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God’s People Delivered
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terror and amazement upon the scene, while the righteous behold
with solemn joy the tokens of their deliverance. Everything in nature
seems turned out of its course. The streams cease to flow. Dark,
heavy clouds come up, and clash against each other. In the midst of
the angry heavens is one clear space of indescribable glory, whence
comes the voice of God like the sound of many waters, saying, “It is
done.”
That voice shakes the heavens and the earth. There is a mighty
earthquake. The firmament appears to open and shut. The glory
from the throne of God seems flashing through. The mountains
shake like a reed in the wind, and ragged rocks are scattered on
every side. There is a roar as of a coming tempest. The sea is lashed
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into fury. There is heard the shriek of the hurricane, like the voice of
demons upon a mission of destruction. The whole earth heaves and
swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is breaking up. Its very
foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains are sinking.
Inhabited islands disappear with their living freight. The seaports
that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up by
the angry waters. Great hailstones, every one “about the weight of a
talent,” [
Revelation 16:21
.] are doing their work of destruction. The
proudest cities of the earth are laid low. The costly palaces, upon
which the world’s great men have lavished their wealth in order to
glorify themselves, are crumbling to ruin before their eyes. Prison
walls are rent asunder, and God’s people, who have been held in
bondage for their faith, are set free.
Graves are opened, and “many of them that sleep in the dust
of the earth” “awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt.” [
Daniel 12:2
.] All who have died in faith
under the third angel’s message come forth from the tomb glorified,
to hear God’s covenant of peace with those who have kept his law.
“They also which pierced Him,” those that mocked and derided
Christ’s dying agonies, and the most violent opposers of his truth
and his people, are raised to behold him in his glory, and to see the
honor placed upon the loyal and obedient.
Thick clouds still cover the sky; yet the sun now and then breaks
through, appearing like the avenging eye of Jehovah. Fierce light-
nings leap from the heavens, enveloping the earth in a sheet of flame.
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Above the terrific roar of thunder, voices, mysterious and awful,