Churchmen and laity from many denominations came to our booth at the Exposition, and acknowledged that the Seventh-day Adventists had come nearer to meeting the ideals of an exhibit in the Hall of Religion than any other body. Times too numerous to record, people of all classes told us we had the leading, best-balanced, and most easily interpreted exhibit in the entire classification of religions. Yet the ever-present question was, "What do Seventh-day Adventists believe?"
Our commanding position in the hall made it imperative that we should rightly present our message. At the big globe with its various colored lights, we gave brief lectures on the scope of our work. Then we would try to hold the crowd by personally conducting the interested people through our entire exhibit. But our fondest hopes and ambitions through this procedure were crushed as the crowds would not follow us. We exhausted our resources of showmanship. Where should we turn next to find a key provision that would not only attract the crowd, but would hold them long enough for us to present the cardinal beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists? How could we give to the throngs a proper setting of our faith and devotion to Christ in a manner that would not be imitative of the methods of other denominations?
A directed evangelism would be out of place. A pronouncement of belief in the fundamentals of orthodox Christianity would place us before the world as copyists or without distinction, and thus diminish our prestige instead of strengthening it in the field of apostolic religion. In the great program of reformation begun by Luther, and developed to the doorstep of our present generation, we have espoused all that was Scriptural in tenets of faith by all denominations. What, therefore, has been our original contribution to orthodox Christianity? Could we find that part of the structure of God's temple of reform, we would then be able to present not only Christ to the people from an entirely new angle, but we would also leave something of extraordinary value that would grip the multitudes and make us stand out forever in their minds as creative and original builders in the religious world, with a background and a message that knows no encroachment and has no competition.
The sanctuary, or tabernacle, of Moses became the working medium. The tabernacle model, built to scale in exact reproduction of the original structure, was brought into our booth early in the month of August. That it was unique, magnetic, and direct in its appeal to the public, there can be no question, as results will show. The crowd centering attention on the sanctuary would see, at eye level, a descriptive sign which read something as follows:
Model of the Mosaic tabernacle built in the wilderness shortly after the exodus, 1491 a. c., which some four centuries later was succeeded by Solomon's temple. After several centuries the temple built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the Jews were taken captive. After several decades of desolation, Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple at Jerusalem. The Romans destroyed it in 70 A. D. Note the location of the veil between the holy place and the most holy, which the angel rent in twain from top to bottom when Jesus Christ died on the cross, thus causing the sacrificial system of the Old Testament to cease, type meeting antitype.
Literally hundreds have copied this data, adding the same to rough sketches made of the model on exhibit.
With a clock dial device on a pedestal we indicated from time to time our next lecturette, and from the moment we put in the sanctuary model we had a continuous and eager audience of from twenty-five to seventy-five or more listening. Naturally, all our public workers would be interested to know what we told these people, the number of which some days reached into thousands. Among the varied ideas presented were the following:
1. At Sinai, where the sanctuary was built, God gave to succeeding generations, through Moses, that part of the Bible which man was not permitted to write,—the ten commandments on two tables of stone, the first four showing our relation to God, the last six our relation to man, or as Christ epitomizes it, "love to God" and "love to man," the two great commandments on which hangs the whole Christian religion.
2. The blood offerings in the Old Testament worship, briefly explained, prefigured the death of the coming Messiah as substitutionary for the sinner.
3. Rending of the veil in the Zerubbabel temple when Christ died on the cross caused sacrifices to cease and established with certainty His Messiahship and deity. Ascending to heaven, Christ became our High Priest, officiating with His own blood in the heavenly sanctuary to accomplish in reality that which was prefigured by the service of the high priest on earth.
4. Christ died on Friday, the sixth day of the week, called the "preparation day," and was raised on Sunday, the first day. The day between Friday and Sunday is identified in the New Testament as "the Sabbath day according to the commandment;" and pointing to the fourth commandment on the wall we would say, "The seventh day is the day Seventh-day Adventists observe as the Christian's Sabbath."
5. Christ instituted the Lord's supper, saying, "This do in remembrance of Me." "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." In the Lord's supper Christians of today point back to the cross, while Old Testament worshipers in their offerings were pointing forward to the cross. Thus Old Testament worshipers and New Testament worshipers meet at the cross. The cross is therefore the pivotal point around which the entire plan of human redemption revolves. A golden cord runs through the whole Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, showing there is one God, one Messiah, one faith, one law, one Sabbath, one plan of redemption for the whole human family.
The practice of eating the Lord's supper is to continue "till He come." Jesus promised, "I will come again," not as the humiliated Sin Bearer wearing a crown of thorns, but as the church's "Blessed Hope," the "King of kings" and "Lord of lords," Seventh-day Adventists, as students of Bible prophecy, reading the signs of the times in the political, religious, and social worlds, recognize that we are rushing rapidly toward the great climax; hence we are called "Adventists."
Three great events, two past and one future, are of transcending importance to humanity. In the first two of those events nature acknowledged their enormity. The heavens grew black, lightnings flashed and pierced the sky, thunders pealed and roared, the earth shook mightily beneath the tread of the feet of men, and the rocks on the mountains, hills, and plains were rent. The first instance was when God delivered His great moral law at Sinai; the second was when the great Creator, our blessed Lord, was dying on the cross.
A similar experience awaits the present generation at Christ's second coming, when He "shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God," when the heaven is to depart "as a scroll when it is rolled together," when every mountain and island is to be moved out of its place, and the earth shall reel to and fro, and when earth's unrepentant inhabitants shall try to hide from the Lord's presence, and in distress and anguish cry, "The great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Almost invariably our closing appeal was a warning against the twentieth century apostate movement of liberalism and higher criticism which is projected by some of our leading universities, professors, and preachers, who, in any attempt at an exposition of Christian faith, are constantly attacking the doctrine of the deity or the vicarious atonement of Jesus and the claims of His virgin birth.
We announced to our visitors that Seventh-day Adventists were in no position to compromise or surrender one iota of any of the original claims of-fundamental; apostolic Christianity, but purposed to defend the faith once delivered to the saints.
On all days of average attendance at the exposition, lecturettes could be conducted almost continuously, being limited only by our physical and mental endurance. We were able to secure names for 3,550 free subscriptions to Present Truth—as the direct result of the lectures; while during the first half of the summer (without the help of the sanctuary model), we took only 347 names.
Between lectures it was a very common experience for distinguished persons to introduce themselves, complimenting our entire exhibit, our ideals, and the work Seventh-day Adventists are carrying on in all parts of the world, and to speak approvingly of our cardinal beliefs so clearly set forth in the lecturettes.
So from day to day this work went on. Through our world-work exhibit, literally thousands from everywhere have come to know who Seventh-day Adventists are, and in part what they believe.
Brookfield, Ill.
