Prophecies Fulfilled
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he is found in company with the children of God, even in the house
of worship and around the table of the Lord. Satan is frequently there
upon the most solemn occasions in the form of those whom he can use
as his agents.
The prince of evil contests every inch of ground over which God’s
people advance in their journey toward the heavenly city. In all the
history of the church no reformation has been carried forward without
encountering serious obstacles. Thus it was in Paul’s day. Wher-
ever the apostle raised up a church, there were some who professed
to receive the faith, but who brought in heresies, that, if received,
would eventually crowd out the love of the truth. Luther also suffered
great perplexity and distress from the course of fanatical persons who
claimed that God had spoken directly through them, and who therefore
set their own ideas and opinions above the testimony of the Scriptures.
Many who were lacking in faith and experience, but who had consid-
erable self-sufficiency, and who loved to hear and tell some new thing,
were beguiled by the pretensions of the new teachers, and they joined
the agents of Satan in their work of tearing down what God had moved
Luther to build up. And the Wesleys, and others who blessed the world
by their influence and their faith, encountered at every step the wiles
of Satan in pushing overzealous, unbalanced, and unsanctified ones
into fanaticism of every grade.
William Miller had no sympathy with those influences that led to
fanaticism. He declared, with Luther, that every spirit should be tested
by the word of God. “The devil,” said Miller, “has great power over
the minds of some at the present day. And how shall we know what
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manner of spirit they are of? The Bible answers: ‘By their fruits ye
shall know them.’... There are many spirits gone out into the world;
and we are commanded to try the spirits. The spirit that does not
cause us to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world,
is not the Spirit of Christ. I am more and more convinced that Satan
has much to do in these wild movements.... Many among us who
pretend to be wholly sanctified, are following the traditions of men,
and apparently are as ignorant of truth as others who make no such
pretensions.”—Bliss, pages 236, 237. “The spirit of error will lead us
from the truth; and the Spirit of God will lead us into truth. But, say
you, a man may be in an error, and think he has the truth. What then?
We answer, The Spirit and word agree. If a man judges himself by the