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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
and under the influence of this threefold union, our country will
follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.
Spiritualism is now changing its form, veiling some of its more
objectionable and immoral features, and assuming a Christian guise.
Formerly it denounced Christ and the Bible; now it professes to
accept both. The Bible is interpreted in a manner that is attractive to
the unrenewed heart, while its solemn and vital truths are made of no
effect. A God of love is presented; but his justice, his denunciations
of sin, the requirements of his holy law, are all kept out of sight.
Pleasing, bewitching fables captivate the senses of those who do not
make God’s word the foundation of their faith. Christ is as verily
rejected as before; but Satan has so blinded the eyes of the people
that the deception is not discerned.
As Spiritualism assimilates more closely to the nominal Chris-
tianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan
himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will ap-
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pear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of
Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and
many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will
profess faith in the Bible, and express regard for Sunday, their work
will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.
The line of distinction between professing Christians and the un-
godly is now hardly distinguishable. Church-members love what the
world loves, and are ready to join with them; and Satan determines
to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping
all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists who boast of miracles as
a certain mark of the true church, will be readily deceived by this
wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield
of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings
will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they
will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the
world, and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.
Through Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race,
healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new
and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time
he works as a destroyer. His temptations are leading multitudes
to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife,
and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war; for it excites the worst