The Open and Shut Door
Sabbath, March 24th, 1849, we had a sweet and very interesting
meeting with the brethren at Topsham, Me. The Holy Ghost was
poured out upon us, and I was taken off in the Spirit to the City of the
living God. Then I was shown that the commandments of God, and
the testimony of Jesus Christ, relating to the shut door, could not be
separated, and that the time for the commandments of God to shine
out, with all their importance, and for God’s people to be tried on
the Sabbath truth, was when the door was opened in the Most Holy
Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, where the Ark is, containing the
ten commandments. This door was not opened until the mediation of
Jesus was finished in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary in 1844. Then,
Jesus rose up and shut the door in the Holy Place, and opened the door
in the Most Holy, and passed within the second vail, where he now
stands by the Ark, and where the faith of Israel now reaches.
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I saw that Jesus had shut the door in the Holy Place, and no man can
open it: and that he had opened the door in the Most Holy, and no man
can shut it; [
Revelation 3:7, 8
.] and that since Jesus has opened the door
in the Most Holy Place, which contains the Ark, the commandments
have been shining out to God’s people; and they are being tested on
the Sabbath question.
I saw that the present test on the Sabbath could not come until the
mediation of Jesus in the Holy Place was finished, and he had passed
within the second vail; therefore, Christians who fell asleep before
the door was opened in the Most Holy, when the midnight cry was
finished, at the seventh month 1844, and had not kept the true Sabbath,
now rest in hope, for they had not the light, and the test on the Sabbath,
which we now have since that door was opened. I saw that Satan was
tempting some of God’s people on this point. Because so many good
Christians have fallen asleep in the triumphs of faith, and have not
kept the true Sabbath, they were doubting about it being a test for us
now.
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