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deception, the fanaticism, and the despotic power of Rome. Within
their solitary realm they were content to remain, unknown to the rest
of Christendom.
The churches of Africa held the Sabbath as it was held by the
papal church before her complete apostasy. While they kept the
seventh day in obedience to the commandment of God, they ab-
stained from labor on the Sunday in conformity to the custom of the
church. Upon obtaining supreme power, Rome had trampled upon
the Sabbath of God to exalt her own; but the churches of Africa,
hidden for nearly a thousand years, did not share in this apostasy.
When brought under the sway of Rome, they were forced to set aside
the true and exalt the false Sabbath; but no sooner had they regained
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their independence than they returned to obedience to the fourth
commandment.
These records of the past clearly reveal the enmity of Rome
toward the true Sabbath and its defenders, and the means which she
employs to honor the institution of her creating. The word of God
teaches that these scenes are to be repeated as papists and Protestants
shall unite for the exaltation of the Sunday. [Revelation 13:11, 12.
See Appendix, note 8.] For nearly forty years Sabbath reformers have presented this testimony to the world. In the events now taking
place is seen a rapid advance toward the fulfillment of the prediction.
There is the same claim of divine authority for Sunday-keeping,
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and the same lack of scriptural evidence, as in the days of papal
supremacy. The assertion that God’s judgments are visited upon men
for their violation of the Sunday-Sabbath, will be repeated. Already
it is begi
Marvelous in her shrewdness and cu
She can read what is to be. She bides her time, seeing that the
Protestant churches are paying her homage in their acceptance of the
false Sabbath, and that they are preparing to employ the very means
which she herself employed in by-gone days. Those who reject the
light of truth will yet seek the aid of this self-styled infallible power
to exalt an institution that originated with her. How readily she will
come to the help of Protestants in this work, it is not difficult to
conjecture. Who understands better than popery how to deal with
those who are disobedient to the church?
The Christian world will learn what Romanism really is, when it
is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power.
Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the
churches, and in the hearts of men. Throughout the land she is
piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of
which her former persecutions will be repeated. She is stealthily
and unsuspectedly strengthening her forces to further her own ends
when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is
vantage ground, and this is soon to be given her. In the near future
we shall see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element
is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby
incur reproach and persecution.
Chapter 31—The Coming Conflict
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The greatest and most favored nation upon the earth is the United
States. A gracious Providence has shielded this country, and poured
upon her the choicest of Heaven’s blessings. Here the persecuted
and oppressed have found refuge. Here the Christian faith in its
purity has been taught. This people have been the recipients of
great light and unrivaled mercies. But these gifts have been repaid
by ingratitude and forgetfulness of God. The Infinite One keeps
a reckoning with the nations, and their guilt is proportioned to the
light rejected. A fearful record now stands in the register of Heaven
against our land; but the crime which shall fill up the measure of her
iniquity is that of making void the law of God.
Between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah will come
the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error.
Upon this battle we are now entering,—a battle not between rival
churches contending for the supremacy, but between the religion
of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition. The agencies
which will unite against truth and righteousness in this contest are
now actively at work.
God’s holy word, which has been handed down to us at such a
[399]
cost of suffering and blood, is but little valued. The Bible is within
the reach of all, but there are few who really accept it as the guide
of life. Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in the world
merely, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines which
are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of creation
as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of man, the atonement,
and the perpetuity of the law of God, are practically rejected by
a large share of the professedly Christian world. Thousands who
pride themselves upon their wisdom and independence regard it an
evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the Bible, and
a proof of superior talent and learning to cavil at the Scriptures, and
to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths. Many
ministers are teaching their people, and many professors and teachers
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are instructing their students, that the law of God has been changed
or abrogated; and they ridicule those who are so simple-minded as
to acknowledge all its claims.
In rejecting the truth, men reject its Author. In trampling upon
the law of God, they deny the authority of the Lawgiver. It is as
easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion
an idol of wood or stone. Satan leads men to conceive of God in a
false character, as having attributes which he does not possess. A
philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the
true God, as he is revealed in his word, in Christ, and in the works
of creation, is worshiped by but few. Thousands deify nature, while
they deny the God of nature. Though in a different form, idolatry
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exists in the Christian world today as verily as it existed among
ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The God of many professedly
wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists,—the God
of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities,
even of some theological institutions,—is little better than Baal, the
sun-God of Phenicia.
No error accepted by the Christian world strikes more boldly
against the authority of Heaven, none is more directly opposed to
the dictates of reason, none is more pernicious in its results, than