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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
these to the people, while they deny them the privilege of studying
the Bible, and understanding its sacred truths for themselves. Unless
the whole Bible is given to the people just as it reads, it would be
better for them not to have it at all.
The Bible was designed to be a guide to all who wish to become
acquainted with the will of their Maker. God gave to men the sure
word of prophecy; angels and even Christ himself came to make
known to Daniel and John the things that must shortly come to pass.
Those important matters that concern our salvation were not left
involved in mystery. They were not revealed in such a way as to
perplex and mislead the honest seeker after truth. Said the Lord by
the prophet Habakkuk, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon
tables, that he may run that readeth it.” [
Habakkuk 2:2, 3
.] The word
of God is plain to all who study it with a prayerful heart. Every truly
honest soul will come to the light of truth. “Light is sown for the
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righteous.” [
Psalm 97:11
.] No church can advance in holiness unless
its members are earnestly seeking for truth as for hid treasure.
By the cry of liberality, men are blinded to the devices of their
adversary, while he is all the time working steadily for the accom-
plishment of his object. As he succeeds in supplanting the word of
truth by human speculations, the law of God is set aside, and the
churches are under the bondage of sin while they claim to be free.
To many, scientific research has become a curse; their finite
minds are so weak that they lose their balance. They cannot harmo-
nize their views of science with Scripture statements, and they think
that the Bible is to be tested by their standard of “science falsely
so called.” Thus they err from the faith, and are seduced by the
devil. Men have endeavored to be wiser than their Creator; human
philosophy has attempted to search out and explain mysteries which
will never be revealed, through the eternal ages. If men would but
search and understand what God has made known of himself and his
purposes, they would obtain such a view of the glory, majesty, and
power of Jehovah, that they would realize their own littleness, and
would be content with that which has been revealed for themselves
and their children.
It is a masterpiece of Satan’s deceptions to keep the minds of
men searching and conjecturing in regard to that which God has not
made known, and which he does not intend that we shall understand.
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