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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
upon the false watchmen. The very ones that once admired them
most, will pronounce the most dreadful curses upon them. The very
hands that once crowned them with laurels will be raised for their
destruction. The swords which were to slay God’s people are now
employed to destroy their enemies. Everywhere there is strife and
bloodshed.
The mark of deliverance has been set upon those “that sigh and
that cry for all the abominations that be done.” Now the angel of
death goes forth, represented in Ezekiel’s vision by the men with
the slaughtering weapons, to whom the command is given: “Slay
utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women;
but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at
my sanctuary.” Says the prophet, “They began at the ancient men
which were before the house.” [
Ezekiel 9:6
.] The work of destruction
begins among those who profess to be the spiritual guardians of the
people. The false shepherds are the first to fall. There are none to
pity or to spare. Men, women, maidens, and little children perish
together.
“The Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood,
and shall no more cover her slain.” [
Isaiah 26:21
.] “And this shall be
the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that fought
against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand
upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. And it shall
come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be
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among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his
neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.”
[
Zechariah 14:12, 13
.] In the mad strife of their own fierce passions,
and by the awful outpouring of God’s unmingled wrath, fall the
wicked inhabitants of the earth,—priests, rulers, and people, rich
and poor, high and low. “And the slain of the Lord shall be at that
day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.” [
Jeremiah
25:33
.]
At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face
of the whole earth,—consumed with the spirit of his mouth, and
destroyed by the brightness of his glory. Christ takes his people to