Страница 93 из 120
the modern doctrine, so rapidly gaining ground, that God’s law is
no longer obligatory upon men. Every nation has its laws, which
command respect and obedience; and has the Creator of the heavens
and the earth no law to govern the beings he has made? Suppose
that prominent ministers were publicly to teach that the statutes
which govern our nation and protect the rights of its citizens were
not obligatory,—that they restricted the liberties of the people, and
therefore ought not to be obeyed; how long would such men be
tolerated in the pulpit? But is it a graver offense to disregard the
laws of States and nations than to trample upon those divine precepts
which are the foundation of all government? When the standard of
righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to
establish his rule in the earth.
It would be far more consistent for nations to abolish their
statutes, and permit the people to do as they please, than for the
Ruler of the universe to a
standard to condemn the guilty or justify the obedient. Would we
Coming Conflict
269
know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment has
[401]
been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism
became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world
that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept
the rule of the cruelest of tyrants.
Wherever the divine precepts are set aside, sin ceases to appear
sinful, or righteousness desirable. Those who refuse to submit to
the government of God are wholly unfitted to govern themselves.
Through their pernicious teachings, the spirit of insubordination is
implanted in the hearts of children and youth, who are naturally
impatient of control; and a lawless, licentious state of society results.
While scoffing at the credulity of those who obey the requirements of
God, the multitudes eagerly accept the delusions of Satan. They give
the rein to lust, and practice the sins which called down judgments
upon the heathen.
Let the restraint imposed by the divine law be wholly removed,
and human laws would soon be disregarded. Because God forbids
dishonest practices, coveting, lying, and defrauding, men are ready
to trample upon his statutes as a hindrance to their worldly pros-
perity; but the results of banishing these precepts would be such as
they do not anticipate. If the law were not binding, why should any
fear to transgress? Property would no longer be safe. Men would
obtain their neighbor’s possessions by violence; and the strongest
would become richest. Life itself would not be respected. Those
who disregard the commandments of God sow disobedience to reap
disobedience. The marriage vow would no longer stand as a sacred
bulwark to protect the family. He who had the power, would, if he
[402]
desired, take his neighbor’s wife by violence. The fifth command-
ment would be set aside with the fourth. Children would not shrink
from taking the life of their parents, if by so doing they could obtain
the desire of their corrupt hearts. The civilized world would become
a horde of robbers and assassins; and peace, rest, and happiness
would be banished from the earth.
Already the doctrine that men are released from obedience to
God’s requirements has weakened the force of moral obligation, and
opened the flood-gates of iniquity upon the world. Lawlessness,
dissipation, and corruption are sweeping in upon us like an over-
whelming tide. In the family, Satan is at work. His ba
270
The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
even in professedly Christian households. There is envy, evil surmis-
ing, hypocrisy, estrangement, emulation, strife, betrayal of sacred
trusts, indulgence of lust. The whole system of religious principles
and doctrines, which should form the foundation and frame-work
of social life, seems to be a tottering mass, ready to fall to ruin.
The vilest of criminals, when thrown into prison for their offenses,
are often made the recipients of gifts and attentions, as if they had
attained an enviable distinction. The greatest publicity is given to
their character and crimes. The press publish the revolting details of
vice, thus initiating others into the practice of fraud, robbery, and
murder; and Satan exults in the success of his hellish schemes. The
infatuation of vice, the wanton taking of life, the terrible increase of
intemperance and iniquity of every order and degree, should arouse
all who fear God, to inquire what can be done to stay the tide of evil.
[403]
Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are actuated by desire for
gain, and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded the
faculties of many, so that Satan has almost complete control of them.
Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded. Drunke
passion, envy, dishonesty of every sort, are represented among those
who administer the laws. “Justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen
in the street, and equity ca
The iniquity and spiritual darkness that prevailed under the
supremacy of Rome were the inevitable result of her suppression of
the Scriptures; but where is to be found the cause of the wide-spread
infidelity, the rejection of the law of God, and the consequent cor-
ruption, under the full blaze of gospel light in an age of religious
freedom? Now that Satan can no longer keep the world under his
control by withholding the Scriptures, he resorts to other means to
accomplish the same object. To destroy faith in the Bible serves his
purpose as well as to destroy the Bible itself. By introducing the
belief that God’s law is not binding, he as effectually leads men to
transgress as if they were wholly ignorant of its precepts. And now,
as in former ages, he has worked through the church to further his
designs. As the religious organizations of the day have refused to
listen to unpopular truths plainly brought to view in the Scriptures,
they have sown broadcast the seeds of skepticism. Clinging to the
papal error of natural immortality and man’s consciousness in death,
they reject the only defense against the delusions of Spiritualism.
Coming Conflict
271
Nor is this all. As the claims of the fourth commandment are urged
upon the people, popular teachers find that the observance of the
[404]
seventh-day Sabbath is there enjoined; and as the only way to free
themselves from a duty which they are unwilling to perform, they
declare that the law of God is no longer binding. Thus they cast
away the law and the Sabbath together. As the work of Sabbath
reform extends, this rejection of the divine law to avoid the claims