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The Earth Desolated
My attention was again directed to the earth. The wicked had
been destroyed, and their dead bodies were lying upon its surface.
The wrath of God in the seven last plagues had been visited upon the
inhabitants of the earth, causing them to gnaw their tongues from
pain and to curse God. The false shepherds had been the signal
objects of Jehovah’s wrath. Their eyes had consumed away in their
holes, and their tongues in their mouths, while they stood upon their
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feet. After the saints had been delivered by the voice of God, the
wicked multitude turned their rage upon one another. The earth
seemed to be deluged with blood, and dead bodies were from one
end of it to the other.
The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Cities and villages,
shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains had been
moved out of their places, leaving large caverns. Ragged rocks,
thrown out by the sea, or torn out of the earth itself, were scattered
all over its surface. Large trees had been uprooted and were strewn
over the land. Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels
for a thousand years. Here he will be confined, to wander up and
down over the broken surface of the earth and see the effects of his
rebellion against God’s law. For a thousand years he can enjoy the
fruit of the curse which he has caused. Limited alone to the earth,
he will not have the privilege of ranging to other planets, to tempt
and annoy those who have not fallen. During this time, Satan suffers
extremely. Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise.
But he is then to be deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon
the part which he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with
trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for
all the evil that he has done and be punished for all the sins that he
has caused to be committed.
I heard shouts of triumph from the angels and from the redeemed
saints, which sounded like ten thousand musical instruments, be-
cause they were to be no more annoyed and tempted by Satan and
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