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Sanctuary
171
of learning and eloquence, and the taunts and revilings alike of the
honorable and the base. And all this sacrifice was made in order to
maintain the theory that the earth is the sanctuary.
God had led his people in the great Advent movement; his power
and glory had attended the work, and he would not permit it to end
in darkness and disappointment, to be reproached as a false and
fanatical excitement. He would not leave his word involved in doubt
and uncertainty. Though the majority of Adventists abandoned their
former reckoning of the prophetic periods, and consequently denied
the correctness of the movement based thereon, a few were unwilling
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to renounce points of faith and experience that were sustained by
the Scriptures and by the special witness of the Spirit of God. They
believed that they had adopted sound principles of interpretation in
their study of the Scriptures, and that it was their duty to hold fast the
truths already gained, and to still pursue the same course of Biblical
research. With earnest prayer they reviewed their position, and
studied the Scriptures to discover their mistake. As they could see
no error in their explanation of the prophetic periods, they were led
to examine more closely the subject of the sanctuary. [
See appendix,
note 5.
]
In their investigation they learned, that the earthly sanctuary,
built by Moses at the command of God, according to the pattern
shown him in the mount, was “a figure for the time then present, in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices;” that its two holy places
were “patterns of things in the heavens;” that Christ, our great High
Priest, is “a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man;” that “Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us.” [
Hebrews 9:9, 23
;
8:2
;
9:24
.]
The sanctuary in Heaven, in which Jesus ministers in our behalf,
is the great original, of which the sanctuary built by Moses was a
copy. God placed his Spirit upon the builders of the earthly sanctuary.
The artistic skill displayed in its construction was a manifestation
of divine wisdom. The walls had the appearance of massive gold,
reflecting in every direction the light of the seven lamps of the
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golden candlestick. The table of show-bread and the altar of incense
glittered like burnished gold. The gorgeous curtain which formed