406
Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
The same masterful mind that plotted against the faithful in ages
past is still seeking to rid the earth of those who fear God and obey His
law. Satan will excite indignation against the humble minority who
conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions. Men
of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take
counsel against the people of God. Wealth, genius, education, will
combine to cover them with contempt. Persecuting rulers, ministers,
and church members will conspire against them. With voice and
pen, by boasts, threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their
faith. By false representations and angry appeals they will stir up the
passions of the people. Not having a “Thus saith the Scriptures” to
bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to
[451]
oppressive enactments to supply the lack. To secure popularity and
patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for a Sunday law. Those
who fear God cannot accept an institution that violates a precept of
the Decalogue. On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the
controversy between truth and error. And we are not left in doubt as
to the issue. Now, as in the days of Mordecai, the Lord will vindicate
His truth and His people.
By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation
of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righ-
teousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf
to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the
abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of
this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of
its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall
make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions,
then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working
of Satan and that the end is near.
As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples
of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be
a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, that the
measure of our nation’s iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is
about to take her flight, never to return. The people of God will then
be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress which prophets
have described as the time of Jacob’s trouble. The cries of the faithful,
persecuted ones ascend to heaven. And as the blood of Abel cried from
the ground, there are voices also crying to God from martyrs’ graves,