y flames, and the
wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from
before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times
ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were
opened."(835)

Thus was presented to the prophet's vision the great and solemn day when
the characters and the lives of men should pass in review before the Judge
of all the earth, and to every man should be rendered "according to his
works." The Ancient of days is God the Father. Says the psalmist, "Before
the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and
the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."(836) It is
He, the source of all being, and the fountain of all law, that is to
preside in the judgment. And holy angels, as ministers and witnesses, in
number "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,"
attend this great tribunal.

"And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and
came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And
there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away."(837) The coming of Christ here
described is not His second coming to the earth. He comes to the Ancient
of days in heaven to receive dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, which
will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator. It is this
coming, and not His second advent to the earth, that was foretold in
prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844.
Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of
holies, and there appears in the presence of God, to engage in the last
acts of His ministration in behalf of man,--to perform the work of
investigative judgment, and to make an atonement for all who are shown to
be entitled to its benefits.

In the typical service, only those who had come before God with confession
and repentance, and whose sins, through the blood of the sin-offering,
were transferred to the sanctuary, had a part in the service of the day of
atonement. So in the great day of final atonement and investigative
judgment, the only cases considered are those of the professed people of
God. The judgment of the wicked is a distinct and separate work, and takes
place at a later period. "Judgment must begin at the house of God: