Chapter 24—In the Holy of Holies
The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mys-
tery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to view a complete
system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God’s hand
had directed the great Advent movement, and revealing present duty as
it brought to light the position and work of his people. As the disciples
of Jesus, after the terrible night of their anguish and disappointment,
were “glad when they saw the Lord,” so did those now rejoice who
had looked in faith for his second coming. They had expected him to
appear in glory to give reward to his servants. As their hopes were dis-
appointed, they had lost sight of Jesus, and with Mary at the sepulcher
they cried, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they
have laid him.” Now in the holy of holies they again beheld him, their
compassionate high priest, soon to appear as their king and deliverer.
Light from the sanctuary illumed the past, the present, and the future.
They knew that God had led them by his unerring providence. Though
like the first disciples they themselves had failed to understand the
message which they bore, yet it had been in every respect correct. In
proclaiming it they had fulfilled the purpose of God, and their labor
had not been in vain in the Lord. “Begotten again unto a lively hope,”
they rejoiced “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Both the prophecy of
Daniel 8:14
, “Unto two thousand and three
hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” and the first
angel’s message, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his
Judgment is come,” pointed to Christ’s ministration in the most holy
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place, to the investigative Judgment, and not to the coming of Christ
for the redemption of his people and the destruction of the wicked.
The mistake had not been in the reckoning of the prophetic periods,
but in the event to take place at the end of the 2300 days. Through
this error the believers had suffered disappointment, yet all that was
foretold by the prophecy, and all that they had any Scripture warrant
to expect, had been accomplished. At the very time when they were
lamenting the failure of their hopes, the event had taken place which
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