The cleansing of the sanctuary is closely tied to justification by faith. It's the only unique truth that Seventh-day Adventists have to offer the world. Yet we find a strange neglect of it. Many of our church members hardly have an intelligent idea of what the cleansing of the sanctuary is all about. Many pastors never teach it.
We must get hold of this all-important truth if we are to endure the trials of the last days:
The subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God. All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill...
The sanctuary in heaven is the very center of Christ's work in behalf of men [justification by faith]. It concerns every soul living upon the earth. It opens to view the plan of redemption, bringing us down to the very close of time and revealing the triumphant issue of the contest between righteousness and sin.
Further, this sanctuary truth is the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist message. A few striking statements found in Evangelism make this clear:
The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith (p. 221).
The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery 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 (p. 222).
God's people are now to have their eyes fixed on the heavenly sanctuary, where the final ministration of our great High Priest in the work of the judgment is going forward—where He is interceding for His people (p. 223).
If we know anything at all as to how Satan works, we can expect that he will direct his most sophisticated war against this unique truth of the cleansing of the sanctuary:
In the future, deception of every kind is to arise, and we want solid ground for our feet.... The enemy will bring in false theories, such as the doctrine that there is no sanctuary. This is one of the points on which there will be a departing from the faith...
The time is near when the deceptive powers of satanic agencies will be fully developed. On one side is Christ, who has been given all power in heaven and earth. On the other side is Satan, continually exercising his power to allure, to deceive with strong, spiritualistic sophistries, to remove God out of the places that He should occupy in the minds of men.
Satan is striving continually to bring in fanciful suppositions in regard to the sanctuary, degrading the wonderful representations of God and the ministry of Christ for our salvation into something that suits the carnal mind. He removes its presiding power from the hearts of believers, and supplies its place with fantastic theories invented to make void the truths of the atonement, and destroy our confidence in the doctrines which we have held sacred since the third angel's message was first given. Thus he would rob us of our faith in the very message that has made us a separate people, and has given character and power to our work. (pp. 224, 225).
The 1888 message revived interest in this closing ministry of our great High Priest.
It restored "its presiding power in the hearts of believers." Ellen White caught this significance. Having experienced personally the thrill of waiting for the coming of Christ in the 1844 movement, she never lost that first love.
When she heard the 1888 message for the first time, something clicked in her memory. She almost intuitively recognized the Good News in the message that announced to the waiting heart, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh!" She heard the welcome tread of divine footsteps that but few of her contemporaries wanted to have ears to hear.
That new development was the joining of the Adventist truth of the cleansing of the sanctuary with a more complete revelation of justification by faith. It was like the confluence of two rivers that had flowed separately but now joined to produce a tide that could bear the grounded ship on its way to port. She saw in the message the glorious means of divine grace provided to make a people ready for the coming of the Lord. She was excited. She recognized that "union with Christ" meant union with Him in His closing work of atonement, in clear distinction from His work in the first apartment, where the door was now shut.
In a series of articles written shortly after the 1888 Conference, she reveals week by week through repetition and emphasis how deeply impressed she was. The message of Jones and Waggoner had to do with the reality of the sanctuary truth. Note the week-by-week crescendo in these 1890 Review articles:
We are in the day of atonement, and we are to work in harmony with Christ's work of cleansing the sanctuary from the sins of the people. Let no man who desires to be found with the wedding garment on, resist our Lord in his office work. As he is, so will his followers be in this world. We must now set before the people the work which by faith we see our great High-priest accomplishing in the heavenly sanctuary (January 21).
Christ is in the heavenly sanctuary, and he is there to make an atonement for the people... He is cleansing the sanctuary from the sins of the people. What is our work?—It is our work to be in harmony with the work of Christ. By faith we are to work with him, to be in union with him.... A people is to be prepared for the great day of God (January 28).
The mediatorial work of Christ, the grand and holy mysteries of redemption, are not studied or comprehended by the people who claim to have light in advance of every other people on the face of the earth (February 4).
Christ is cleansing the temple in heaven from the sins of the people, and we must work in harmony with him upon the earth, cleansing the soul temple from its moral defilement (February 11).
The people have not entered into the holy place [most holy], where Jesus has gone to make an atonement for his children. We need the Holy Spirit in order to understand the truths for this time; but there is spiritual drought in the churches (February 25).
Light is flashing from the throne of God, and what is this for?—It is that a people may be prepared to stand in the day of God (March 4).
We have been hearing his voice more distinctly in the message that has been going for the last two years, declaring unto us the Father's name... We have only just begun to get a little glimmering of what faith is (March 11).
You have been having light from heaven for the past year and a half, that the Lord would have you bring into your character and weave into your experience...
If our brethren were all laborers together with God, they would not doubt but that the message he has sent us during these last two years is from heaven...
Suppose that you blot out the testimony that has been going during these last two years proclaiming the righteousness of Christ, who can you point to as bringing out special light for the people? (March 18).
Ellen White saw how the Jones-Waggoner message riveted attention on the practical aspects of Christ's high priestly ministry. This is where those two great rivers, the sanctuary truth and justification by faith, flowed together. Jones saw the practical-godliness relationship clearly. The message didn't cause frustration by calling for holy living, it provided the means for it:
This cleansing of the sanctuary [in the typical service] was the taking out of and away from the sanctuary all "the uncleanness of the children of Israel" "because of their transgressions in all their sins," which, by the ministry of the priesthood in the sanctuary had been brought into the sanctuary during the service of the year.
The finishing of this work of the sanctuary and for the sanctuary was, likewise, the finishing of the work/or the people.... The cleansing of the sanctuary extended to the people, and included the people, as truly as it did the sanctuary itself...
And that cleansing of the sanctuary was a figure of the true, which is the cleansing of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, from all the uncleanness of the believers in Jesus because of all their transgressions in all their sins. And the time of this cleansing of the true is declared in the words of the Wonderful Numberer to be "unto two thousand and three hundred days,"... in A.D. 1844...
This is done in the cleansing of the true sanctuary, only in the finishing of transgression and making an end of sins in the perfecting of the believers in Jesus, on the one hand; and on the other hand in the finishing of transgression and making an end of sins in the destruction of the wicked and the cleansing of the universe from all taint of sin that has ever been upon it.
The finishing of the mystery of God is the ending of the work of the gospel. And the ending of the work of the gospel is, first, the taking away of all vestige of sin and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness—Christ fully formed— within each believer, God alone manifest in the flesh of each believer in Jesus; and, secondly, on the other hand, the work of the gospel being finished means only the destruction of all who then shall not have received the gospel (2 Thess. 1:710); for it is not the way of the Lord to continue men in life when the only possible use they will make of life is to heap up more misery for themselves...
The service in the earthly sanctuary shows also that in order for the sanctuary to be cleansed and the course of the gospel service there to be finished, it must first be finished in the people who have a part in the service. That is to say: In the sanctuary itself, transgression could not be finished, an end of sins and reconciliation for iniquity could not be made,... until all this had been accomplished in each person who had a part in the service of the sanctuary. The sanctuary itself could not be cleansed until each of the worshipers had been cleansed. The sanctuary itself could not be cleansed so long as, by the confessions of the people and the intercessions of the priests, there was pouring into the sanctuary a stream of iniquities, transgressions, and sins.... This stream must be stopped at its fountain in the hearts and lives of the worshipers, before the sanctuary itself could possibly be cleansed.
Therefore the very first work in the cleansing of the sanctuary was the cleansing of the people...
And this is the very object of the true priesthood in the true sanctuary.... The sacrifice, the priesthood, and the ministry of Christ in the true sanctuary does take away sins forever, does make the comers thereunto perfect, does perfect "for ever them that are sanctified."
The Jones-Waggoner message clearly recognized that the forgiveness of sins is a judicial declaration that rests solely on the atonement made at the cross. It has an objective foundation. But they also saw that the Bible word for forgive means an actual "taking away" of the sin. Thus, from the time of the 1888 Conference they recognized the distinction between the daily or continual ministry in the sanctuary, and the yearly ministry. There is a difference between the forgiveness of sins and the blotting out of sins. Written soon after the Minneapolis Conference, the following expresses Waggoner's views:
When Christ covers us with the robe of His own righteousness, He does not furnish a cloak for sin, but takes the sin away. And this shows that the forgiveness of sins is something more than a mere form, something more than a mere entry in the books of record in heaven, to the effect that the sin has been canceled. The forgiveness of sins is a reality; it is something tangible, something that vitally affects the individual. It actually clears him from guilt; and if he is cleared from guilt, is justified, made righteous, he has certainly undergone a radical change. He is, indeed, another person."
The blotting out of sins as the culmination of Christ's closing High Priestly ministry is emphatically taught in the Spirit of Prophecy:
For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the [heavenly] sanctuary. The blood of Christ, pleaded in behalf of penitent believers secured their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon the books of record. As in the typical service there was a work of atonement at the close of the year, so before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary...
As the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which ... [the earthly sanctuary] had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded. But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books of record to determine who, through repentance of sin and faith in Christ, are entitled to the benefits of His atonement.
Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling... While the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin among God's people upon earth. This work is more clearly presented in the messages of Revelation 14 (p. 425).
This is the heart of Seventh-day Adventism!
Our friends in the Evangelical churches would not consider it "dry, stale, or profitless," if we ourselves proclaimed its practical meaning. This is what Jones and Waggoner began to see. They rightly discerned that there is no way that the record of our sins could be blotted out of the books in heaven unless first of all the sin itself is blotted out of the human heart. This simple insight was not "internalizing" the doctrine; it was practicalizing it in the way that The Great Controversy emphasized, the book Ellen White had published just before the Minneapolis Conference. Doubtless the above statement from Ellen White strengthened their convictions.
In 1902 Waggoner published an article in the Review and Herald enlarging this insight. (Documentation exists to indicate that at this time he still taught the sanctuary truth as Seventh-day Adventists had always believed. See Appendix C).
Though all the record of all our sin, even though written with the finger of God, were erased, the sin would remain, because the sin is in us. Though the record of our sin were graven in the rock, and the rock should be ground to powder—even this would not blot out our sin.
The blotting out of sin is the erasing of it from nature, the being of man. [From other statements made in 1901 it is plain he does not mean the eradication of the sinful nature.]
The erasing of sin is the blotting of it from our natures, so that we shall know it no more. "The worshippers once purged [Hebrews 10:2,3]—actually purged by the blood of Christ—have "no more conscience of sins," because the way of sin is gone from them. Their iniquity may be sought for, but it will not be found. It is forever gone from them—it is foreign to their new natures, and even though they may be able to recall the fact that they have committed certain sins, they have forgotten the sin itself—they do not think of doing it any more. This is the work of Christ in the true sanctuary (September 30).
How far did Ellen White agree with this concept? The following was written during the 1890s:
Forgiveness has a broader meaning than many suppose... God's forgiveness is not merely a judicial act by which He sets us free from condemnation. It is not only forgiveness for sin, but reclaiming from sin. It is the outflow of redeeming love that transforms the heart.
Let's watch for an important point:
Jones and Waggoner did not teach that the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is equivalent to, or consists only of, the cleansing of the hearts of God's people. They fully recognized that there is a true tabernacle in heaven, as the pioneer Seventh-day Adventists believed. Their expressions of their faith fully agreed with The Great Controversy words, that "while the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people on earth." In other words, in plain English, the cleansing of the hearts of God's people on earth is parallel to and complementary with the work of their High Priest in heaven. It is He who cleanses the sanctuary, but they cooperate in harmony with Him:
That God has a sanctuary in the heavens, and that Christ is priest there, cannot be doubted by anyone who reads the Scriptures... Therefore it follows that the cleansing of the sanctuary—a work which is set forth in the Scriptures as immediately preceding the coming of the Lord—is coincident with complete cleansing of the people of God on this earth, and preparing them for translation when the Lord comes...
The life [character] of Jesus is to be perfectly reproduced in His followers, not for a day merely, but for all time and for eternity.
Waggoner is writing for non-Adventists, seeking to make plain the practical basis of this unique Adventist doctrine. There is no difference in principle between the forgiveness of sins in the daily service and the blotting out of sins in the yearly service, any more than there is a difference in the essential quality of the water itself that falls in the former rain and that which falls in the latter rain. Both the forgiveness and the blotting out of sins are through the ministry of the blood of Jesus spilled at the cross of Calvary.
But here is the difference: the typical service of the earthly sanctuary taught that forgiveness can conceivably be rejected by the forgiven sinner, and the sin can be reactivated in the life. That is apostasy. And sin may lie much deeper than we are aware, so that temptations or trials yet to come of greater intensity could cause us to fall (an example is the mark of the beast). There must therefore come at last a sealing, from which there will never be a turning away. This is equivalent to the blotting out of sins, and is a preparation for the coming of Jesus.
As we saw in our previous chapter, no one will ever claim such a sealing or blotting out. The closer the believer comes to Christ, the more sinful and unworthy he feels himself to be. But nonetheless, the High Priest is accomplishing His purpose in those who do not resist Him "in His office work." Waggoner continues explaining the doctrine to non-Adventists in Britain:
We have not time or space here to enter into details, but it must suffice to say that a comparison of Dan. 9:24-26 with Ezra 7 shows that the days mentioned in the prophecy began 457 B.C., and so reach to 1844 A.D... But some one will ask: What connection has 1844 with the blood of Christ, and that blood is no more efficient at one time than another, how can it be said that at a certain time the sanctuary shall be cleansed? Has not the blood of Christ continually been cleansing the living sanctuary, the church? The reply is, that there is such a thing as "the time of the end." Sin must have an end, and work of cleansing will one day be complete... Now it is a fact that since the middle of the last century new light has shone forth, and truth of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus is revealed as never before, and the loud cry of the message, "Behold your God!" is being proclaimed.
Sometimes someone's teachings can be more clearly reflected by those who have heard him and accepted, than in his own words. Let us see how this subject was understood by W. W. Prescott at about this same time:
There is a difference between the forgiveness of sins and the blotting out of sin. There is a difference between the gospel being preached for the forgiveness of sins and the gospel being preached for the blotting out of sin. Always, and today, there is abundant provision for the forgiveness of sins. In our generation comes the provision for the blotting out of sin. And the blotting out of sin is what will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord; and the blotting out of sin is the ministry of our high Priest in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary; and it makes a difference to the people of God today in their ministry, in their message, and in their experience, whether they recognize... or... experience the fact of the change... That should be distinctly brought out in the third angel's message; and with that, of course, will come the clearest revelation of the gospel ministry for this time, the blotting out of sin in this generation, thus preparing the way of the Lord.
Prescott learned this unique concept from Jones, who taught it in 1893 as follows:
Then, when we as a people, we as a body, we as a church have received the blessing of Abraham, what then?... The outpouring of the Spirit. It is so with the individual. When the individual believes in Jesus Christ, and obtains the righteousness which is by faith, then the Holy Spirit, which is the circumcision of the heart, is received by him. And when the whole people, as a church, receive the righteousness of faith, the blessing of Abraham, then what is to hinder the church from receiving the Spirit of God? [Congregation: "Nothing."] That is where we are... What holds back the outpouring of the Holy Ghost? [Voice: "Unbelief."]
Does Ellen White clearly support this understanding of the significance of the cleansing of the sanctuary?
At the very beginning of Seventh-day Adventist history she made some statements that are perhaps more startling to us today than they were to her generation. We have yet to appreciate their profound import. She is describing the change of Christ's ministry from the first to the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, in 1844.
There I beheld Jesus, a great High Priest, standing before the Father... Those who rose up with Jesus [that is, following Him by faith] would send up their faith to Him in the holiest, and pray, "My Father, give us Thy Spirit." Then Jesus would breathe upon them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, power, and much love, joy, and peace.
If it is true that "Babylon the great is fallen," then it is very obvious that the only possible source of that true love (agape) must be the ministry of Christ in the most holy apartment. And those professed Christians who have refused to follow Him by faith must be destitute of the true Holy Spirit. This is what she says on the next page:
I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne [that is, still praying to Christ in the first apartment]; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray, "Father, give us Thy Spirit." Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace.
Do these words mean what they say?
If they do, the terrible reality emerges of a clever enemy of all truth perpetrating upon professed Christians of our generation the most terrible deception of his thousands of years of experience. And the only possible safeguard against being deceived is a correct understanding of the ministry of Christ in the cleansing of the sanctuary.
Again in Early Writings the Lord's servant tells us the frightful danger of popular but false teachings of righteousness by faith that come through failure to understand Christ's true ministry in the most holy place:
I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches had crucified these [three angels'] messages, and therefore they have no knowledge of the way into the most holy [ apartment], and they cannot be benefited by the intercession of Jesus there. Like the Jews, who offered their useless sacrifices, they offer up their useless prayers to the apartment which Jesus has left; and Satan, pleased with the deception, assumes a religious character, and leads the minds of these professed Christians to himself, working with his power, his signs and lying wonders, to fasten them in his snare... He also comes as an angel of light and spreads his influence over the land by means of false reformations. The Curches are elated, and consider that God is working marvelously for them, when it is the work of another spirit...
I saw that God has honest children among the nominal Adventists [those who believe in the second coming of Christ but do not understand the sanctuary truth] and the fallen churches, and before the plagues shall be poured out, ministers and people will be called out from these churches and will gladly receive the truth. Satan knows this—and before the loud cry of the third angel is given, he raises an excitement in these religious bodies, that those who have rejected the truth may think that God is with them. He hopes to deceive the honest and lead them to think that God is still working for the churches. But the light will shine, and all who are honest will leave the fallen churches, and take their stand with the remnant (p. 261).
Who is the spirit spoken of as "another spirit"? It is obviously a counterfeit spirit, designed to resemble the genuine, and if possible to deceive the honest. The mark of the beast will not be a crude, obvious deception! It will include a plastic, counterfeit justification by faith.
Preparation for the coming of Christ involves learning to know Him so intimately that deception will be impossible. This suggests the intimacy of marriage and love that makes such a relationship possible. The following are thoughts that Jones held in the 1890's. Though published first in Review and Herald articles in the late years of the decade, they represent convictions that he held much earlier. This was an essential of the 1888 message:
When Jesus comes, it is to take His people unto Himself. It is to present to Himself His glorious church, "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," but that is "holy and without blemish." It is to see Himself perfectly reflected in all His saints.
And before He comes thus, His people must be in that condition. Before He comes we must have been brought to that state of perfection in the complete image of Jesus. Eph. 4:7,8,11-13. And this state of perfection, this developing in each believer the complete image of Jesus—this is the finishing of the mystery of God, which is Christ in you the hope of glory. This consummation is accomplished in the cleansing of the sanctuary...
And the blotting out of sins is exactly this thing of the cleansing of the sanctuary; it is the finishing of all transgression in our lives; it is the making an end of all sins in our character; it is the bringing in of the very righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ...
Therefore now as never before, we are to repent and be converted, that our sins may be blotted out, that an utter end shall be made of them forever in our lives.
This unusual thought is found in Jones's sermons at the 1893 session, sermons that Ellen White said should be republished (Letter 230, 1908):
"Those who bear every test have heeded the testimony of the True Witness, and will receive the latter rain that they may be translated." [He was loosely paraphrasing what he had earlier read from Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 187.]
Brethren, is there not a lot of good cheer in the thought that it is for that, that the latter rain is to prepare for translation?... And when he comes and speaks to you and me, it is because he wants to translate us, but he cannot translate sin, can he? Then, the only purpose that he has in showing us the depth and breadth of sin, is that he may save us from it and translate us.
I have wondered lately whether that is no intentional that it is put in that way, that the mystery of God should be finished, instead of shall be finished. It should have been finished long ago.... What is that? "Christ in you the hope of glory."
If you are in any way connected with this world in spirit, in mind, in thought, in wishes, in inclinations,... a hair's breadth, a connection with the world as thin as a hair, will rob you of the power that there must be in this call that will warn the world against this evil power [the beast and his image] of the world, so that they shall be utterly separated from it.
Brethren, he is a glorious salvation to those who are free from iniquity. Let him cleanse us from iniquity now, that when his glory appears we will not be consumed, but changed into his glorious likeness itself. That is what he wants.
Brethren, we are in the grandest time this world ever saw. Oh, that we may consecrate ourselves to God as becomes us who are living in this grandest of times!... I tell you, brethren, the power of God is going to do something right away. Oh, that we may surrender all things to him that he may!
It is a fearful position. It brings us to the point of such consecration as not a soul of us ever dreamed of before; unto the place of such consecration, of such devotion, as will hold ourselves in the presence of God, with that fearful thought that "It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law."...
Brethren, there is that fearful word also that touches that very thought, that came to us from Australia... "Something great and decisive is to take place, and that right early. If any delay, the character of God and his throne will be compromised." Brethren, by our careless, indifferent attitude, we are putting God's throne into jeopardy.
Part of that most precious message was this larger concern for the honor of Christ. The closer one comes to the cross of Christ, the less he worries about his own security. He will be caught up in a grand concern for the triumphant close of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Waggoner also had the same idea:
"That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged" [Romans 3 -A]. God is now accused by Satan of injustice and indifference and even of cruelty. Thousands of men have echoed the charge. But the judgment will declare the righteousness of God. His character, as well as that of man, is on trial. In the judgment every act, both of God and man, that has been done since creation will be seen by all in all its bearings.
And when everything is seen in that perfect light, God will be acquitted of all wrongdoing, even by his enemies.
God is embarrassed if His people do not overcome!
And no motivation possible can lead His people to overcome selfishness and sin except a concern for the honor and the integrity of His throne. But this motivation is all-powerful. It is New Testament faith!
The second coming of Christ is the ultimate validation of the Seventh-day Adventist message. Our very name expresses our confidence in His soon coming. If Christ should never return, we have had no reason to exist as a people, and our 150 plus years of history are a delusion. As Paul says, we would then be "of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19). And even if His coming is certain, but is to be delayed for many decades or even centuries, we still have no reason to exist, for we have said repeatedly that His coming is near, because He has said so. Not our honor, but His is at stake. Who can welcome a dishonest Saviour?
And if we abandon our faith in the soon personal, visible return of Jesus and fall back on the popular idea that the resurrection will take care of all our problems, we must remember that the resurrection can't happen unless the Saviour comes personally to resurrect the dead. The dead saints are forever prisoners in their graves unless the Lord comes to resurrect them.
Can His people hasten or delay His coming? All too common is the idea that the sovereign will of God has predetermined its exact time irrevocably, as a peg fixed in the mechanism of a time clock. When the peg finally strikes the gong, the curtain will fall on history, and the Lord will return, whether His people are ready or not. This idea is closely related to Calvinistic predeterminism. The Adventist version is that all we have to do is play the waiting and watching game, keeping a wary eye on the incipient Sunday Law while we try to make the best of both worlds. This widely prevalent view of the second coming is thoroughly egocentric, and can produce nothing but continued lukewarmness.
The 1888 message introduced a refreshingly different view—a revival of that deep heartfelt love for Christ that motivated the participants in the midnight cry of 1844. Students at South Lancaster partook of that spirit in the meetings that followed the 1888 Conference. "Nearly every student was swept in by the heavenly current, and living testimonies were given that were not surpassed even by the testimonies of 1844 before the disappointment." With a spirit like that, we want the Lord to come soon. And He will come as soon as His people want Him to come. The "harvest principle" makes sense:
"When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come" (Mark 4:29). Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.
It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is your heart-response? If you say from your heart with the apostle, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus," you are helping to hasten His coming.