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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
The Christian world now has a Saviour who has fulfilled all the
specifications of prophecy in regard to his life and death; yet many
reject his teachings, they do not follow his precepts, they crucify the
Saviour every day. Should they be tested as were the Jews at the first
advent of Christ, they would not accept him in his humiliation and
poverty.
From the time that the first innocent blood was shed, when righ-
teous Abel fell by the hand of his brother, iniquity had increased upon
the earth. From generation to generation the priests and rulers had
slighted the warnings of the prophets whom God had raised up and
qualified to reprove the sins of the people. There had been great need
of these men, who, in every age, had lifted their voices against the sins
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of kings, rulers, and subjects, speaking the words God gave them to
utter, and obeying the divine will at the peril of their lives. From gen-
eration to generation there had been heaping up a terrible punishment,
which the enemies of Christ were now drawing down upon their own
heads by their abuse and rejection of the Son of God, whose voice was
raised in condemnation of the sin existing among the priests and rulers
to a greater degree than at any previous time. They were filling to
overflowing their cup of iniquity, which was to be emptied upon their
own heads in retributive justice, making their generation responsible
for the blood of all the righteous men slain from Abel to Christ. Of
this, Jesus warned them:—
“That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.”
The Saviour, with hand uplifted toward Heaven and a divine light
enshrouding his person, spoke in the character of a judge of those
before him. The listening crowd shuddered as his denunciations were
spoken. The impression made upon their minds by his words and
looks was never to be effaced in after years.
Israel had little heeded the commands of God. While the words
of warning which God had given him to speak were upon the lips of
Zacharias, a satanic fury seized the apostate king, and the command
was given to slay the prophet of God. The scribes and Pharisees
who listened to the words of Jesus knew that they were true, and that
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the blood of the slain prophet imprinted itself on the very stones of