Signs of the Times, Vol. 2, No. 22. (5/11/1876)

Signs of the Times

May 11, 1876

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 11, 1876

WILLING OBEDIENCE.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

ABRAHAM was an old man when he received the startling command from God to offer up his son Isaac for a burnt offering. Abraham was considered an old man even in his generation. The ardor of his youth had faded away. It was no longer easy for him to endure hardships and brave dangers. In the vigor of youth man may breast the storm with a proud consciousness of strength, and rise above discouragements that would cause his heart to fail later in life when his steps are faltering towards the grave. But God in his providence reserved his last most trying test for Abraham, until the burden of years was heavy upon him and he longed for rest from anxiety and toil. The Lord spoke unto him, saying, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt-offering.”

The heart of the old man stood still with horror. The loss of such a son by disease would have been most heart-rending to the fond father, it would have bowed his whitened head with sorrow; but now he is commanded to shed the precious blood of that son with his own hand. It seemed to him a fearful impossibility.

Yet God had spoken and his word must be obeyed. Abraham was stricken in years, but this did not excuse him from his duty. He grasped the staff of faith, and in dumb agony, took his child by the hand, beautiful in the rosy health of youth, and went out to obey the word of God. The grand old patriarch was human; his passions and attachments were like unto ours; he loved this boy who was the solace of his old age and unto whom the promise of the Lord had been given.

But Abraham did not stop to question how God’s promises could be fulfilled if Isaac was slain, he did not stop to reason with his aching heart; but he carried out the divine command to the very letter, till just as the knife is about to be plunged into the quivering flesh of the child, the word comes, “It is enough; now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”

This great act of faith is penciled on the pages of sacred history to shine forth upon the world as an illustrious example to the end of time. Abraham did not plead that his old age should excuse him from obeying God. He did not say “My hairs are gray, the vigor of my manhood is gone; who will comfort my waning life when Isaac is no more? How can an aged father spill the blood of an only son?”

No, God had spoken and man must obey without questioning or murmuring or fainting by the way. We need the faith of Abraham in our churches to-day, to lighten the darkness that gathers round them, shutting out the sweet sunlight of God’s love and dwarfing spiritual growth.

Age will never excuse us from obeying God. Our faith should be prolific of good works, for faith without works is dead. Every duty performed, every sacrifice in the name of Jesus, brings an exceeding great reward. In the very act of duty, God speaks and gives his blessing. But he requires of us an entire surrender of the faculties. The mind and heart, the whole being must be given to him, or we fall short of becoming a true Christian.

God has withheld nothing from man that can secure to him eternal riches. He has clothed the earth with beauty and furnished it for his use and comfort during his temporal life. He has given his son to die for the redemption of a world that had fallen through sin and folly. Such matchless love, such infinite sacrifice claims our strictest obedience, our holiest love, our unbounded faith. Yet all these virtues exercised to their fullest can never be commensurate with the great sacrifice that has been offered for us.

God requires prompt and unquestioning obedience of his law. But men are asleep or paralyzed by the deceptions of Satan, who suggests excuses and subterfuges, and conquers their scruples, saying as he did to Eve in the garden, “Ye shall not surely die.” Disobedience not only hardens the heart and conscience of the guilty one, but it tends to corrupt the faith of others. That which looked very wrong to them at first gradually loses this appearance by being constantly before them, till finally they question whether it is really sin, and unconsciously fall into the same error.

We should not look in the face of duty and delay meeting its demands. Such delay gives time for doubts, unbelief creeps in, the judgment is perverted, the understanding darkened. At length the reproofs of God’s Spirit do not reach the heart of the deluded person who has become so blinded as to think that they cannot possibly be intended for him or apply to his case.

The precious time of probation is passing, and few realize that it is given them for the purpose of preparing for eternity. The golden hours are squandered in worldly pursuits, in pleasure, in absolute sin. God’s law is

slighted and forgotten, yet every statute is none the less binding. Every transgression will bring its punishment. Worldly love of gain desecrates the Sabbath, yet the claims of that holy day are not abrogated or lessened. God’s command is clear and unquestionable on this point; he has peremptorily forbidden us to labor upon the seventh day. He has set it apart as a day sanctified to himself.

Many are the hindrances that lay in the path of those who would follow in obedience the commandments of God. There are strong and subtle influences that bind them to the ways of the world; but the power of the Lord can break these chains. He will remove every obstacle from before the feet of his faithful ones, or give them strength and courage to conquer every difficulty, if they earnestly beseech his help. All hindrances will vanish before an earnest desire and persistent effort to do the will of God at any cost to self, even if life itself is sacrificed. Light from Heaven will illuminate the darkness of those, who, in trial and perplexity go forward looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of their faith.

In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouths of prophets and apostles. In these days he speaks to them by the testimonies of his Spirit. There was never a time when God more earnestly instructed his people concerning his will, and the course that he would have them pursue than now. But will they profit by his teachings, will they receive his reproofs and heed the warnings! God will accept of no partial obedience nor sanction any compromise with self.

Through Samuel, God commanded Saul to go and smite the Amalekites and utterly destroy all their possessions. But Saul only partially obeyed the command; he destroyed the inferior cattle, but reserved the best, and spared the wicked king. The next day he met the prophet Samuel, with flattering self-congratulations. Said he, “Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” But the prophet immediately answered, “What meaneth then the bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”

Saul was confused and sought to shirk responsibility by answering, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Samuel then reproved the king, reminding him of the explicit commands of God, directing him to destroy all things belonging to Amalek. He pointed out his transgressions and declared that he had disobeyed the Lord. But Saul refused to acknowledge that he had done wrong; he again excused his sin by pleading that he had reserved the best cattle to sacrifice unto the Lord.

Samuel was grieved to the heart by the persistency with which the king refused to see his sin and confess it. He sorrowfully asked, “Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, he hath rejected thee from being king.”

God has given us his commandments, not only to believe in, but to obey. The great Jehovah, when he had laid the foundations of the earth, and dressed the whole world in the garb of beauty, and filled it with things useful to man, when he had created all the wonders of the land and sea, instituted the Sabbath day and made it holy. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day because he rested upon it from all his wondrous work of creation. The Sabbath was made for man, and God would have him put by his labor on that day, as he himself rested after his six days’ work of creation.

Those who reverence the commandments of Jehovah, after light has been given them in reference to the fourth precept of the decalogue, will obey it without questioning the feasibility or convenience of such obedience. God made man in his own image, and then

gave him an example of observing the seventh day which he sanctified and made holy. He designed that upon that day man should worship him, and engage in no secular pursuits. No one who disregards the fourth commandment, after becoming enlightened concerning the claims of the Sabbath, can be held guiltless in the sight of God. The example of Adam and Eve in the garden should sufficiently warn us against any disobedience of the divine law.

The sin of our first parents, in listening to the specious temptations of the enemy, brought guilt and sorrow upon the world, and led the Son of God to leave the royal courts of Heaven and take a humble place on earth. He was subjected to insult, rejection and crucifixion by the very ones he came to bless. What infinite expense attended that disobedience in the Garden of Eden! The Majesty of Heaven was sacrificed to save man from the penalty of his crime.

God will not more lightly pass over any transgression of his law now than in the day when he pronounced judgment against Adam. The Saviour of the world raises his voice in protest against those who regard the divine commandments with carelessness and indifference. Said he, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.”

At the very beginning of the fourth precept, God has said “Remember,” knowing that man in the multitude of his cares and perplexities, would be tempted to excuse himself from meeting the full requirements of the law; or in the press of worldly business forget its sacred importance. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work:” —meaning the usual business of life, for worldly profit or pleasure. These words are very explicit, there can be no mistake. How dare any one venture to transgress a commandment so solemn and important? Has the Lord made an exception, by which some are absolved from the law he has given to the world? Are their transgressions omitted from the book of record? Has he agreed to excuse their disobedience when the nations shall come before him for judgment?

Let none for a moment deceive themselves with the thought that their sin will not bring its merited punishment. Their transgressions will be visited with the rod, because they have had the light, yet have walked directly contrary to it. “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.”

God has given man six days in which to do his own work, and carry on the usual business of his life. But the Lord claims one which he has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to man as a day in which he may rest from labor, and devote himself to worship and the improvement of his spiritual condition. What a flagrant outrage it is for man to steal the one sanctified day of Jehovah, and appropriate it to his own selfish purposes!

It is the grossest presumption for mortal man to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty, in order to secure his own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is making the Lord’s commandments a matter of convenience. “I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God,” is thundered from Sinai! The Lord requires willing sacrifice. No partial obedience, no divided interest is accepted by him who declares that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him, and that he will show mercy unto thousands that love him and keep his commandments.

The Coming of the Lord.

Coming, coming, coming! Who? Christ, the Lord of life and glory, He who once for me and you Died!—oh, depth of sin’s sad story! Coming, not a helpless stranger, Cradled in the friendless manger; Coming, Lord of earth and heaven! King! to whom all power is given, Judge! at whose all-searching bar All must stand, just what they are; And the wicked tell with shame, Why they’ve cursed his holy name.

Coming, coming, coming! How? Clothed in strange unearthly splendor, Glory men ne’er dream of now, Grandeur earth ne’er had attend her, At his sight the heavens shall wither, From his presence earth shall flee Islands move, and mountains thither Seek the caverns of the sea. Every eye shall then behold him, All the nations feel his ire; While the brightness that enfolds him, Is to them consuming fire. Thunders all the earth shall thrill, All the heavens with lightnings blaze, And the universe stand still, While through all its realms is heard That profound ominous word, Which to life the dead shall raise.

Coming, coming, coming! Why? To redeem his purchased treasure, All his saints o’er sin who sigh, All who make his will their pleasure; To bring back within their borders His, whom Hades holds to-day; To arrest sin’s wild disorders, And the monster, death, to slay. Coming to fulfill his plan, Make his oath and promise good, Which secures repentant man Life eternal through his blood.

Coming, coming, coming! When? Ah! that question, solemn, thrilling! For when He appeareth, then All these earthly scenes, fulfilling His sure word, shall have an end. And behold the day is near! Signs in heaven and earth portend That the Lord will soon appear. Angry thrones, through wars, proclaim it, Scoffers by their scoffing name it; And the mute and solemn sky Has hung forth its prophecy.

Coming! while we wait and dally; Coming! while we sleep and sin: Swift as light o’er hill and valley, That great day is coming in. Sinner, rouse thee to thy fate! Saint, be watchful at thy gate! Saviour, make us meet t’appear At thy coming, now so near.

—Review and Herald.

Advice

ADVICE, which like the snow, softly falls, dwells the longer upon, and sinks the deeper into, the mind.

Living Upon Christ, Not Grace

God never gave you grace that you might live upon it, but grace that you might live upon Christ.

The Sanctuary of the Bible.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.

The eighth chapter of Daniel is a prophecy of wonderful interest; for it gives the prophetic history of the world from the rise of the Persian Empire till the final destruction of all earthly kingdoms by the God of Heaven. The succession of earthly empires was presented to the prophet under the symbols of a ram, a goat, and a little horn that became exceeding great. And when these had been shown to him, he was told by the angel Gabriel that the ram represented the kingdom of Media and Persia; and that the goat was the kingdom of Grecia; and the horn which became exceeding great, though not called by name, was identified by several decisive facts, among which are these: That it should be the great destroyer of the people of God, and that it should put to death the Prince of princes. These facts show that the Roman power is intended.

In connection with these symbols which represent the great empires that have since arisen, the prophet learned the duration of his vision. For he heard Gabriel ask Michael, “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?” And Michael, who answered the question to Daniel, said: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Verses 13, 14.

Now, it is plain that the period of twenty-three hundred days cannot be understood to mean so many literal days; for this would not make quite seven years, and would cover only a very small part of the duration of one of the three great empires of this vision. But we should remember that in this vision the great empires of the world are represented by symbols, and thus are given on a scale which brings them distinctly before the eye of the observer. It is necessary that the time should be given on a scale that corresponds with this in order not to involve an absurdity, for the Persian, Grecian, and Roman Empires have in all continued between 2000 and 3000 years. Now when these empires were represented by beasts, if the time that the empires were to continue was given without a corresponding abatement, then we should have these beasts living a thousand years apiece! This would be absurd. But it would not be absurd to represent them as living and acting that number of days.

The days must therefore represent longer periods of time. If we compare spiritual things with spiritual, we shall find the key to the interpretation of these days, for the different inspired writers were all led by the same Spirit of truth. They were like so many workmen engaged in building a temple. If we can find the rule which governed one of them, we shall find that same rule governing all the rest in like circumstances. Now God gave this rule to Ezekiel in the interpretation of the symbols of his own vision: “I have appointed thee each day for a year.” Eze. 4:6. We shall find in Gabriel’s explanation of this vision of Daniel given in the ninth chapter, that the days in Daniel’s prophecy are so many years.

This period of two thousand and three hundred days was certainly given for the benefit of the people of God. But it cannot benefit them unless they are able to understand it. We have indeed ascertained that it must be two thousand and three hundred years. But if we do not know when this period commences, we shall be none the wiser for having the period given in Daniel’s prophecy. But there is a certain great event to take place when this period expires, and God designed to give his people knowledge of the time. The event is called the cleansing of the sanctuary. We shall find the subject one of very deep interest when we come to examine the Bible to learn what it teaches respecting the sanctuary and its cleansing.

But the date of this great period is not given in the eighth chapter of Daniel. In that chapter, however, the commandment is given by Michael thus: “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” Verse 16. And yet, in verse 27, he tells us that he “was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” The angel in explaining to him this vision, set before him the destruction of the mighty and the holy people, and the cruel death of the Son of God. The prophet could bear no more, for he “fainted, and was sick certain days,” so Gabriel reserved the remainder of the explanation till another time.

But in the ninth chapter we find Daniel earnestly seeking God with reference to his sanctuary. Verses 3, 17. He seems to have connected his own vision of the sanctuary with that of Jeremiah respecting the desolation of the temple at Jerusalem. Verse 2. His mind was upon the subject of time. He knew that the seventy years of Jeremiah’s prophecy were just expiring, and he was intently studying that period, doubtless in connection with the period which Michael told him marked the cleansing of the sanctuary. It was necessary that he should now be made to understand the reckoning of the great period revealed to him in his vision of the eighth chapter.

And so while he was engaged in importunate prayer for the people of God and for his sanctuary, the angel Gabriel touches him, saying, “I am now come forth to give thee the skill and understanding.” Verse 22. And calling attention to the vision which he had been commanded to explain to him, he says: “Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Verse 23, compared with chapter 8:16.

Thereupon he gives to Daniel the key to the reckoning of his great period. “Seventy weeks,” says he, “are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,” etc. Verse 24. The word determined does not express the full sense of the Hebrew word used by the angel. The word spoken by the angel was “cut off.” The translators, not seeing the propriety of such a word in this place, for they did not note the fact that the ninth chapter is the key to the eighth, and so thought nothing of the long period in that chapter, could not understand how the seventy weeks could be said to be cut off, and so they departed from the literal meaning, and said that seventy weeks were “determined,” that is, appointed, upon thy people and thy city. But with the prophet the case was different. The angel had bidden him “consider the vision.” And nothing was more natural when told that seventy weeks were cut off than that he should recur to the long period revealed to him without a date in that vision.

This shorter period being cut off from that long period gives us the key to the reckoning of that period from which it is cut off. When we ascertain the date of the seventy weeks, we have also ascertained the point from which the twenty-three hundred days are to be reckoned. And this date the angel next gives us.

“Know therefore,” said Gabriel, “and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.” Verse 25. The commandment for the restoration of Jerusalem, which city then lay in ruins, is the event which marks the commencement of this period. Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return and build the temple, but did not say anything respecting the city itself. Ezra 1. This decree Darius renewed when the Jews were hindered by their enemies, and he provided means for the expense of finishing the temple. Ezra 6. But Artaxerxes added to the work of Cyrus and Darius the full restoration of the city to its ancient privileges, and the re-establishment of the law of God as the law of the city; and he authorized the rebuilding of its walls. Ezra 7:11–26; 9:9. The commandment is the prophetic commandment of the God of Heaven (Isa. 44:26–28; 45:13), and was carried into effect by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, whose successive action is recognized as the legal establishment of that commandment by the authority of the Persian Empire. Ezra 6:14.

The decree of Artaxerxes, which marks the going forth of the commandment, was in the year B. C. 457 (see margin of Ezra 7), a date which has been established by the infallible testimony of many eclipses. Sixty-nine weeks, or 483 prophetic days, extend from this date to the Messiah, that is, to Christ. This period was fulfilled in exactly 483 years, which proves that we have made no mistake in reckoning Daniel’s days as years, nor in fixing their date at B. C. 457.

It was in the fall of A. D. 27, just 483 full years from the going forth of the commandment in B. C. 457, that our Lord began his ministry. And this was the announcement which he made: “THE TIME IS FULFILLED.” Mark 1:15. He did in these words refer to the sixty-nine weeks which marked the commencement of his ministry, and he announced the fulfillment of that period. For the period extends not simply to the birth of the Saviour, but to his anointing, which took place at his baptism, the word Messiah signifying the anointed one. See John 1:41; Acts 10:40, 41; Luke 3:21, 22; 4:14–21.

The sixty-nine weeks did, therefore, end with the beginning of our Lord’s ministry in the fall of A. D. 27. One week of the seventy remained in which the covenant was to be confirmed with many. Verse 27. In the midst of this week, the sacrifice and oblation were to cease. This must signify that he should take these away by becoming himself the great sacrifice for sin which these typified. Heb. 10:1–13; Col. 2:14–17. And so it was that our Lord preached during three years and a half, until the spring of A. D. 31, when he was crucified for the sins of men. This date, Dr. Hales, one of the most distinguished of chronologists, establishes by conclusive evidence. See his “Analysis of Chronology,” second edition, vol. 1, pp. 94–100.

There remained of the period which was specially assigned to the Jews three and a half prophetic days to complete the seventy weeks. The termination of this period in A. D. 34 marked the close of the exclusive work for the Jews, and the commencement of the work for the Gentiles in the conversion of Saul, who was at once commissioned to them. Acts 26:15–17. Here ended the seventy weeks which were cut off from the 2300 days. When these 490 days were finished, there remained 1810 days before the time should come for the cleansing of the sanctuary. As the 490 ended in the fall of A. D. 34, the remaining 1810 days ended in the fall of 1844.

In the great Advent movement under the preaching of William Miller and his fellow-laborers, the evidence was brought out with great clearness that the 2300 days would end in 1844. He believed that the sanctuary to be cleansed is our earth. He found no testimony in the Bible that the earth is the sanctuary, but he did find that the earth is to be purified by fire (2 Pet. 3:7–13), and so he inferred that this was the sanctuary which Michael said should be cleansed at the end of the 2300 days. He therefore concluded that this period was given to mark the time of Christ’s coming. And as it was sufficiently evident from the several great lines of prophecy in Daniel and Revelation, and from the signs of the times, that the advent of Christ was at the doors, the time was preached in connection with the signs with very great solemnity and power.

But though it could be clearly shown that the 2300 days actually ended in 1844, the Advent people were doomed to a great disappointment. The ending of the 2300 days was not the time appointed of God for the coming of Christ, nor for the burning of the earth. But the great Advent disappointment made it necessary that two important questions should be carefully studied.

1. What is the sanctuary of the Bible?

2. What is meant by the cleansing of the sanctuary?

The fact that the cleansing of the sanctuary is an event located in prophecy in the very conclusion of one of Daniel’s great prophetic chains, shows that it is an event of deep interest to mankind. And as we live at a time when the 2300 days are in the past, we are most deeply concerned to understand the nature of the work called the cleansing of the sanctuary.

The Bible is full of the subject of the sanctuary, and we shall find it a theme of intense interest if we give it careful study. The Bible doctrine of the sanctuary is this: That the sanctuary is the place where the High Priest stands to offer blood before God for the sins of those who come to God through him. The central object in the sanctuary is the ark which contains the law of God that man has broken. The cover of this ark was called the mercy-seat, because mercy came to those who had broken the law beneath it, when the high priest sprinkled the blood of sin-offering upon it, provided they accompanied his work by repentance and faith. Last of all was the work of cleansing the sanctuary when the high priest by blood removed the sins of the people from the sanctuary into which they had been borne by the ministration of the priests before God. We now invite attention to the testimony of the Bible respecting the sanctuary.

1. There are two covenants; the first, or old covenant, extends from the time of Moses to the death of Christ; the second, or new covenant, begins at the death of Christ and extends forward to the consummation. Gal. 4:24–26; Heb. 8:7–13; Luke 22:20.

2. The first covenant had a sanctuary which is the tabernacle erected by Moses. Heb. 9:1–7.

3. The new covenant has a sanctuary which is the temple of God in Heaven, into which our High Priest entered when he ascended up on high. Heb. 8:1–5.

4. When Moses erected the tabernacle, he was commanded by God to make it according to the pattern which he showed to him; and this pattern must have been a representation of the temple of God in Heaven; for the earthly sanctuary is declared to be a pattern of the heavenly. Ex. 25:9, 40; Heb. 8:5; 9:23.

5. The earthly sanctuary consisted of two holy places; the first of which contained the table of shew-bread, the candlestick with seven lamps, and the golden altar of incense; and the second contained the ark of God’s testament with the tables on which the ten commandments were written by the finger of God, and over which was the mercy-seat with the cherubim of glory overshadowing it. Ex. 40:18–28; Heb. 9:1–5.

6. The temple of God in Heaven is not only spoken of as the original from which the earthly sanctuary was copied (Heb. 9:23, 24; 1 Chron. 28:11, 12, 19), but it is also spoken of as consisting of holy places, in the plural. See Heb. 8:2; 9:8, 12, 24; 10:19, in each of which verses the original is holy places, in the plural, and they are so rendered in various translations.

The word sanctuary in the Bible, except in the few cases where it is used figuratively, refers always to the place where the high priest ministers before God for the sins of the people. It was first the tabernacle erected by Moses; then it was the temple built by Solomon, which was a more glorious structure than the tabernacle, but with the same two holy places; and when the typical sacrifices ended in the death of Christ, who is the true sin-offering, the earthly sanctuary, or holy places, ceased to be the center of God’s worship, and Christ entered the temple in Heaven as the great High Priest, the minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. The temple of God in Heaven is the sanctuary from which the psalmist says the Lord beheld the earth (Ps. 102:19), and which Jeremiah speaks of as being where the throne of God is found. Jer. 17:12; Rev. 16:17.

(To be Continued.)

The Evil of Unkindness

O, what a wretched thing it is to be unkind! I think, with the thought of the precious blood, I can better face my sins at the last day than my unkindness with all its miserable fertility of evil consequences.

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