, and all of them united heartily, and said, Let us move the ark. All Israel sang praises. The Philistines put it on the new cart with a gold offering. They let the milch kine start off, and they went right toward Israel in an opposite direction from their calves. God accepted the Philistines, and so David thought that if all Israel were to unite with him, and the ark was put on a cart, just as the Philistines did, it would be right. God excused the poor Philistines because they did not know any better. But when the oxen stumbled, and the ark shook, and it seemed that it would go over, Uzzah thought he would steady it, and God smote Uzzah. David did not dare take that ark home. He thought he had better go home and repent, and he did. That mistake made him afraid to take the ark home, lest he should die, as Uzzah did. But after he repented, then he undertook to move the ark. He said that the Lord visited them because they did not seek him after due order, and that they would put the ark on the priest’s shoulders, and then David composed that sweet song which was sung as they entered Jerusalem: ‘Lift up ye gates, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.’ An answer comes back from within the walls, ‘Who is this King of glory?’ Will that song ever be sung again? It was sung when Christ took with him to the heavenly courts that company that he took from their graves. When you and I are taken to heaven, it will be sung again. I want to tell you that when God does something, he does it forever, and it stands forever.

When the people of God looked over the sanctuary question, and found there was a sanctuary in the heavens, and saw the temple of God open in heaven, they saw something else. By faith they lifted the cover of the ark, and saw the ten commandments. When one sees the ten commandments that way, he has hold of something. They began to study the Bible to see if the first day was the Sabbath, and to their surprise they found that the Bible taught all the way through that the seventh day was the Sabbath. But they got it out of the sanctuary, and that is where we must get it, and where we must see it. The Seventh-day Baptists have the seventh-day Sabbath, but it will not save them. They do not see the Sabbath in the sanctuary. Many among us are keeping the Sabbath only on the same arguments used by the Seventh-day Baptists. All such will be shaken out unless their Sabbath-keeping is anchored within the veil of the heavenly sanctuary.

Some may ask, Was not the ark in the heavenly sanctuary always open? — No, indeed. Under the sounding of the seventh angel, the prophet says that the temple of God was open in heaven, and there was seen the ark of his testament. The investigative judgment has begun already. It began in 1844. If that judgment has been going on sixty years, why are we not interested in it? and what will it lead us to do? — It will lead us to examine our own hearts to see if our thoughts, if our sympathies, if our interests, are with God and his work on earth. If so, we shall wish every sin confessed and lodged in the heavenly courts; for Christ is about to bring all sins out and lay them on the head of the scapegoat,—the devil,—and he will bear them away. If you do not confess them, they will never go there, and you will never gain the experience that comes to those who confess their every sin, and consecrate their entire being to the service to God. It is worth more than your farms. It is worth more than your bank stock. It is worth more than any interest in this world to have your interest centered in Jesus Christ as he pleads before the ark in the heavenly sanctuary.

I have heard a great deal said in our meetings about the Holy Spirit. We need it; but do you know what comes first? It is overcoming every besetment. If you wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to give you the victory over your besetments, you will fail. I verily believe, my friends, that because we are drifting away from the old landmark, the heavenly sanctuary, we have lost the spirit of confessing our sins and getting just right before God. I feel in my own soul that not one who lives until the time of trouble will be saved unless he makes it his special business to get right with God and have every sin confessed and blotted out by the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is something in this sanctuary question that should interest every soul. The spirit of prophecy, in ‘Early Writings,’ page 119, says: ‘Many who embraced the third message had not an experience in the two former messages. Satan understood this, and his evil eye was upon them to overthrow them; but the third angel was pointing them the way to the heavenly sanctuary.’ Those who follow as he points the way will have something that will hold them in the time of trouble.

We need something more than simply a surface experience. You may talk about the Lord’s coming as flippantly as you please, you may believe that Christ forgives your sins, but unless there is a heart-searching, unless there is a deep changing of the very habits and passions of the soul, and your impulses go out continually after God, you will make a failure. Shall we make a failure? May God forbid. We want to make a success in life. My friends, we want to make a success, and to do it, we must overcome our besetting sins. You may say, How can I do it? Did not Jacob do it? You never hear any more about Jacob’s trickery and treachery after he prevailed with God that night.

We need that humbling of soul before God, that laying hold of him, that can come only as we realize that our sins must be lodged in the heavenly sanctuary in order for Christ to bring them out and lay them on the head of Satan. Shall we fail? Probably there is no audience, meeting together as we meet here, that does not contain some who will be subject to the seven last plagues; for there are those who never will take pains to study into these things and seek what is necessary. The Lord forgives our sins, but faith must take in what Christ is doing in heaven for us personally. He is doing something for me personally. He is confessing my sins to the Father, just as I confess them here on the earth, and I wish to emphasize the fact that it will not be safe to rely on any experience that does not come from the sanctuary and the work of our High Priest in heaven. Nothing else will answer.

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and give you his Holy Spirit. O that we could see a real breaking down and putting away of our sins right here now! We want to make an effort such as we have never made to be in closest sympathy with our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.’ May God help us to have an experience that is founded upon his Word, and then finally when the work is over, when probation ends, may God grant that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.

The Sanctuary*

The Sanctuary