ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.
By J. O. Corliss
THE Jewish day of atonement which fell on the tenth day of the seventh month, was the day of all days in the year to that people. It was, in a sense, the yearly day of judgment, because on that day, when the sanctuary was cleansed from sin, in order that it might be God's recognized dwelling among men, every person of the congregation must also be made free from sin, or leave the camp, bearing away his iniquity, so that no sign of sin should be seen, for the time, in Israel. Were any one on that day found to have neglected the opportunity to send his sins into the sanctuary, through confession, and so to have them cleansed away, with all others, by the blood ceremony of that occasion, there could be no alternative but for him to be separated from the people of God. In view of such far-reaching consequences, all were given an opportunity to prepare to meet the demands of that typical judgment day. Ten days before its decisive ceremonies, on the first day of the same month, attention was called to the fast-approaching occasion, by having trumpets blown, long and loud, all over the land. Lev. 23:24, 27. Had any neglected his necessary purification till then, he was thereby warned of the shortness of time in which to attend to that work. This being typical of Christ's actual work for the world, it follows that some warning of the final judgment must precede it, which would call the attention of the world generally to the shortness of the time left in which to prepare to stand faultless before the Judge of all the earth. So about ten years before the ending of the 2300 symbolic days, an announcement came to the world, with sudden distinctness, telling that the mystery of God (salvation through the Gospel) was about being finished, and that time was closing. While this message was being sounded in America by William Miller, and many other evangelical ministers, Mr. Irving in England, Mr. Mason in Scotland, and others in Scandinavia, Europe, and the far East were proclaiming, unknown to one another, the same solemn warning. Rev. 10:1-6. For the years that intervened between the falling of the stars near the end of 1833, and the close of the 2300 days in 1844, this message stirred the world to a greater religious depth than any other ever heard since the proclamation of the birth of a Saviour. While the end of the world did not come in 1844, as those who heralded the message supposed it would, because they believed that to be the logical outcome of the ending of the 2300 days, the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary did there begin, which is only another way of saying that the investigation of the cases of men was then opened, which would determine who was worthy to receive immortality at the soon-coming of the Master. This was made known to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, by “another” angel flying in the midst of heaven, calling attention to the fact that the hour of God's judgment had actually arrived. From that time forward until the judgment shall have done its appointed work of sealing those who are to stand on Mount Zion with their returned Lord, having the Father's name in their foreheads (Rev. 14:1-5), this message is to be proclaimed, and that, too, without the uncertainty which comes of having the message “clothed with a cloud.” Rev. 10:1. Yet this first message which proclaimed that time should “be no longer,” had the foundation of an unfailing prophecy. The angel there shown, which was typical of the future messengers of the warning, had a “little book” open, from which his time proclamation was given. The only little book having such a message, was the book of Daniel, and the time message was that of ch. 8:14, which predicted that after 2300 days (years) the sanctuary should be cleansed. The time set forth in that message was to end in 1844. So when that time was near at hand, the trumpet proclamation was heralded throughout the world, that “there should be time no longer.” The time allotted to reach to the great sanctuary cleansing, was about closing, and true to His infinitely merciful way, God sent the warning abroad that all men might know that the great atonement, which is the final judgment, was at hand. As the closing work of this solemn time, the “mystery of God,” that is, the divine plan to save men, will be finished as God has declared so many times by the mouths of His servants the prophets. Rev. 10:7. Then will be the coming of Christ, and the gathering of the saints to their eternal home. This is truly an important time to all. J. O. CORLISS.