Advent Movement Survey 3

The Foundation Of Our Faith

Study given by W. D. Frazee - January 2, 1962

We will begin with 2 Timothy 2:19. This is our third study in Advent Movement Survey.
We are going to study the foundation of our faith. This text says:

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure” 2 Timothy

2:19.

With that we’ll put Early Writings, page 258. If you have your Early Writings, please turn to
that. What’s the name of the chapter beginning here? “A Firm Platform.”

“I was shown three steps-- the first, second, and third angels’
messages. Said my accompanying angel, ‘Woe to him who
shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The true
understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The
destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are
received’” Early Writings, page 258.

Where are those messages found in the Bible? Revelation 14. And here she presents them as
what? Three steps. Together they make what? A firm what? Platform. Now, you can see
that in order to make a platform, they would all have to be under the platform, wouldn’t they?
I mean, the first message would have to go clear on through. And that’s exactly what it does.

The first message that began to be preached by William Miller back in 1831 is still being
preached, right? The second message that they preached in 1844, that Babylon is fallen with
the midnight cry, that’s present truth right on through. And the third message from 1844 on.

But, notice this is called a what? Platform. What kind of platform? A firm platform. I
wonder why it’s so firm? That’s what I wanted to study with you. What is it that makes it so
firm? Sister White has more than once said, “We are as certain that we have the truth as that
God lives.” It is wonderful to be certain, isn’t it? What makes us certain? And there are two
great lines of evidence that help us to know that and we want to note how they’re summed up
here in Volume 8, page 297:

“Let none seek to tear away the foundations of our faith--the

foundations that were laid at the beginning of our work by
prayerful study of the word and by revelation. Upon these
foundations we have been building for the last fifty years”
Testimonies for the Church, Volume 8, page 297.

This was written early in the twentieth century. Now here she uses the word “foundation”

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again. The foundations, she says, were laid by what? Prayerful study of the word and by
revelation. Is the Bible the foundation of our faith? That’s right.

We want to see in our lesson today what part Bible study had in laying the foundations of our
faith, and what part revelation had. Was there revelation back there in the early days of this
movement? What’s another name for that? The Spirit of Prophecy, or the visions of Ellen
Harmon, after her marriage, Ellen G. White.

Now, let me say, as we enter into this study, that this is one of the points on which you will
be questioned and criticized sooner or later. There are those who charge that the reason we,
Seventh-day Adventists, believe and teach certain things, is because Ellen G. White’s visions
teach them, and we have to defend those visions. That’s why we believe and teach certain
things. Sometimes people in an endeavor to combat that criticism, try to take the position
that the visions have nothing to do with our beliefs. But, you want to keep in your mind the
question as we study, do the visions have anything to do with the foundation, and if so, what?
This indicates that the visions do, because it says:

“Let none seek to tear away the foundations of our faith--the

foundations that were laid at the beginning of our work by
prayerful study of the word and by revelation” Testimonies for
the Church, Volume 8, page 297.

Then did revelation have something to do with it? What is mentioned first here? Prayerful
study of the word. There is a relation between these two things. These both entered into the
beginnings of this work. Now, we will go to Selected Messages. This is taken from Series B,
Special Testimonies:

“Many of our people do not realize how firmly the foundation

of our faith has been laid” Selected Messages, Book 1, page
206.

Here is our expression again. What is the subject today? The foundation of our faith.

“Many of our people do not realize how firmly the foundation

of our faith has been laid. My husband, Elder Joseph Bates,
Father Pierce, Elder Edson, and others who were keen, noble,
and true, were among those who, after the passing of the time
in 1844 searched for the truth as for hidden treasure. I met with
them, and we studied and prayed earnestly. Often we remained
together until late at night, and sometimes through the entire
night, praying for light and studying the Word. Again and
again these brethren came together to study the Bible” Selected
Messages, Book 1, page 206.

What did they come for?

“In order that they might know its meaning and be prepared to
teach it with power. When they came to the point in their study

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 where they said, ‘We can do nothing more,’ the Spirit of the
Lord would come upon me, I would be taken off in vision, and
a clear explanation of the passages we had been studying would
be given me, with instruction as to how we were to labor and
teach effectively. Thus light was given that helped us to
understand the scriptures in regard to Christ, His mission, and
His priesthood” Selected Messages, Book 1, pages 206, 207.

Now, how did they get light on Christ, His mission, and His priesthood? First of all by doing
what? Studying the Bible, praying earnestly. And then, along with that, what did God in His
mercy do? Gave Sister White visions.

Now, you notice on the occasions that she is speaking of here, the visions came when they
came to the point where they said what? They could do nothing more. That is a wonderful
passage, dear friends. I am so glad it is in this new book Selected Messages.

“Again and again these brethren came together to study the

Bible, in order that they might know its meaning, and be
prepared to teach it with power. When they came to the point
in their study where they said, ‘We can do nothing more,’ the
Spirit of the Lord would come upon me, I would be taken off in
vision, and a clear explanation of the passages we had been
studying would be given me, with instruction as to how we
were to labor and teach effectively. Thus light was given that
helped us to understand the scriptures in regard to Christ, His
mission, and His priesthood” Selected Messages, Book 1, pages
206, 207.

You notice the balance there, friends? Who is the leader of this church? Christ, He is the
head of the church and by His Holy Spirit, He is leading this church. And notice, the visions
were never given, and were never intended to be given to take the place of Bible study,
earnest study. Never. The visions are not a substitute for hard work, in digging into the mine
of Bible truth. But, nevertheless, they came to points where in spite of all their study and
prayer, with all their study and prayer, they couldn’t get all the answers, at least they didn’t
get them. Then God, in His love and mercy, gave His handmaiden visions from heaven. And
she said those were a clear explanation of the passages they had been studying.

Just like a teacher in school - the students are left to wrestle with certain things. They recite.
But oh, so often the teacher sees that they haven’t quite gotten the point, or at least not all of
it, isn’t that true? And there is a time when the teacher says, “Well, you take your book and
look into that some more.” But there are times that the teacher says, “Well let me explain
that to you.” Does the teacher add anything to the truth of the arithmetic book when he
explains? Not a bit. But he sometimes adds a great deal to the students’ comprehension of it,
doesn’t he? Oh, yes. It makes all the difference between failure and success. And so in the
early days of this movement, the foundations were laid by prayerful study of the word and by
revelation.

Now, to bring out clearly what we mean and what we don’t mean, I want to refer to a parallel

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movement; that’s the Mormon church, Latter Day Saints, as they call themselves. I spent
several years working among those dear people up in Utah. Now they have the Bible, The
Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants. Those are the four
books they have. They accept Joseph Smith as the prophet. But now when you listen to a
Mormon elder, he will quote his prophet just the same as he quotes Paul or Isaiah or any of
the others. And in fact, there are things in the Mormon religion that they make no attempt to
prove out of the Bible.

You and I, of course, do not accept the idea that Joseph Smith is a prophet. But if we should
accept him as a prophet, we would have to believe a number of things that are not in the
Bible. And as I say, that doesn’t bother a true Mormon at all, because to him the writings of
Joseph Smith are on a par with the Bible. He is a latter-day prophet, and as such is to be
listened to, just the same as Moses or Samuel or Peter. So in teaching, they use the writings
of Joseph Smith.

Now, when you and I go out to preach this message and study with people in their homes,
when we try to make clear to people the second coming of Christ, or the Sabbath, or the
sanctuary, do we use the writings of Ellen White to convince them of that truth? Why not?
We don’t have to. That’s right, and that isn’t the way to do it. The sword of the Spirit is the
word of God. We are to search the scriptures with people.

You remember that Great Controversy, page 595 says:

“But God will have a people ... to maintain the Bible, and the
Bible only, as the standard of all doctrines and the basis of all
reforms” Great Controversy, page 595.

That’s the true Protestant position, isn’t it? And we are true Protestants in that. The Catholic
church has the Bible and tradition, the Bible and the Pope. And they end up, of course,
making tradition above the Bible and the Pope above them all, don’t they? The Mormons
have the Bible and Joseph Smith and they end up making Joseph Smith above the Bible.
Christian Scientists have the Bible and Mrs. Eddie and they end up accepting science and
health as the key to the scriptures as really of greater authority than the Bible.

Seventh-day Adventists do not do that with the writings of Ellen White. Ellen G. White
herself teaches that the Bible is the measuring stick. It’s the standard. It’s the yardstick
Instead of testing the Bible by the visions, we test the visions by the Bible. And so in the
formative days of this message, it was very important (Mark this point!) that the great
foundation principles of this message should be seen where? In the Bible, and that the
visions which were given should lead people to see those truths where? In the Bible. That
was the purpose of the visions. Not as a new rule of faith. No. But to correct those who
erred from Bible truth and lead people to a clear understanding of Bible truth. Oh, I am so
thankful for that, aren’t you?

On the other hand, when we say that we believe the Bible and the Bible only, that doesn’t cut
out the visions, because the Bible itself calls for the visions:

“The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war

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 with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments
of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” Revelation
12:17.

And [Revelation] 19:10 says that the testimony of Jesus is what? The Spirit of Prophecy.
Now, is that a part of the Bible? Does the Bible itself, then, call for the Spirit of Prophecy in
and among the remnant? That’s right? And again Acts 2:17,18:

“In the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon
all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and
your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dream dreams” Acts 2:17.

So the Bible itself calls for visions, prophesyings when? In the last days. Therefore (Mark
this!) when we believe in visions in the last days we are only believing what the Bible says.
And he who denies or ignores visions and prophesyings in the last days, denies or ignores
that part of the Bible which calls for them, right? Yes. So we can believe in visions and
dreams and not set aside the Bible. In fact, a failure to believe in true visions and true dreams
of the Spirit of Prophecy would set aside that part of the Bible, which calls for them. Is that
clear?

Now, when we go back to the beginnings of our work as a movement in 1844, we find
several distinctive features of the doctrines of our message coming into focus and being
linked together in the first few years following 1844. I would like to have you think of five
special features of our message.

The first is in the name Adventist. Our pioneers all believed, and we believe in what? The
second coming of Christ.

Then, there is the sanctuary. That was the keynote of the 1844 message. The sanctuary will
be cleansed. And when they came to a true understanding of what the sanctuary is, where it
is, and what its cleansing meant, that became the great keynote of the third angel’s message.

Third was the Sabbath. That’s where we get the name Seventh-day Adventist.
And fourth is the Spirit of Prophecy. That is the second of those distinguishing features in
Revelation 12:17, the testimony of Jesus, which is the Spirit of Prophecy.

Fifth is the state of the dead, the nature of man.

You might think of them as five S’s, if you want an easy way to remember them. The second
coming, the sanctuary, the Sabbath, the Spirit of Prophecy, the state of the dead. I like to
help people to remember them by thinking of the fingers of the hand. The thumb, the second
coming and it touches all the other fingers. It is the great keynote. It is what got us started,
isn’t it? Yes that’s right That was the trumpet call of the first angel’s message, Jesus is
coming. Then the sanctuary like a great pointer finger pointing to the temple of God in
heaven. Then the Sabbath as the great prominent mark or seal, that middle finger. Then the
Spirit of Prophecy and the state of the dead as the fourth and fifth fingers. Yes, I thought of it
as a hand clenched for attack or extended in welcome invitation.

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Very well, now we will not have time in our hour this evening to introduce how all of these
came into our movement. You are familiar already with the second coming message
preached by William Miller and all of the Adventist preachers, up to October 22, 1844. And
the great lines of prophecy in Daniel and Revelation, and Matthew 24, that focus on this last
generation and make us know that Christ’s coming is near, even at the doors. But I would
like to notice especially, tonight, these distinctive features of the sanctuary, the Sabbath, and
the Spirit of Prophecy, their relation to one another, and how they came together. We will
link them in our study of the history with certain names.

When we think of the Spirit of Prophecy, of course, we think of Ellen Harmon. Were there
any other manifestations of the prophetic gift in the earlier part of this message? Yes.
William Foy and Hazen Foss. Before the disappointment, they had been given visions. In
fact, each of them was given this vision of the three steps. They didn’t understand it. And
then as we shall see, there was a most precious manifestation of a prophetic vision, it might
be called, certainly a view, on the morning after the disappointment there in Western New
York. We will speak of that presently.

Various ones of the pioneers were given dreams which they regarded as being given them of
God. Loughborough had this experience. Joseph Bates did. And others. But of course,
towering far above all those, we might say incidental manifestations of the gift, was the great
gift of the Spirit of Prophecy given to Ellen Harmon and after marriage, Ellen G. White,
through the seventy years and more, of her work as the Lord’s messenger.

Now, let us trace for a moment how the sanctuary message came to us, and how it found its
connection with the Sabbath and with the Spirit of Prophecy as given through Ellen G. White.
The day of the disappointment was observed by the little band at Port Gibson, New York, as
it was in other places. The Adventist believers gathering to wait the coming of the Lord.
They gathered at the home of Hiram Edson, a farmer-preacher. He was the leader of the little
group there.

As the day came and went and the night wore on and they realized that they had been
disappointed, their hearts were broken. I want to read Hiram Edson’s own account of it as he
wrote it later. The brethren at Washington have his manuscript account. What I am reading
from is quoted in the Review and Herald:

“Our expectations were raised high, and thus we looked for our
coming Lord until the clock tolled twelve at midnight. The day
had then passed and our disappointment had become a
certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted,
and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never
experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly
friends could have no comparison. We wept and wept till the
day dawned” Review and Herald, June 23, 1921.

Think of it, friends, weeping from midnight until the day dawned.

“I mused in my heart saying, ‘My advent experience has been

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 the brightest of all my Christian experience. Has the Bible
proved a failure? Is there no God, no heaven, no golden city,
no paradise? Is all this but a cunningly devised fable? Is there
no reality to our fondest hopes and expectations?’ I began to
feel there might be light and help for us in our distress. I said
to some of the brethren, ‘Let us go to the barn’” Review and
Herald, June 23, 1921.

What do you suppose they went for?

“We entered the granary, shut the doors about us and bowed
before the Lord. We prayed earnestly for we felt our necessity.
We continued in earnest prayer until the witness of the Spirit
was given that our prayers were accepted and that light should
be given, our disappointment explained, made clear and
satisfactory.

“After breakfast I said to one of my brethren, ‘Let us go and see

and encourage some of our brethren.’ We started, and while
passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of
the field. Heaven seemed open to my view and I saw distinctly
and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the
most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to this earth on the
tenth day of the seventh month at the end of the twenty-three
hundred days, He for the first time, entered on that day into the
second apartment of that sanctuary, and that He had a work to
perform in the most holy place before coming to the earth”
Review and Herald, June 23, 1921.

How did he get it, friends? God showed it to him, in answer to what? Prayer. Now, they had
been studying. They had been studying right up to that awful disappointment. But, oh, in
that darkness of despair, as they cried to their Lord from that barn, the heart of God was
touched, and He sent His angel to show them what had happened. I thank the Lord for that,
don’t you?

Now, the young man who was accompanying Brother Edson on that trip that morning, as he
came to the edge of the field and looked around, he didn’t see Brother Edson with him. He
looked back and there was Brother Edson, in the middle of the field, looking up. He said,
“What is the matter, Brother Edson?” He says, “The Lord is answering our morning prayer.”
He came up to where he was, and told him what the Lord had shown him; that instead of the
High Priest coming to the earth, He had gone into the most holy place to cleanse the
sanctuary, to receive His kingdom; that He had a work to do there, and we were to wait for
Him when He should return from the wedding.

So they went and cheered the brethren, went home and took their Bibles and began to study
the sanctuary. There were three, especially, that studied - Hiram Edson, a Dr. Hahn, and a
young man by the name of Crosier. O. R. L. Crosier. At the end of a number of months of
most careful study, Crosier wrote up their conclusions in a paper called The Law of Moses,

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but later called The Sanctuary. It was published in a little paper that they got out, called The
Day Dawned. Later it was re-printed in a paper called The Day Star in Cincinnati. Still later,
re-printed in the Advent Review, which was gotten out by James White and others, seven
years after the passing of the time. So it had quite a wide circulation.

Now, one who studies that paper of Crosier’s (and I hope all of you who have the Advent
Review, either in this book form or in the facsimile form that some of you have - I hope you
will study carefully Crosier’s article), will be interested in how clear his reasoning is even at
those early days in the message, and that was before those people knew anything about the
visions of Ellen Harmon. This was out in western New York. Sister Harmon was up in
Portland, Maine. She didn’t know of their work, they didn’t know of her work. As we shall
see, Jesus was giving her some visions, but they were out there in western New York
studying, studying, studying.

God had given them a ray of light. They had followed that. They were studying in Hebrews
and Leviticus, and digging out this wonderful material on the work in the holy place, the
work in the most holy place, and what was really going on in heaven.

As they got this information out in these papers that I have mentioned, copies of that fell into
the hands of James White and of Joseph Bates. Correspondence was had back and forth
between them. And before many years had gone by, we find Joseph Bates and James White,
with his wife, Ellen White, fully embracing the glorious light on the sanctuary that had been
studied out by Edson and Crosier.

Now, let us see how the Spirit of Prophecy helped in that. You will remember that Ellen
Harmon had her first vision in December 1844 in Portland, Maine. At that time she had
given up the midnight cry and the shut door in the past, and she was looking, with others, to
the future for it. But the first vision showed that the midnight cry was what? Truth, vital
truth, light for them.

A few weeks later, in the middle of February 1845, she was given a view of the two
apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. That is the vision that I was referring to that I had you
study in Early Writings, page 54 to 56. At that time the vision was called “The Coming of
the Bridegroom.” In this book it is called “End of the 2300 Days.” Both names are correct.
Now, in that, she saw Christ going from the holy place to the most holy place.

I want you to notice what she says in a letter to Joseph Bates, about how much she knew on
the subject, on that particular point, when she had that vision.

What I am going to read from now, is in this excellent little booklet called Ellen G. White,
Messenger to the Remnant. It is available from the Ellen G. White publications. It was
written and gotten together by Elder Arthur White, who has done some excellent work in
assembling this material.

This is Sister White’s statement regarding this vision. This is page 37. About the middle of
February she was given this view of Jesus, rising from His mediatorial throne and going to
the holiest, as Bridegroom to receive His kingdom. Now she says about this:

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 “Previous to this I had no light on the coming of the
Bridegroom. I did not hear a lecture or a word in any way
relating to the Bridegroom’s going to the holiest” Ellen G.
White, Messenger to the Remnant, page 37.

Where did she personally get the light on the bridegroom going from the holy to the most
holy place? Where did she get it? She got it in vision. And it came to her as fresh, new
light. But remember, already for four months the little group over at Port Gibson, New York,
had been studying the very same thing, as Edson and Crosier and Hahn dug out the wonderful
texts in the Bible, dealing with the work in the holy place and the most holy place. Now, see
how God brings together the result of the Bible study by the group over in New York and the
result of the visions up in Maine. Watch now how this happens.

Let’s go back. In October, 1844, Edson saw that Jesus had gone from the holy to the most
holy, and that caused them to begin at once to study the Bible, to dig into the Bible. Then,
Crosier got out the article we have referred to, first in The Day Dawn and then in The Day
Star. Now that article was published in The Day Star in an extra, dated February 7, 1846. I
would just like for you to put down three dates here, February 7, 1846. The issue preceding
that, January 24, 1846, contained the first vision of Ellen Harmon. An issue afterward, soon
afterward, the March 14 issue, carried the second Ellen Harmon communication which
presented her view of Jesus going from the holy to the most holy. Let’s see if we can get that
before us here, so that we get the connection.

The views of this The Day Star that are brought to view. All of them in what year? 1846.
January 24, this is the first E. G. White vision. We had better say Ellen Harmon because she
hadn’t been married yet. (You understand this is not the date of the vision; this is the date of
the publication in this Adventist paper, not a Seventh-day Adventist paper, but it was a paper
that was being circulated among the advent believers.) Then in the Crosier article - this had
the article, you see, that brought to view the Bible proof of the work in the holy place and the
work in the most holy place. Then the March 14 vision on the sanctuary. Now, remember,
when this was given, she was writing here a vision that she had been given a year before.

I want to ask you something. Why do you think the Lord had delayed the publishing of this
vision until this article came out in that paper? Can you see any light in that? Do you see
how that, as the people studied this issue, and looked up all those Bible texts that Crosier
brought together, they became established in what the Bible said on it? And then when they
read this vision from Ellen Harmon, those who had already seen her first vision in the
January 24 issue, and had accepted it, were led to see that this vision confirmed what Crosier
had written.

Remember, these people had not met each other. Crosier and Edson didn’t get their light
from Ellen Harmon at all. As far as I know, they didn’t even know she existed. Ellen
Harmon said when she had that vision, she had not heard one thing on the coming of the
Bridegroom from the holy to the most holy place. There is a verse in the Bible about “in the
mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established,” and that is beautifully
demonstrated again and again in the early days of this message.

In this Word to the Little Flock, which some of you have, you will find an interesting

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statement. This Word to the Little Flock came out in 1847. That’s still a year later. So I
want you to notice what Sister White says at that time in this Word to the Little Flock:

“I believe the sanctuary to be cleansed at the end of the twenty-

three hundred days is the New Jerusalem temple of which
Christ is the minister. The Lord showed me in vision more
than one year ago that Brother Crosier had the true light on the
cleansing of the sanctuary, and that it was his will that Brother
Crosier should write out the view which he gave us in The Day
Star extra, February 7, 1846. I feel fully authorized by the
Lord to recommend that extra to every saint” Word to the Little
Flock, page 12.

Isn’t that nice? And so, those who had come to recognize in Ellen Harmon the manifestation
of the Spirit of Prophecy, had, you might say, a direct testimony from Jesus, from Heaven,
confirming what Crosier had written, based on the investigation of the Bible on the sanctuary.

Well, I hope you will take time to read the very interesting study that Elder White has written
here in this book, Messenger to the Remnant, pages 34 to 37, on this relationship to the
development of doctrine.

All the light on the sanctuary didn’t come through Crosier and through Edson. As the
believers got together, James and Ellen White, Edson, and Bates, they studied more and more
into this subject of the sanctuary; the priesthood of Christ and His work there, and that
formed the basis of what we now have in this book Great Controversy in the chapters “What
is the Sanctuary,” “In the Holy of Holies,” and “God’s Law Immutable.” You will find it
also in Early Writings in those chapters on the third angel’s message and the sanctuary. In
other words, as our believers studied, as our pioneers dug into these things in the Bible, God
kept coming to them with revelations from heaven, to correct any erroneous ideas, and to lead
them into an appreciation of the application of the ancient sanctuary service to what Jesus is
doing in heaven.

How does the Sabbath fit into this? What relation does the Sabbath and the Spirit of
Prophecy have to each other, and what relation does the Sabbath and the sanctuary have to
each other?

Most of us, when we think of the beginning of the Sabbath truth in this message, we think of
Washington, New Hampshire. We think of the Farnsworth family. We think of Rachel
Oakes, the Seventh-day Baptist who was in 1844 in Washington, New Hampshire. It is a
very interesting story of Elder Frederick Wheeler holding the communion service in the little
church there. The people there were Adventists. They believed Jesus was about to come. As
Elder Wheeler gave the communion, he spoke of the importance of keeping the
commandments of God, and Rachel Oaks felt almost like standing up in the meeting and
talking to him about it, for they were all Sunday keepers, but her. And before long she did
talk to him, privately. Read the story in Elder Spaulding’s wonderful chapter in Captains of
the Host, page 107, called “Lift up the Banner.”

As Elder Wheeler was challenged by this Seventh-day Baptist woman over the question of

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really keeping all the commandments, he went to his Bible, and there he could find no proof
for Sunday- keeping. Thank the Lord, he began to keep the Sabbath. Others did. There are
various incidents of how the truth spread from that place.

Bates, reading Preble’s article on the Sabbath, hearing about the group up in Washington,
New Hampshire, made a trip up there in 1845. He was greatly impressed. And not long
after, he began to keep the Sabbath, and shortly to write about it.

In 1846, James and Ellen White heard Bates present the Sabbath question, but they did not, at
first, accept it. Sister White was the Lord’s messenger in this movement for nearly two years
before she accepted the Sabbath. And even when she and her husband accepted it, (they
accepted it on the Bible evidence that Bates presented) they did not see the importance of it
as they saw it later. In fact, at first, Ellen White tells us that she thought that Brother Bates
erred in putting so much emphasis on the Sabbath, in dwelling on it.

Now watch, how the Spirit of Prophecy comes in. Then the Lord showed her several months
after she began to keep the Sabbath, in vision, Jesus in the sanctuary. She saw Him open the
ark. She looked at the ten commandments, and the first table shone brighter than the second,
and the fourth commandment shone brighter than all. Read the vision there in Early
Writings. You are familiar with it, I guess. Page 255 is part of it.

So having embraced the Sabbath through the work of Bates, James and Ellen White, through
the visions given Sister White, were led to see its great importance. Also, Ellen White was
given great light linking the Sabbath with the sanctuary and the other truths of the message.

I want to read a statement, or two, from Sister White on this. This is in a letter she wrote in
1874, and it is on page 34 of this little book, Ellen G. White, Messenger to the Remnant:

“I believed the truth upon the Sabbath question before I had

seen anything in vision in reference to the Sabbath. It was
months after I had commenced keeping the Sabbath before I
was shown its importance and its place in the third angel’s
message” Ellen G. White, Messenger to the Remnant, page 34.

Do we keep the Sabbath, then, because Sister White was shown in vision about the Sabbath?
Did she keep the Sabbath for that reason? No. But oh, on the other hand, did those visions
that Sister White had, did they help us to see certain glory and beauty in the Sabbath, and
linking it with other phases of the message that were not at first discerned? Very definitely.
So, God brought together Joseph Bates, who was pushing the Sabbath; Sister White, who was
being given the Spirit of Prophecy; and thus the commandments of God and the Testimony of
Jesus were brought together.

Meanwhile, as we have already seen, those who were teaching the sanctuary from Bible
study, in New York, were led together with those who had seen light in the sanctuary, in
Maine, through the Spirit of Prophecy. So, Hiram Edson, Joseph Bates, and James and Ellen
White, during the first five or six years of the development of the message, were brought
together in a close fellowship, and through study, together with others, and through the
revelations, a straight chain of truth was forged, comprehending an explanation of the

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disappointment of the past, and also showing the place of the Sabbath, and the other truths in
the crisis of the future.

There is still another angle of this thing that I want to notice, for to me it is wonderful. Turn
in your Bibles to Revelation 11:19. I want you to see the connection between the sanctuary
truth and the Sabbath truth. With this I want you to put down in your notes Early Writings,
page 255 and Great Controversy, page 434 and 435. I would like you to study those pages.
Revelation 11:19, will you read it with me?

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was
seen in his temple the ark of his testament” Revelation 11:19.

That’s enough. When was this fulfilled? 1844. What makes us apply this text to 1844?
Because looking at the picture we see that it relates to what apartment of the temple? The
second. Why? The ark is there. That is what it is talking about, the ark, the ark of His
testament. But we know, according to the type, that the most holy place is open on what day?
The day of atonement. And the anti-typical day of atonement begins when? October 22,
1844. You will find that ground covered in Great Controversy, page 433. You should study
that page. Very well.

Revelation 11:19 is applied. It pinpointed October 22, 1844. The temple of God was opened
in heaven, and then, what follows? “And there was seen.” Now John doesn’t say “I saw it.”
Doubtless he did see it, but that isn’t what he says. He says, “and there was seen.”
Somebody say it. What? The ark of His testament. What is the testament? The law
(Deuteronomy 4:13). The covenant, or the testament, is the ten commandments, and as we
know, they were put in the ark. All right.

Now watch: John says that as that temple was opened, the ark of God’s testament, or God’s
covenant, was seen. As you read in the pages I have given you in Early Writings and Great
Controversy, you will see how inspiration applies that to God’s people here on earth, looking
up through the open door of that temple and beholding the testament in the ark; as the result
of being led to see the binding claims of the law of God, including the seventh-day Sabbath.

Sister White writes here in Early Writings, page 225:

“It was presented to me that the remnant followed Jesus into
the most holy place and beheld the ark and the mercy seat, and
were captivated with their glory. Jesus then raised the cover of
the ark, and lo! the tables of stone, with the ten commandments
written upon them. They trace down the lively oracles, but
start back with trembling when they see the fourth
commandment among the ten holy precepts, with a brighter
light shining upon it than upon the other nine, and a halo of
glory all around it” Early Writings, page 255.

She describes their feelings as they see themselves transgressors of God’s law. Study
carefully page 256. They mourn because of their transgressions of ignorance in breaking the
Sabbath. But Jesus presents their prayers and confessions to the Father, and they are
pardoned and accepted and blessed, and they go out to spread the light to others.

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Now friends, is that just a parable or did that actually happen? Well, it’s both. It is a parable.
But friends, there were some people that actually found the Sabbath truth through Revelation
11:19.

I want to read you something very interesting. This is from the Review and Herald of June 6,
1930. Now, I was there at this General Conference, and dear old Elder Eugene Farnsworth
was there. This is the report of what he said:

“‘My father was the first Seventh-day Adventist in the world.

He was the one who began the observance of the Sabbath as an
Adventist.’ Elder W. A. Spicer broke in, ‘That’s right.’ Elder
Farnsworth says ‘Yes, that is right. And in a little while nearly
the whole church in Washington, New Hampshire, where I was
born, had began to observe the Sabbath’” Review and Herald,
June 6, 1930.

Now listen to this:

“The text of scripture that attracted my father’s attention first

was that text in Revelation that there was seen in His temple the
ark of His testament.

“Father said, ‘I wonder what is in that ark.’ And in his thought

he opened the ark, and there he saw the law of God, and there
he saw the fourth commandment - the seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work.
And he said, ‘I think we had better keep the Sabbath,’ and he
began the observance of the Sabbath quite largely on the
strength of the statement in that text” Review and Herald, June
6, 1930.

Isn’t that wonderful, friends? Yes. Now, let me give you something from another son of
William Farnsworth. William Farnsworth had a number of children. Here is another one, O.
O. Farnsworth. I knew this man personally, too. This is from the Review and Herald,
December 14, 1944.

By the way, friends, when you are reading your Review and Herald, watch for interesting and
important things you want to clip for your files. But you know I am happy to have these two
here tonight. Aren’t you glad I clipped them? And if you’ll watch the Review and Herald
from week to week, you will find things you want to clip, too.

All right. Now this is from O. O. Farnsworth, December 14, 1944 in the Review:

“It is very interesting to realize that the prophet John looked

down to the time of the judgment and saw the ark of the
testament in heaven, and saw that the temple was opened and
that the ark with its commandments was seen at this time. It

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 would seem as if he might actually have seen the attention of
God’s faithful children directed to the temple and the Sabbath
truth” Review and Herald, December 14, 1944.

Now watch:

“William Farnsworth got his knowledge of the Sabbath truth

directly from the word of God. Previous contacts with the
Seventh-day Baptist had not made any impression on his mind,
as the Sabbath doctrine that they taught did not appeal to him
as any more than just one more difference between
denominations. But when he saw that the fourth
commandment was in the ark in heaven, the significance of the
Sabbath truth dawned on his mind” Review and Herald,
December 14, 1944.

Oh friends, let me tell you, there is a power in the Sabbath truth when it is linked with the
second coming, the sanctuary, the Spirit of Prophecy, and the state of the dead. Every one of
these five great pillars stands with the others, and is closely connected with them. I wish I
had time to study every one of these five points and show you how it is linked definitely with
all the other four. Every one of those, calls for each one of the others. Study it out for
yourself. May we bow our heads.

Dear Lord, bless what we have studied together today. Oh, make us glad for the firm
foundation of this blessed message, the three angels’ messages. May we never leave this firm
platform. May we know that it is solid as the Rock of Ages. May we rejoice for the Bible
and for the Spirit of Prophecy. May we understand their relation. And may we be among
those that follow this path through to the pearly gate. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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