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Burden Bearers in the Church
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temptations of Satan, you place yourself upon his battleground, and
then the conflict will be long and sore before you obtain the victory
and triumph in the name of Jesus, who has conquered him.
Satan has great advantages. He possessed the wonderful intel-
lectual power of an angel, of which few form any just idea. Satan
was conscious of his power, or he would not have engaged in a
conflict with the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince
of Peace. Satan closely watches events, and when he finds one who
has a specially strong spirit of opposition to the truth of God he
will even reveal to him unfulfilled events, that he may more firmly
secure himself a seat in his heart. He who did not hesitate to brave a
conflict with Him who holds creation as in His hand, has malignity
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to persecute and deceive. He holds mortals in his snare at the present
time. During his experience of nearly six thousand years he has lost
none of his skill and shrewdness. All this time he has been a close
observer of all that concerns our race.
Those who have bitterly opposed the truth of God, Satan uses as
his mediums. To such he will appear in the assumed person and garb
of another, it may be a friend of the medium. He will increase their
faith by using the words of this friend and relating circumstances
which are about to take place or which really have taken place and of
which the medium knew nothing. Sometimes previous to a death or
an accident he gives a dream or, personating another, converses with
the medium, even imparting knowledge by means of his suggestions.
But it is wisdom from beneath and not from above. The wisdom
taught by Satan is opposed to the truth, unless, to serve his purpose,
he apparently clothes himself with the light which enshrouds angels.
To a certain class of minds he will come sanctioning a part of what
Christ’s followers believe to be truth, while he warns them to reject
the other part as dangerous and fatal error.
Satan is a master workman. His infernal wisdom he employs
with good success. He is ready and able to teach those who reject
the counsel of God against their own souls. The bait which he has
found will avail in bringing souls into his net, that he may fasten his
hellish grasp upon them, he will clothe with every possible good and
make as attractive as possible. All who are thus ensnared will learn
at a dreadful expense the folly of selling heaven and immortality
for a deception that is fatal in its consequences. Our adversary, the