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Under His Wings, December 28
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
John 15:20
.
There is no greater evidence that Satan is working than that those who
profess to be sanctified to God’s service persecute their fellow beings because
they do not believe the same doctrine that they themselves believe. These will
rush with fury against God’s people, stating as true that which they know to
be untrue. Thus they show that they are inspired by him who is an accuser of
the brethren, and a murderer of the saints of God. But if God permits tyrants
to do with us as the priests did with His Son, shall we give up our faith, and go
back to perdition? It is not because God does not care for us that He permits
these things to be; for He declares, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints” (
Psalm 116:15
).
With Satan at their head to imbue them with his spirit, men may afflict
God’s people, they may cause pain to the body, they may take away their
temporal life, but they cannot touch the life that is hid with Christ. We are
not our own. Soul and body, we have been bought with the price paid on the
cross of Calvary; and we are to remember that we are in the hands of Him
who created us. Whatever Satan may inspire evil men to do, we are to rest in
the assurance that we are under God’s charge, and that by His Spirit He will
strengthen us to endure....
The time is soon to come when the Lord will say, “Come, my people,
enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it
were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the
Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their
iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her
slain” (
Isaiah 26:20, 21
).
Those who love God need not be surprised if those who claim to be
Christians are filled with hatred because they cannot force the consciences
of God’s people. Not long hence they will stand before the Judge of all the
earth, to render an account for the pain they have caused to the bodies and
souls of God’s heritage.—
The Review and Herald, December 28, 1897
.
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