Impending Conflict
47
the laws. “Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and
equity cannot enter.”
Isaiah 59:14
.
The iniquity and spiritual darkness that prevailed under the
supremacy of Rome were the inevitable result of her suppression of
the Scriptures; but where is to be found the cause of the widespread in-
fidelity, the rejection of the law of God, and the consequent corruption,
under the full blaze of gospel light in an age of religious freedom?
Now that Satan can no longer keep the world under his control by
withholding the Scriptures, he resorts to other means to accomplish
the same object. To destroy faith in the Bible serves his purpose as
well as to destroy the Bible itself. By introducing the belief that God’s
law is not binding, he as effectually leads men to transgress as if they
were wholly ignorant of its precepts. And now, as in former ages, he
has worked through the church to further his designs. The religious
organizations of the day have refused to listen to unpopular truths
plainly brought to view in the Scriptures, and in combating them they
have adopted interpretations and taken positions which have sown
[32]
broadcast the seeds of skepticism. Clinging to the papal error of natu-
ral immortality and man’s consciousness in death, they have rejected
the only defense against the delusions of spiritualism. The doctrine of
eternal torment has led many to disbelieve the Bible. And as the claims
of the fourth commandment are urged upon the people, it is found
that the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is enjoined; and as
the only way to free themselves from a duty which they are unwilling
to perform, many popular teachers declare that the law of God is no
longer binding. Thus they cast away the law and the Sabbath together.
As the work of Sabbath reform extends, this rejection of the divine law
to avoid the claims of the fourth commandment will become well-nigh
universal. The teachings of religious leaders have opened the door to
infidelity, to spiritualism, and to contempt for God’s holy law; and
upon these leaders rests a fearful responsibility for the iniquity that
exists in the Christian world.
How to Improve Human Morals
Yet this very class put forth the claim that the fast-spreading cor-
ruption is largely attributable to the desecration of the so-called “Chris-
tian Sabbath,” and that the enforcement of Sunday observance would