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of Sodom just prior to its destruction, and to the idolatry and spiritual
darkness that prevailed in Egypt in the days of Moses.
In no land had the spirit of enmity against Christ and the truth
been more strikingly displayed than in giddy and godless France.
Nowhere had the gospel encountered more bitter and cruel opposi-
tion. In the streets of Paris, Christ had indeed been crucified in the
person of his saints. The world still recalls with shuddering horror
the scenes of that most cowardly and cruel onslaught, the Massacre
of St. Bartholomew. The king of France, urged on by Romish priests
and prelates, lent his sanction to the dreadful work. The palace
bell, tolling at midnight, gave the signal for the slaughter to begin.
Protestants by thousands, sleeping quietly in their homes, trusting
to the plighted honor of their king, were dragged forth without a
warning, and murdered in cold blood.
Satan, in the person of the Roman zealots, led the van. As Christ
was the invisible leader of his people from Egyptian bondage, so
was Satan the unseen leader of his subjects in this horrible work of
multiplying martyrs. For three days the butchery went on; more than
thirty thousand perished. The result caused great joy to the hosts of
darkness. The Roman pontiff, sharing in the diabolical rejoicing,
proclaimed a jubilee to be observed throughout his dominions, to
celebrate the event.
The same master-spirit that urged in the Massacre of St. [192]
Bartholomew, led also in the scenes of the French Revolution. Satan
seemed to triumph. Notwithstanding the labors of the Reformers, he
had succeeded in holding vast multitudes in ignorance concerning
God and his word. Now he appeared in a new guise. In France arose
an atheistical power that openly declared war against the authority of
Heaven. Men threw off all restraint. The law of God was trampled
under foot. Those who could engage in the most Heaven-daring
blasphemy and the most abominable wickedness were most highly
exalted. Fornication was sanctioned by law. Profanity and corrup-
tion seemed deluging the earth. In all this, supreme homage was
paid to Satan, while Christ, in his characteristics of truth, purity, and
unselfish love, was crucified. The Bible was publicly burned. The
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Sabbath was blotted out. Romanism had enjoined image worship;
now divine honors were paid to the vilest objects. The work which
the papacy had begun, atheism completed. The one withheld from
the people the truths of the Bible; the other taught them to reject
both the Bible and its Author. The seed sown by priests and prelates
was yielding its evil fruit.
Terrible indeed was the condition of infidel France. The word
of truth lay dead in her streets, and those who hated the restrictions
and requirements of God’s law were jubilant. But transgression and
rebellion were followed by the sure result. Unhappy France reaped
in blood the harvest she had sown. The war against the Bible and the
law of God banished peace and happiness from the hearts and homes
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of men. No one was secure: he who triumphed today was suspected,
condemned, tomorrow. Violence and terror reigned supreme. The
land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace.
God’s faithful witnesses were not long to remain silent. “The
Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their
feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them.” [Revelation
11:11.] The world stood aghast at the enormity of guilt which had resulted from a rejection of the Sacred Oracles, and men were glad
to return once more to faith in God and his word.
Concerning the two witnesses the prophet declares further, “And
they heard a great voice from Heaven saying unto them, Come up
hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies
beheld them.” [Revelation 11:12.] Since the French Revolution the word of God has been honored as never before. The Bible has been
translated into nearly every language spoken by men, and scattered
over every part of the globe. After being, as it were, thrust down to
hell, it has, in truth, been exalted to heaven.
Chapter 12—God Honors the Humble
[194]
Those who received the great blessings of the Reformation did
not go forward in the path so nobly entered upon by Luther. A
few faithful men arose from time to time, to proclaim new truth,
and expose long-cherished error; but the majority, like the Jews in
Christ’s day, or the papists in the time of Luther, were content to
believe as their fathers believed, and to live as they lived. Therefore
religion again degenerated into formalism; and errors and supersti-
tions which would have been cast aside had the church continued to
walk in the light of God’s word, were retained and cherished. Thus
the spirit inspired by the Reformation gradually died out, until there
was almost as great need of reform in the Protestant churches as
in the Roman Church in the time of Luther. There was the same
spiritual stupor, the same respect for the opinions of men, the same
spirit of worldliness, the same substitution of human theories for the
teachings of God’s word. Pride and extravagance were fostered un-
der the guise of religion. The churches became corrupted by allying
themselves with the world. Thus were degraded the great principles
for which Luther and his fellow-laborers had done and suffered so
much.
As Satan saw that he had failed to crush out the truth by perse- [195]
cution, he again resorted to the same plan of compromise which had
led to the great apostasy and the formation of the church of Rome.
He induced Christians to ally themselves, not now with pagans, but
with those who, by their worship of the god of this world, as truly
proved themselves idolaters. Satan could no longer keep the Bible
from the people; it had been placed within the reach of all. But he
led thousands to accept false interpretations and unsound theories,
without searching the Scriptures to learn the truth for themselves. He
had corrupted the doctrines of the Bible, and traditions which were
to ruin millions were taking deep root. The church was upholding
and defending these traditions, instead of contending for the faith
once delivered to the saints.
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And while wholly unconscious of their condition and their peril,
the church and the world were rapidly approaching the most solemn
and momentous period of earth’s history,—the period of the revela-
tion of the Son of man. Already had the signs which Christ himself
had promised,—the sun clothed in darkness by day and the moon by
night,—declared his coming near. When Jesus pointed his followers