The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: Clarifying Light Dawns on Sanctuary’s Cleansing

I. New Concept of Sanctuary Explains Disappointment

At Port Gibson, New York, on the old Erie Canal, midway between Syracuse and Buffalo, Hiram Edson was leader of the advent believers of the community. His farmhouse, a mile south of town, was frequently their meeting place when they did not have access to the district schoolhouse, likewise a mile from the village. Dr. Franklin B. Halm, physician of Canandaigua, New York—about fifteen miles distant on Lake Canandaigua—was another prominent member of the Adventist company in that region. And yet another was Owen R. L. Crosier, an orphan youth whom Edson and Hahn had befriended. Between them he had been provided with a home, and had now developed into a keen Bible student and a promising writer. The three of them joined in publishing a small paper called the Day-Dawn, printed at Canandaigua-one of the group of Adventist journals issued following the Disappointment. And Crosier served as editor. PFF4 877.1

Like thousands of other Adventist groups large and small scattered over the land, the Port Gibson believers met on October 22 waiting for Christ to appear in glory. Edson invited the people to come to that last meeting, and bade good-by to those who declined, never expecting to meet them again. Fervent prayer and hymns marked that climactic day, together with exhortations and expectation. They reviewed the evidences, and lived in hope as the hours passed slowly away. Spalding phrases it impressively: PFF4 877.2

Picture 1: HIRAM EDSON KEY FIGURE IN EXPANDING SANCTUARY STUDY
Community Schoolhouse where met the adventists of port Gibson, New York, on the Erie Canal, and Hiram Edsons home. The nearby barn, in which Edson and his associates prayed for light following the dark night of disappointment, still stands as a silent teminder of their fateful day of expectation. (inset) Hiram Edson.
Page 877

“Would it be in the morning? The frost of the dawn melted under the rising sun. Might it be at noon? The meridian was reached, and the sun began to decline. Surely the evening! But the shades of night fell lowering. Still there was hope: ‘For ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning.’” ¹ PFF4 879.1

The neighborhood company of believers expected to meet their Lord at any moment. Says Edson: PFF4 879.2

“We looked for our coming Lord until the clock tolled 12 at midnight. The day had then passed, and our disappointment became a certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted.” ² PFF4 879.3

But Edson kept musing in his heart, “My advent experience has been the richest and brightest of all my Christian experience.... Has the Bible proved a failure? Is there no God, no heaven, no golden city, no Paradise?’” ³ PFF4 879.4

After waiting and weeping until dawn, many of the advent believers slipped away to their desolate homes. To some of those who remained Edson said, “Let us go to the barn and pray.” They went into the almost empty granary, for the corn had not been husked, but still stood in shocks in the field. They shut the door behind them and poured out their souls in anguished supplication before God, that He would hear their cries. They pleaded that He would not desert them in their hour of supreme need, nor forsake them in their utter extremity. Edson was the leader of this praying circle. PFF4 879.5

They prayed until the conviction came that their prayers had been heard and accepted, that light would be given and their disappointment explained. Edson was reassured that truly there is a God, and that His Word is true and sure. He had blessed them graciously in their advent experience, and He would surely make known to them the nature of their mistake and reveal His leading and His purpose. The cause of our perplexity will become as plain as day, he said. Have faith in God! PFF4 879.6

Picture 2: PLEADING FOR LIGHT ON THEIR DISAPPOINTMENT
In the hours of the morning of October 23, Hiram Edson and a few associates besorght the God of light for undersatanding on the nature of their disappointment. They prayed
Page 881

After breakfast Edson said to one of his companions, “Let us go and see and encourage some of our br[ethre]n.” (According to Loughborough this second man was Crosier.) They shunned the road, for Edson did not want to meet people, as he did not yet know what to say to them. ⁴ So they struck off across Edson’s field, where the corn was still in the shock and the pumpkins on the vines. They walked along silently, with bowed heads and meditative hearts, more or less oblivious of each other. Suddenly Edson stopped, as if by a hand laid upon his shoulder. He stood, deep in meditation, his face upturned wistfully toward the mottled gray skies, praying for light. He pondered the Bible evidence on the ministering Priest, Christ Jesus, in God’s antitypical sanctuary in heaven, and how they had expected Him to emerge, on that antitypical Day of Atonement, to bless His waiting people. Edson was waiting for an answer to his perplexity. Suddenly there burst upon his mind the thought that there were two phases to Christ’s ministry in the heaven of heavens, just as in the earthly sanctuary of old. In his own words, an overwhelming conviction came over him— PFF4 881.1

“that instead of’ our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, he for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary and that he had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth.” ⁵ PFF4 881.2