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The Desire of Ages
the heart; when men willfully reject the Spirit, and declare It to be
from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate
with them. When the Spirit is finally rejected, there is no more that
God can do for the soul.
The Pharisees to whom Jesus spoke this warning did not them-
selves believe the charge they brought against Him. There was not one
of those dignitaries but had felt drawn toward the Saviour. They had
heard the Spirit’s voice in their own hearts declaring Him to be the
Anointed of Israel, and urging them to confess themselves His disci-
ples. In the light of His presence they had realized their unholiness,
and had longed for a righteousness which they could not create. But
after their rejection of Him it would be too humiliating to receive Him
as the Messiah. Having set their feet in the path of unbelief, they were
too proud to confess their error. And in order to avoid acknowledging
the truth, they tried with desperate violence to dispute the Saviour’s
teaching. The evidence of His power and mercy exasperated them.
They could not prevent the Saviour from working miracles, they could
not silence His teaching; but they did everything in their power to
misrepresent Him and to falsify His words. Still the convicting Spirit
of God followed them, and they had to build up many barriers in order
to withstand its power. The mightiest agency that can be brought to
bear upon the human heart was striving with them, but they would not
yield.
It is not God that blinds the eyes of men or hardens their hearts. He
sends them light to correct their errors, and to lead them in safe paths;
it is by the rejection of this light that the eyes are blinded and the heart
hardened. Often the process is gradual, and almost imperceptible.
Light comes to the soul through God’s word, through His servants,
or by the direct agency of His Spirit; but when one ray of light is
disregarded, there is a partial benumbing of the spiritual perceptions,
and the second revealing of light is less clearly discerned. So the
darkness increases, until it is night in the soul. Thus it had been
with these Jewish leaders. They were convinced that a divine power
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attended Christ, but in order to resist the truth, they attributed the
work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. In doing this they deliberately chose
deception; they yielded themselves to Satan, and henceforth they were
controlled by his power.