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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
is said of what they have done or suffered; but the burden of every
song, the keynote of every anthem, is, Salvation to our God and unto
the Lamb.
In the presence of the assembled inhabitants of earth and Heaven
takes place the final coronation of the Son of God. And now, invested
with supreme majesty and power, the King of kings pronounces
sentence upon the rebels against his government, and executes justice
upon those who have transgressed his law and oppressed his people.
Says the prophet of God: “I saw a great white throne, and Him that
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and
there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another
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book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in the books, according to
their works.” [
Revelation 20:11, 12
.]
As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of Je-
sus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which
they have ever committed. They see just where their feet diverged
from the path of purity and holiness, just how far pride and rebellion
have carried them in the violation of the law of God. The seduc-
tive temptations which they encouraged by indulgence in sin, the
blessings perverted, the messengers of God despised, the warnings
rejected, the waves of mercy beaten back by the stubborn, unrepen-
tant heart,—all appear as if written in letters of fire.
Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view
appear the scenes of Adam’s temptation and fall, and the successive
steps in the great plan of redemption. The Saviour’s lowly birth; his
early life of simplicity and obedience; his baptism in Jordan; the fast
and temptation in the wilderness; his public ministry, unfolding to
men Heaven’s most precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds
of love and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching in the solitude
of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and malice which
repaid his benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in Gethsemane,
beneath the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world; his
betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the fearful events of
that night of horror,—the unresisting prisoner, forsaken by his best-
loved disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of Jerusalem; the
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Son of God exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in the high