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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
He tells them that they need love and sympathy. Pretending great
interest in their welfare, he casts a spell over his unsuspecting victims,
charming them as the serpent charms the trembling bird. Soon they
are completely in his power; sin, disgrace, and ruin are the terrible
sequel.
These workers of iniquity are not few. Their path is marked by
desolated homes, blasted reputations, and broken hearts. But of all
this the world knows little; still they go on making fresh victims, and
Satan exults in the ruin he has wrought.
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The visible and the invisible world are in close contact. Could the
veil be lifted, we would see evil angels pressing their darkness around
us and working with all their power to deceive and destroy. Wicked
men are surrounded, influenced, and aided by evil spirits. The man of
faith and prayer has yielded his soul to divine guidance, and angels of
God bring to him light and strength from heaven.
No man can serve two masters. Light and darkness are no more
opposites than are the service of God and the service of Satan. The
prophet Elijah presented the matter in the true light when he fearlessly
appealed to apostate Israel: “If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if
Baal, then follow him.”
Those who give themselves up to the sorcery of Satan may boast
of great benefit received thereby, but does this prove their course to
be wise or safe? What if life should be prolonged? What if temporal
gain should be secured? Will it pay in the end to disregard the will of
God? All such apparent gain will prove at last an irrecoverable loss.
We cannot with impunity break down a single barrier which God has
erected to guard His people from Satan’s power.
Our only safety is in preserving the ancient landmarks. “To the
law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them.”
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