Страница 94 из 120
of the fourth commandment will become well-nigh universal. Upon
those religious leaders whose teachings have opened the door to
infidelity, to Spiritualism, and to contempt for God’s holy law, rests
a fearful responsibility for the iniquity that exists in the Christian
world.
Yet this very class put forth the claim that the fast-spreading
corruption is largely attributable to the desecration of the so-called
“Christian Sabbath,” and that the enforcement of Sunday observance
would greatly improve the morals of society. Combining the temper-
ance reform with the Sunday movement, they represent themselves
as laboring to promote the highest interests of society; and those
who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies of
temperance and reform. But the fact that a movement to establish
error is co
argument in favor of the error. We may disguise poison by mingling
it with wholesome food, but we do not thereby change its nature.
On the contrary, it is rendered more dangerous, as it is more likely
to be taken unawares. It is one of Satan’s devices to combine with
falsehood just enough truth to give it plausibility. The leaders of the
Sunday movement may advocate reforms which the people need,
principles which are in harmony with the Bible, yet while there is
[405]
with these a requirement which is contrary to God’s law, his servants
ca
the commandments of God for the precepts of men.
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and
Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions.
While the former lays the foundation of Spiritualism, the latter
creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. Protestantism will yet
stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of Spiritualism;
she will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power;
272
The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
and under the influence of this threefold union, our country will
follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.
Spiritualism is now changing its form, veiling some of its more
objectionable and immoral features, and assuming a Christian guise.
Formerly it denounced Christ and the Bible; now it professes to
accept both. The Bible is interpreted in a ma
the unrenewed heart, while its solemn and vital truths are made of no
effect. A God of love is presented; but his justice, his denunciations
of sin, the requirements of his holy law, are all kept out of sight.
Pleasing, bewitching fables captivate the senses of those who do not
make God’s word the foundation of their faith. Christ is as verily
rejected as before; but Satan has so blinded the eyes of the people
that the deception is not discerned.
As Spiritualism assimilates more closely to the nominal Chris-
tianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan
[406]
himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will ap-
pear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of
Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and
many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will
profess faith in the Bible, and express regard for Sunday, their work
will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.
The line of distinction between professing Christians and the un-
godly is now hardly distinguishable. Church-members love what the
world loves, and are ready to join with them; and Satan determines
to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping
all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists who boast of miracles as
a certain mark of the true church, will be readily deceived by this
wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield
of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings
will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they
will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the
world, and the ushering in of the long-expected mille
Through Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race,
healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new
and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time
he works as a destroyer. His temptations are leading multitudes
to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife,
and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war; for it excites the worst
Coming Conflict
273
passions of the soul, and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped
in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against
[407]
one another; for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the
work of preparation to stand in the day of God.
Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of
unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories
of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far
as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly
flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one
trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields
his creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer.
But the Christian world has shown contempt for the law of Jehovah;
and the Lord does just what he has declared that he would do, he
withdraws his blessings from the earth, and removes his protecting
care from those who are rebelling against his law, and teaching and
forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God
does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order
to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others,
and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.
While appearing to the children of men as a great physician
who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster
until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now
he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in
great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in
tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every
place and in a thousand forms, is Satan exercising his power. He
sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. [408]
He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the
pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent
and disastrous. Destruction will be upon the inhabitants of the world.
The beasts of the field will groan, and the earth will languish.
And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who
serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the