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Selected Messages Book 1
shut out His presence from the assemblies of His people, if they will,
with subdued, contrite hearts, confess and put away their sins, and in
faith claim His promises. Every temptation, every opposing influence,
whether open or secret, may be successfully resisted, “not by might,
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (
Zechariah
4:6
).
We Are in the Day of Atonement
We are in the great day of atonement, when our sins are, by con-
fession and repentance, to go beforehand to judgment. God does not
now accept a tame, spiritless testimony from His ministers. Such a
testimony would not be present truth. The message for this time must
be meat in due season to feed the church of God. But Satan has been
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seeking gradually to rob this message of its power, that the people may
not be prepared to stand in the day of the Lord.
In 1844 our great High Priest entered the most holy place of the
heavenly sanctuary, to begin the work of the investigative judgment.
The cases of the righteous dead have been passing in review before
God. When that work shall be completed, judgment is to be pro-
nounced upon the living. How precious, how important are these
solemn moments! Each of us has a case pending in the court of
heaven. We are individually to be judged according to the deeds done
in the body. In the typical service, when the work of atonement was
performed by the high priest in the most holy place of the earthly
sanctuary, the people were required to afflict their souls before God,
and confess their sins, that they might be atoned for and blotted out.
Will any less be required of us in this antitypical day of atonement,
when Christ in the sanctuary above is pleading in behalf of His people,
and the final, irrevocable decision is to be pronounced upon every
case?
What is our condition in this fearful and solemn time? Alas, what
pride is prevailing in the church, what hypocrisy, what deception, what
love of dress, frivolity, and amusement, what desire for the supremacy!
All these sins have clouded the mind, so that eternal things have not
been discerned. Shall we not search the Scriptures, that we may know
where we are in this world’s history? Shall we not become intelligent
in regard to the work that is being accomplished for us at this time,