The Sanctuary and the Twenty-three Hundred Days of Daniel 8:14
PREFACE
IN introducing to the reader a work on the subject of the sanctuary, we have no occasion to make any apology for adding another to the multitude of books that have been written on this subject; for no such multitude of books on this question exists. Indeed, we know of but two works that have preceded this, each of them published under the auspices of the same denomination to which the writer of this belongs, and each of them advocating the same view that is here presented. The first of these was by Eld. J. N. Andrews, author of the History of the Sabbath, and other important works, and who, though the pioneer in the presentation of the subject, left no essential feature to be discovered by additional light. It was thought that the importance of this subject would warrant a work giving it a more extended examination and setting forth more fully the reasons upon which it rests. To this thought the present volume owes its existence. STTHD v.1
That which is perhaps most calculated to excite our wonder in connection with this subject is the fact that a question so intimately connected with, and so essentially modifying, some of the most important subjects of the Bible, should have lain so long unnoticed. And this furnishes all the greater reason why, now that light is shining upon it, and its commanding position in the great temple of truth is discovered, the most earnest efforts should be made to bring it to the attention of the people. STTHD v.2
This subject is intimately connected with the prophecies, and this may be one reason why it has not sooner come up for consideration; for it has been reserved to this present generation, living in “the time of the end,” to behold the seal broken from the prophetic page and to see a wonderful increase of knowledge respecting its soul-inspiring utterances. But an understanding of the subject of the sanctuary is essential to the understanding of some of the most important of these prophetic records. STTHD vi.1
There is, it is said, in Rome a room the walls of which are covered with tracings which to the beholder, as he enters, appear but a mass of inextricable confusion. But as he reaches one certain point in the room, immediately all lines fall into place, all forms assume their due proportion, the laws of perspective assert their sway, and the room appears covered with harmonious and beautiful imagery. STTHD vi.2
The sanctuary occupies this true point of perspective in the prophetic apartment of the Sacred Scriptures. From it the unity and harmony of the prophetic lines can be seen as from no other standpoint. STTHD vi.3
It is interwoven also with subjects of the greatest practical importance; and we commend it to the reader as having a wider bearing and involving a greater number of important topics than any other subject to which our attention is called by the unfoldings of prophecy. U.S. July, 1877. STTHD vi.4