Страница 110 из 120
have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall
bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of
her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying,
Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one
hour is thy judgment come. And the merchants of the earth shall
weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any
more.” [Revelation 18:8-11.] Such are the judgments that fall upon Babylon in the day of the visitation of God’s wrath. She has filled
up the measure of her iniquity; her time has come; she is ripe for
destruction.
When the voice of God turns the captivity of his people, there
is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great game
of life. While probation continued, they were blinded by Satan’s
deceptions, and they justified their course of sin. The rich prided
themselves upon their superiority to those who were less favored;
[471]
but they had obtained their riches by violation of the law of God.
They had neglected to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to deal
justly, and to love mercy. They had sought to exalt themselves, and
to obtain the homage of their fellow-creatures. Now they are stripped
of all that made them great, and are left destitute and defenseless.
They look upon the destruction of the idols which they preferred
before their Maker. They sold their souls for earthly riches and
enjoyments, and did not seek to become rich toward God. The result
is, their lives are a failure; their pleasures are now turned to gall,
their treasures to corruption. The gain of a lifetime is swept away in
a moment. The rich bemoan the destruction of their grand houses,
the scattering of their gold and silver. But their lamentations are
silenced by the fear that they themselves are to perish with their
idols.
316
Desolation of the Earth
317
The wicked are filled with regret, not because of their sinful
neglect of God and their fellow-men, but because God has conquered.
They lament that the result is what it is; but they do not repent of
their wickedness. They would leave no means untried to conquer if
they could.
The world see the very class whom they have mocked and de-
rided, and desired to exterminate, pass unharmed through tempest
and earthquake and pestilence. He who is to the transgressors of his
law a devouring fire, is to his people a safe pavilion.
The minister who has sacrificed truth to gain the favor of men,
now discerns the character and influence of his teachings. It is
apparent that an omniscient eye was following him as he stood in the
desk, as he walked the streets, as he mingled with men in the various
[472]
scenes of life. Every emotion of the soul, every line written, every
word uttered, every act that led men to rest in a refuge of falsehood,
has been scattering seed; and now, in the wretched, lost souls around
him, he beholds the harvest.
Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right
relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author
of all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the divine precepts
gave rise to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred, iniquity,
until the earth became one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption.
This is the view that now appears to those who rejected truth and
chose to cherish error. No language can express the longing which
the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which they have lost for-
ever,—eternal life. Men whom the world has worshiped for their
talents and eloquence now see these things in their true light. They
realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at
the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and
confess that God has loved them.
The people see that they have been deluded. They eagerly accuse
one another of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping
their bitterest condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors
have prophesied smooth things; they have led their hearers to make
void the law of God and to persecute those who would keep it holy.
Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their
work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. “We are
lost!” they cry, “and you are the cause of our ruin;” and they turn
[473]
318
The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
upon the false watchmen. The very ones that once admired them
most, will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very
hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their
destruction. The swords which were to slay God’s people are now
employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and
bloodshed.
The mark of deliverance has been set upon those “that sigh and
that cry for all the abominations that be done.” Now the angel of
death goes forth, represented in Ezekiel’s vision by the men with
the slaughtering weapons, to whom the command is given: “Slay
utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women;
but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at
my sanctuary.” Says the prophet, “They began at the ancient men
which were before the house.” [Ezekiel 9:6.] The work of destruction begins among those who profess to be the spiritual guardians of the
people. The false shepherds are the first to fall. There are none to
pity or to spare. Men, women, maidens, and little children perish
together.
“The Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood,
and shall no more cover her slain.” [Isaiah 26:21.] “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that fought
against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand
upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall
[474]
come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be
among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his
neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.”
[Zechariah 14:12, 13.] In the mad strife of their own fierce passions, and by the awful outpouring of God’s unmingled wrath, fall the
wicked inhabitants of the earth,—priests, rulers, and people, rich
and poor, high and low. “And the slain of the Lord shall be at that
day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.” [Jeremiah
25:33.]
At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face
of the whole earth,—consumed with the spirit of his mouth, and