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Time of Trouble
299
and persecution against them. God never forces the will or the
conscience; but Satan will employ the most cruel measures to control
the consciences of men, and to secure worship to himself. And this
work of compulsion is always in favor of human creeds and laws,
and in defiance of God’s holy law.
In the last conflict the Sabbath will be the special point of con-
troversy throughout all Christendom. Secular rulers and religious
leaders will unite to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as
milder measures fail, the most oppressive laws will be enacted. It
will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution
of the church and a law of the land ought not to be tolerated, and a
decree will finally be issued denouncing them as deserving of the
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severest punishment, and giving the people liberty, after a certain
time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World, and apostate
Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those
who honor the divine precepts.
The people of God will then flee from the cities and villages,
and associate together in companies, dwelling in the most desolate
and solitary places. Many will find refuge in the strongholds of the
mountains. Like the Christians of the Piedmont valleys, they will
make the high places of the earth their sanctuaries, and will thank
God for the “munitions of rocks.” But many of all nations and all
classes, high and low, rich and poor, black and white, will be cast
into the most unjust and cruel bondage. The beloved of God pass
weary days, bound in chains, shut in by prison bars, sentenced to be
slain, some apparently left to die of starvation in dark and loathsome
dungeons. No human ear is open to hear their moans; no human
hand is ready to lend them help.
Will the Lord forget his people in this trying hour? Did he forget
faithful Noah when judgments were visited upon the antediluvian
world? Did he forget Lot when the fire came down from heaven to
consume the cities of the plain? Did he forget Joseph surrounded
by idolaters in Egypt? Did he forget Elijah when the oath of Jezebel
threatened him with the fate of the Baal prophets? Did he forget
Jeremiah in the dark and dismal pit of his prison-house? Did he
forget the three worthies in the fiery furnace? or Daniel in the den of
lions? Christ cannot forsake those who are as the apple of his eye,
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the purchase of his precious blood.