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Persecution by Protestants and Catholics, July 5
Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth
to the end shall be saved.
Matthew 10:22
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There is no necessity for thinking that we cannot endure persecution;
we shall have to go through terrible times.
The persecutions of Protestants by Romanism, by which the religion
of Jesus Christ was almost annihilated, will be more than rivaled when
Protestantism and popery are combined.
The commandment-keeping people of God erelong will be placed in a
most trying position; but all those who have walked in the light, and diffused
the light, will realize that God interposes in their behalf. When everything
looks most forbidding, then the Lord will reveal His power to His faithful
ones. When the nation for which God has worked in such a marvelous
manner, and over which He has spread the shield of Omnipotence, abandons
Protestant principles, and through its legislature gives countenance and
support to Romanism in limiting religious liberty, then God will work in
His own power for His people that are true. The tyranny of Rome will be
exercised, but Christ is our refuge.
When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such
points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the
state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protes-
tant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the
infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.
The Scriptures teach that popery is to regain its lost supremacy, and that
the fires of persecution will be rekindled through the time-serving conces-
sions of the so-called Protestant world. In this time of peril we can stand
only as we have the truth and the power of God.... The prospect of being
brought into personal danger and distress, need not cause despondency, but
should quicken the vigor and hopes of God’s people; for the time of their
peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of his power.
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