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The Great Controversy 1888
When error in one garb has been detected, Satan only masks it in a
different disguise, and multitudes receive it as eagerly as at the first.
When the people found Romanism to be a deception, and he could
not through this agency lead them to transgression of God’s law, he
urged them to regard all religion as a cheat, and the Bible a fable; and
casting aside the divine statutes, they gave themselves up to unbridled
iniquity.
The fatal error which wrought such woe for the inhabitants of
France was the ignoring of this one great truth: that true freedom
lies within the proscriptions of the law of God. “O that thou hadst
hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river,
and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” “There is no peace,
saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” “But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall
dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” [
Isaiah 48:18, 22
;
Proverbs 1:33
.]
Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose and denounce God’s law;
but the results of their influence prove that the well-being of man is
bound up with his obedience of the divine statutes. Those who will
not read the lesson from the book of God, are bidden to read it in the
history of nations.
When Satan wrought through the Romish Church to lead men
away from obedience, his agency was concealed, and his work was so
disguised that the degradation and misery which resulted were not seen
to be the fruit of transgression. And his power was so far counteracted
by the working of the Spirit of God, that his purposes were prevented
from reaching their full fruition. The people did not trace the effect
to its cause, and discover the source of their miseries. But in the
Revolution, the law of God was openly set aside by the national council.
And in the reign of terror which followed, the working of cause and
effect could be seen by all.
When France publicly prohibited the Bible, wicked men and spirits
of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long desired,—a
kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God. Because sentence
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against an evil work was not speedily executed, therefore the heart of
the sons of men was “fully set in them to do evil.” [
Ecclesiastes 8:11-
13
.] But the transgression of a just and righteous law must inevitably
result in misery and ruin. Though not visited at once with judgments,
the wickedness of men was nevertheless surely working out their doom.