660
up as incense to be offered up with the
prayers of his people. As the sinner’s
sincere, humble prayers ascend to the
throne of God, Christ mingles with them
the merits of his life of perfect obe-
Our pravers are made fragrant
incense. Christ pledged
dience.
by this has
ey
a
THE WATCHMAN
himself to intercede in our behalf, and
the Father always hears his Son. Pray
then; pray without ceasing; an answer
is sure to come,
But let me speak in warning: “ If any
man regard iniquity in his heart, the
Lord will not hear him.”
-e
[ress arms ae ot
TRENT
MEETING
THEMES
Lesson Eightecit
THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
CLARENCE SANTEE
N that day shall the priest
make an atonement for vou,
to cleanse vou, that ve may
be clean from all your sins
Lev.
before the Lord.”
16: 30.
The last day of the typical
vear was called the day of
It came on the tenth day of
atonement.
the seventh month. During the whole
vear the sins of the people had, in figure
and by faith in the true sacrifice which
was typified, been transferred to the sanc-
tuary. ‘Then on the day of atonement.
there was a cleansing from all the sins
which had accumulated there. Remem-
ber, this was all an example and shadow
of the real work accomplished in heaven.
Paul savs, ** In those sacrifices there 1s
a remembrance again made of sins every
vear. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins.” Heb. 10:3, 4.
That day, as we have learned from
our text, was a day for the cleansing
from all sin, that ve may be clean
from all vour sins before the Lord.”
Those who did not join in seeking that
cleansing, were cut off. ** For whatso-
ever soul it be that shall not be afflicted
in that same day, he shall be cut oft from
among his people.” Lev. 23: 20.
This divided all into two classes, those
whose sins were all cleansed away, and
You can see
those who were cut off.
that this was a most solemn representa-
tion of the judgment day of God. It
could be nothing less.
of all cases.
of sins, then the blotting out.
have thought that when a man was for-
It was a deciding
First came the transferring
Some
given, then his sins were blotted out;
but as in the type the sins were trans-
ferred, but a remembrance kept of them,
so, mm the sanctuary above, the record is
all
fesses his sins, pardon is recorded for
written down. When a man con-
him. Then in the day of atonement, the
cleansing of the sanctuary, or the judg-
ment, the final blotting out, takes place.
That the blotting out does not take place
when the sinner 1s forgiven, is clearly
shown. Peter when exhorting ta re-
pentance, said, * Repent ve therefore, and
he converted, that vour sins mav be
blotted out when the times of refreshing
shall come from the
Lord.” Acts 3: 10.
Repentance and forgiveness came at
once, but the blotting out came later.
The judgment day did not cover the
presence of the
whole vear in the type, neither does it
continue through the whole Christian
dispensation. Paul says, © He hath ap-
pointed a day in the which he will judge
the world.” Acts 17:31. Peter says,
* The Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptations, and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to
be punished.” 2 Peter 2:0.
A Jewish Rabbi, when asked what he
understood by the day of atonement as
viewed by his people, answered that it
represented the dav of judgment. Be-
fore that dav, as the priest transferred
the sins of the one who confessed them
to the earthly sanctuary in figure, so
Christ, our priest, in fact transfers to
the sanctuary in heaven the sins of those
who with true hearts confess them, lay-
ing them upon the head of the offering.
When the angel told Daniel that at
the end of the long prophetic period end-
ing in 1844, the sanctuary should be
cleansed, he must have referred to the
sanctuary in heaven. It was the only
one in existence at that time, Christ was
the only priest, and it is stated plainly
that he is a minister of the true taber-
The heav-
enly sanctuary is not to be cleansed from
physical defilement, but from sins trans-
ferred to that place by the mediation of
Jesus Christ. That such a cleansing
must take place is stated in Heb. 9: 23.
24: “It was therefore necessary that the
patterns of things in the heavens should
nacle which is in heaven.
be purified with these; but the heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. For 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.”
While the earthly priests offered the
blood of others,” Christ offers his own
Verses 23, 26.
They offered vear by vear; he “ once
“e
blood, * offers himself.”
in the end of the world” puts away sin
“by the sacrifice of himself.”
On the dav of atonement, two goats
were brought before the sanctuary, one
for the IL.ord, one for the scapegoat.
Lev. 16:8. The margin reads ** Aza-
zel,” which is taken irom a term meaning
Satan.
The one on whom the Lord's lot fell
was offered as a sin-offering. His blood
was taken into the most holy place and
sprinkled upon the mercy-seat above the
sacred law, and before the mercy-seat.
As “sin 1s the transgression of the law ™
(1 John 3:4), and without the shedding
of blood there is
(Heb. 9:22), how fitting that the seat
from which mercy is extended to the
sinner over a broken law, should be
sprinkled with blood, and that the one
no remission of sin
taking his place upon that seat must walk
through a pathway of blood.
Christ was offered, his blood was shed.
This he offers in the sinner’s stead. As
the man confessed his sin over the head
of the innocent sacrifice, then took its
life with his own hand, so we, placing
our sins upon Jesus, must confess that
our disobedience has caused his death.
Our own hands have shed his blood. As
our high priest passes in before his Fa-
ther in the most holy place in the heav-
enly sanctuary, now to appear in the
the words of
’
presence of God for us,