54
The Great Controversy
Middle Ages. Here, for a thousand years, witnesses for the truth
maintained the ancient faith.
God had provided for His people a sanctuary of awful grandeur,
befitting the mighty truths committed to their trust. To those faithful
exiles the mountains were an emblem of the immutable righteousness
of Jehovah. They pointed their children to the heights towering above
them in unchanging majesty, and spoke to them of Him with whom
there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, whose word is as
enduring as the everlasting hills. God had set fast the mountains and
girded them with strength; no arm but that of Infinite Power could
move them out of their place. In like manner He had established His
law, the foundation of His government in heaven and upon earth. The
arm of man might reach his fellow men and destroy their lives; but
that arm could as readily uproot the mountains from their foundations,
and hurl them into the sea, as it could change one precept of the law
of Jehovah, or blot out one of His promises to those who do His will.
In their fidelity to His law, God’s servants should be as firm as the
unchanging hills.
The mountains that girded their lowly valleys were a constant wit-
ness to God’s creative power, and a never-failing assurance of His
protecting care. Those pilgrims learned to love the silent symbols of
Jehovah’s presence. They indulged no repining because of the hard-
ships of their lot; they were never lonely amid the mountain solitudes.
They thanked God that He had provided for them an asylum from the
wrath and cruelty of men. They rejoiced in their freedom to worship
before Him. Often when pursued by their enemies, the strength of the
hills proved a sure defense. From many a lofty cliff they chanted the
praise of God, and the armies of Rome could not silence their songs
of thanksgiving.
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Pure, simple, and fervent was the piety of these followers of Christ.
The principles of truth they valued above houses and lands, friends,
kindred, even life itself. These principles they earnestly sought to
impress upon the hearts of the young. From earliest childhood the
youth were instructed in the Scriptures and taught to regard sacredly
the claims of the law of God. Copies of the Bible were rare; therefore
its precious words were committed to memory. Many were able to
repeat large portions of both the Old and the New Testament. Thoughts
of God were associated alike with the sublime scenery of nature and