Part 34 (1/2)

”The judgment is set, the books have been opened; How shall we stand in that great day When every thought, and word, and action, G.o.d, the righteous Judge, shall weigh?

”The work is begun with those who are sleeping, Soon will the living here be tried, Out of the books of G.o.d's remembrance, His decision to abide.

”O, how shall we stand that moment of searching, When all our sins those books reveal?

When from that court, each case decided, Shall be granted no appeal?”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE

”Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of G.o.d, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GOSPEL COMMISSION

”Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Mark 16:15.]

A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT

FORETOLD IN THE PROPHECY OF REVELATION 14

While the work of the judgment hour, or period,--the cleansing of the sanctuary,--is proceeding in the heavenly temple above, the Lord sends to the world a special message of preparation for the coming of the Lord.

It would not be the divine way to let this solemn judgment in heaven come unheralded to men. Daniel's prophecy had fixed the time of its beginning; and the question asked in the prophet's hearing, ”How long shall be the vision ... to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot?” suggested that when the time came, the truths of G.o.d that had been trodden underfoot through the ages would be lifted up and proclaimed anew to all the world.

With the coming of the judgment hour, in the year 1844, there arose just such a work, a definite gospel movement, that has ever since been carrying the message for the hour to the ends of the earth.

The Way Prepared for the Rise of the Movement

But there was a preliminary work to be done, to prepare the way for the definite advent movement and message.

In the days of Israel of old, as the time for the cleansing of the sanctuary drew near, the people were forewarned of the approach of the solemn hour. The day of atonement--”the tenth day of the seventh month”--was a typical hour of judgment. All the people were to prepare their hearts for that great day.

To this end, the Lord appointed the first day of the seventh month a day of sounding of the trumpets. Lev. 23:24. The silver trumpets, pealing forth on that day, proclaimed to all that the day of atonement was near at hand, when every case would be brought in review before the mercy-seat by the ministry of the high priest in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary.

True to the type, as the year 1844 drew near, when the great ant.i.typical day of atonement was to open and the closing work of Christ to begin in the most holy place of the heavenly temple, the trumpet call of the approaching judgment hour was set pealing through all Christendom.

Events of the closing years of the eighteenth century and the early decades of the nineteenth, had stirred up Bible students to give greater attention to the study of the prophetic scriptures. It was seen that signs of the latter days were appearing, and that every line of historic prophecy pointed to the near approach of Christ's second coming.

Here and there students of the Word saw that the 2300-year period of Dan. 8:14, as explained in the ninth chapter, would end soon; and some arrived at the correct date, and looked to the year 1844 as the time when the judgment hour would come.

Witnesses were raised up in Europe--in Holland, Germany, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries. Joseph Wolff, the missionary to the Levant, preached in Greece, Palestine, Turkey, Afghanistan, and other regions the coming of the judgment hour. William Miller and many a.s.sociates preached the message throughout America.

Writing in the days just before 1844, Mourant Brock, a clergyman of the Church of England, said:

”It is not merely in Great Britain that the expectation of the near return of the Redeemer is entertained, and the voice of warning raised, but also in America, India, and on the continent of Europe. In America, about three hundred ministers of the word are thus preaching 'this gospel of the kingdom;'

whilst in this country, about seven hundred of the Church of England are raising the same cry.”--_”Advent Tracts_,” _Vol.

II, p. 135 (1844)._