“In the Spirit and Power of Elias”
119
Many do not hesitate to sneer at the word of God. Those who
believe that word just as it reads are held up to ridicule. There is a
growing contempt for law and order, directly traceable to a violation
of the plain commands of Jehovah. Violence and crime are the result
of turning aside from the path of obedience. Behold the wretchedness
and misery of multitudes who worship at the shrine of idols and who
seek in vain for happiness and peace.
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Behold the well-nigh universal disregard of the Sabbath command-
ment. Behold also the daring impiety of those who, while enacting
laws to safeguard the supposed sanctity of the first day of the week, at
the same time are making laws legalizing the liquor traffic. Wise above
that which is written, they attempt to coerce the consciences of men,
while lending their sanction to an evil that brutalizes and destroys the
beings created in the image of God. It is Satan himself who inspires
such legislation. He well knows that the curse of God will rest on
those who exalt human enactments above the divine, and he does all
in his power to lead men into the broad road that ends in destruction.
So long have men worshiped human opinions and human institu-
tions that almost the whole world is following after idols. And he who
has endeavored to change God’s law is using every deceptive artifice
to induce men and women to array themselves against God and against
the sign by which the righteous are known. But the Lord will not
always suffer His law to be broken and despised with impunity. There
is a time coming when “the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and
the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall
be exalted in that day.”
Isaiah 2:11
. Skepticism may treat the claims
of God’s law with jest, scoffing, and denial. The spirit of worldliness
may contaminate the many and control the few, the cause of God may
hold its ground only by great exertion and continual sacrifice, yet in
the end the truth will triumph gloriously.
In the closing work of God in the earth, the standard of His law
will be again exalted. False religion may prevail, iniquity may abound,
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the love of many may wax cold, the cross of Calvary may be lost sight
of, and darkness, like the pall of death, may spread over the world;
the whole force of the popular current may be turned against the truth;
plot after plot may be formed to overthrow the people of God; but
in the hour of greatest peril the God of Elijah will raise up human
instrumentalities to bear a message that will not be silenced. In the