Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno

come, like a lost vein of gold in the earth that must surface again in another
place. Our idea of repentance can produce only what we see today--hazy,
indistinct devotion; lukewarmness. Like medicine taken in quantity sufficient
to produce a concentration in the bloodstream, our repentance must be
comprehensive, full-range, in order for the Holy Spirit to do a fully effective
work.
This full spectrum of repentance is included in "the everlasting gospel."
But its clearest definition has been impossible until now, as history reaches
the last of the seven churches. The original word "repentance" means a
looking back from the perspective of the end: metanoia, from meta ("after"),
and nous ("mind"). Thus, repentance can never be complete until the end of
history. Like the great Day of Atonement, its full dimension must be a lastday
experience. We have now come to that moment in time.
But what about "1888"? The little group who went through the Great
Disappointment of 1844 were deeply beloved of Jesus in a special sense.
They refused to give up their faith, confident that the true Holy Spirit was in
the Midnight Cry through the Great Disappointment. They were especially
dear to His heart (Jesus describes them in His message to "the angel of the
church of the Philadelphians," Rev. 3:9, 10).
When new truth came to them (the heavenly sanctuary and the opening
of the second apartment), they believed; there was an endearing love for that
"little flock" in His eyes. When Rachel Preston brought them the seventh-day
Sabbath-truth, they welcomed it; no resisting and fighting it (as "they" did
other "most precious" truth forty-plus years later). Then when the first
principles of health reform came, again they eagerly accepted. Through the
early history of this people, a special heavenly love affair was developing.
Not since Pentecost had Jesus found such a group of believers loyal to Him.
The 1888 idea lifted the cross of Christ higher than it had been displayed
116