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Spiritualism
253
God will be deceived and overcome. But to those who earnestly
seek a knowledge of the truth, thus doing what they can to prepare
for the conflict, the God of truth will be a sure defense. “Because
thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee,” is the
Saviour’s promise. He would sooner send every angel out of Heaven
to protect his people, than leave one soul that trusts in him to be
overcome by Satan.
The prophet Isaiah brings to view the fearful deception which
will come upon the wicked, causing them to count themselves secure
from the judgments of God: “We have made a covenant with death,
and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made
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lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” [
Isaiah
28:15
.] In the class here described are included those who in their
stubborn impenitence comfort themselves with the assurance that
there is to be no punishment for the sinner; that all mankind, it
matters not how corrupt, are to be exalted to Heaven to become as
the angels of God. But still more emphatically are those making a
covenant with death and an agreement with hell, who renounce the
truths which Heaven has provided as a defense for the righteous in
the day of trouble, and accept the refuge of lies offered by Satan in
its stead,—the delusive pretensions of Spiritualism.
Marvelous beyond expression is the blindness of the people of
this generation. Thousands reject the word of God as unworthy of
belief, and with eager confidence receive the deceptions of Satan.
Skeptics and scoffers with great clamor denounce the bigotry of
those who contend for the faith of prophets and apostles, and they
divert themselves by holding up to ridicule the solemn declarations
of the Scriptures concerning Christ and the plan of salvation, and
the retribution to be visited upon the rejecters of the truth. They
affect great pity for minds so narrow, weak, and superstitious as to
acknowledge the claims of God, and obey the requirements of his
law. They manifest as much assurance as if, indeed, they had made
a covenant with death and an agreement with hell,—as if they had
erected an impassable, impenetrable barrier between themselves and
the vengeance of God. Nothing can arouse their fears. So fully have
they yielded to the tempter, so closely are they united with him, and
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