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Bring the Lower Passions Into Subjection, July 26
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the
Gentiles, that ... they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify
God in the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:11, 12
, NKJV.
Near the close of this earth’s history Satan will work with all his powers in the
same manner and with the same temptations wherewith he tempted ancient Israel
just before their entering the Land of Promise. He will lay snares for those who
claim to keep the commandments of God, and who are almost on the borders of the
heavenly Canaan. He will use his powers to their utmost in order to entrap souls,
and to take God’s professed people upon their weakest points.
Those who have not brought the lower passions into subjection to the higher
powers of their being, those who have allowed their minds to flow in a channel of
carnal indulgence of the baser passions, Satan is determined to destroy with his
temptations—to pollute their souls with licentiousness. He is not aiming especially
at the lower and less important marks, but he makes use of his snares through those
whom he can enlist as his agents to allure or attract men and women to take liberties
which are condemned in the law of God.
And those in responsible positions, teaching the claims of God’s law, whose
mouths are filled with arguments in vindication of His law, against which Satan has
made such a raid—over such he sets his hellish powers and his agencies at work,
and overthrows them upon the weak points in their character, knowing that those
who offend on one point are guilty of all, thus obtaining complete mastery over the
entire person. Mind, soul, body, and conscience are involved in the ruin. If they be
messengers of righteousness, and have had great light, or if the Lord has used them
as His special workers in the cause of truth, then how great is the triumph of Satan!
How he exults! How God is dishonored! ...
Satan knows it is his time. He has but little time left now in which to work, and
he will work with tremendous power to ensnare the people of God upon their weak
points of character.... It is necessary to guard the thoughts; to fence the soul about
with the injunctions of God’s Word; and to be very careful in every thought, word,
and action not to be betrayed into sin.—
The Review and Herald, May 17, 1887
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