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58
Early Writings
of faith and have not kept the true Sabbath, they were doubting about
its being a test for us now.
The enemies of the present truth have been trying to open the
door of the holy place, that Jesus has shut, and to close the door
of the most holy place, which He opened in 1844, where the ark
is, containing the two tables of stone on which are written the ten
commandments by the finger of Jehovah.
Satan is now using every device in this sealing time to keep the
minds of God’s people from the present truth and to cause them to
waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over His people to
protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided
on the truth and was pure in heart was to be covered with the covering
of the Almighty.
Satan knew this, and he was at work in mighty power to keep
the minds of as many people as he possibly could wavering and
unsettled on the truth. I saw that the mysterious knocking in New
York and other places was the power of Satan, and that such things
would be more and more common, clothed in a religious garb so
as to lull the deceived to greater security and to draw the minds of
God’s people, if possible, to those things and cause them to doubt
the teachings and power of the Holy Ghost. [
See page 86. See also
appendix.
]
I saw that Satan was working through agents in a number of
ways. He was at work through ministers who have rejected the truth
and are given over to strong delusions to believe a lie that they might
[44]
be damned. While they were preaching or praying, some would fall
prostrate and helpless, not by the power of the Holy Ghost, but by
the power of Satan breathed upon these agents, and through them to
the people. While preaching, praying, or conversing, some professed
Adventists who had rejected present truth used mesmerism to gain
adherents, and the people would rejoice in this influence, for they
thought it was the Holy Ghost. Some even that used it were so far
in the darkness and deception of the devil that they thought it was
the power of God, given them to exercise. They had made God
altogether such a one as themselves and had valued His power as a
thing of nought.
Some of these agents of Satan were affecting the bodies of some
of the saints—those whom they could not deceive and draw away