CLEANSING OF THE SANCTUARY

As performed in the Jewish economy, the cleansing of the sanctuary must have been a matter with which Daniel was familiar. It occurred in their service once a year, on the tenth day of the seventh month. He must also have had some definite idea of the significance of that atonement, as it prefigured the final work to be accomplished by the promised Messiah.LDT 37.2

The Jewish people of this day who carefully study their service understand the type, at least. That this is so is seen both in their sayings and in their writings. As proof, your attention is called to the following circumstance: In September, 1869, during a series of meetings held at Healdsburg, Cal., a well-educated Jew who resided in that place became much interested in the meetings. Being a man who was very diligent in his mercantile business, it was a matter of great surprise that he should leave his store to attend a meeting in mid-week, and in the daytime. At the close of the meeting, one of the ministers questioned him regarding the matter. He replied, with seriousness: “Why, elder, a Jew who broke every Sabbath in the year would not dare to work to-day. This is the day of atonement, the tenth day of the Jewish seventh month.” The minister then asked, “What is the most solemn name your people have for this day?” With a most devout and reverential look, and in a tremulous tone of voice, he replied, “To-day is the day of judgment.”LDT 38.1

The following quotation from the Scriptures represents the day of atonement as a decisive day with that people: “On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.” ^{15Leviticus 23:27-29.}LDT 38.2

In further proof that the Jewish people regard the tenth day of the seventh month as a day of judgment, the following is quoted from one of their journals published in San Francisco. It is called the Jewish Exponent, and is an organ of the orthodox Jews west of the Rocky Mountains. In the issue for September, 1892, was the announcement that before the next number would be published, the seventh month and the day of atonement would come. Their name for the seventh month is Tisri, and that of the sixth month is Elul; so the paper stated, “The month of Elul is here, and the monitory sounds of the shofar [the trumpet that was to be blown from the first to the tenth day of the seventh month] ^{16Psalm 81:3, 4.} are to be heard every morning in the orthodox synagogues, advising preparation for the day of memorial, and the final judgment of yom kippur.” Hence, as they were in the close of Elul, the sixth month, and Tisri, the seventh month, was about to open, they would every morning, for ten days, hear the trumpet announcing the final day of judgment of that typical system.LDT 39.1

Here is the testimony of another, the Rev. Isidore Myer, rabbi of a large congregation in San Francisco. In announcing the day of atonement in the autumn of 1902, he explained the significance of the feast thus:—LDT 40.1

“While crossing the threshold of time from one year to another, the Israelite is forcibly reminded of the creation and of the universal sovereignty of the Creator, and is called upon to celebrate, with the blast of trumpet, the anniversary, so to speak, of the birth of time and of the coronation of the great King. He is also summoned by the voice of the same trumpet, or ‘shofar,’ to scrutinize retrospectively his actions of the past year, while he stands trembling before the all-seeing eye of Eternal Justice sitting on the throne of judgment.”LDT 40.2