est and last
prophetic period brought to view in the Bible was about to expire, that
the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting kingdom was to be ushered
in. The preaching of the disciples in regard to time was based on the
seventy weeks of Daniel 9. The message given by Miller and his associates
announced the termination of the 2300 days of Dan. 8:14, of which the
seventy weeks form a part. The preaching of each was based upon the
fulfilment of a different portion of the same great prophetic period.

Like the first disciples, William Miller and his associates did not,
themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message which they bore.
Errors that had been long established in the church prevented them from
arriving at a correct interpretation of an important point in the
prophecy. Therefore, though they proclaimed the message which God had
committed to them to be given to the world, yet through a misapprehension
of its meaning, they suffered disappointment.

In explaining Dan. 8:14, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days, then
shall the sanctuary be cleansed," Miller, as has been stated, adopted the
generally received view that the earth is the sanctuary, and he believed
that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the purification of the
earth by fire at the coming of the Lord. When, therefore, he found that
the close of the 2300 days was definitely foretold, he concluded that this
revealed the time of the second advent. His error resulted from accepting
the popular view as to what constitutes the sanctuary.

In the typical system, which was a shadow of the sacrifice and priesthood
of Christ, the cleansing of the sanctuary was the last service performed
by the high priest in the yearly round of ministration. It was the closing
work of the atonement,--a removal or putting away of sin from Israel. It
prefigured the closing work in the ministration of our High Priest in
heaven, in the removal or blotting out of the sins of His people, which
are registered in the heavenly records. This service involves a work of
investigation, a work of judgment; and it immediately precedes the coming
of Christ in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; for when He
comes, every case has been decided. Says Jesus, "My reward is with Me, to
give every man according as his work shall be."(589) It is this work of
judgment, immediately preceding the second advent, that is announced in
the first angel's message of Rev. 14:7