50
Messages to Young People
inferior in wisdom to their Lord, and who are almost wholly ignorant
of Satan’s subtlety and strength.
In a marvelous manner will he affect the bodies of those who are
naturally inclined to do his bidding. Satan exults for his own sake that
he is regarded as a fiction. When he is made light of, and is represented
by some childish illustration, or as some animal, it suits him well. He
is thought so inferior that minds are wholly unprepared for his wisely
laid plans, and he almost always succeeds well. If his power and
subtlety were understood, minds would be prepared to successfully
resist him....
The Battle for Each Soul
I saw evil angels contending for souls, and angels of God resisting
them. The conflict was severe. Evil angels were crowding about
them, corrupting the atmosphere with their poisonous influence, and
stupefying their sensibilities. Holy angels were anxiously watching
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these souls, and were waiting to drive back Satan’s host. But it is
not the work of good angels to control minds against the will of the
individuals. If they yield to the enemy, and make no effort to resist
him, then the angels of God can do but little more than hold in check
the host of Satan, that they should not destroy, until further light be
given to those in peril, to move them to arouse and look to heaven for
help. Jesus will not commission holy angels to extricate those who
make no effort to help themselves.
If Satan sees he is in danger of losing one soul, he will exert himself
to the utmost to keep that one. And when the individual is aroused to
his danger, and, with distress and fervor, looks to Jesus for strength,
Satan fears he shall lose a captive, and he calls a re-enforcement of his
angels to hedge in the poor soul, and form a wall of darkness around
him, that heaven’s light may not reach him. But if the one in danger
perseveres, and in helplessness and weakness casts himself upon the
merits of the blood of Christ, Jesus listens to the earnest prayer of faith,
and sends a re-enforcement of those angels which excel in strength to
deliver him.
Satan cannot endure to have his powerful rival appealed to, for he
fears and trembles before His [Christ’s] strength and majesty. At the
sound of fervent prayer, Satan’s whole host trembles.... And when