22
Patriarchs and Prophets
misconstruing and distorting them to excite dissent and dissatisfaction.
He cunningly drew his hearers on to give utterance to their feelings;
then these expressions were repeated by him when it would serve his
purpose, as evidence that the angels were not fully in harmony with the
government of God. While claiming for himself perfect loyalty to God,
he urged that changes in the order and laws of heaven were necessary
for the stability of the divine government. Thus while working to
excite opposition to the law of God and to instill his own discontent
into the minds of the angels under him, he was ostensibly seeking to
remove dissatisfaction and to reconcile disaffected angels to the order
of heaven. While secretly fomenting discord and rebellion, he with
consummate craft caused it to appear as his sole purpose to promote
loyalty and to preserve harmony and peace.
The spirit of dissatisfaction thus kindled was doing its baleful work.
While there was no open outbreak, division of feeling imperceptibly
grew up among the angels. There were some who looked with favor
upon Lucifer’s insinuations against the government of God. Although
they had heretofore been in perfect harmony with the order which God
had established, they were now discontented and unhappy because
they could not penetrate His unsearchable counsels; they were dissatis-
fied with His purpose in exalting Christ. These stood ready to second
Lucifer’s demand for equal authority with the Son of God. But angels
who were loyal and true maintained the wisdom and justice of the
divine decree and endeavored to reconcile this disaffected being to the
will of God. Christ was the Son of God; He had been one with Him
before the angels were called into existence. He had ever stood at the
right hand of the Father; His supremacy, so full of blessing to all who
came under its benignant control, had not heretofore been questioned.
[39]
The harmony of heaven had never been interrupted; wherefore should
there now be discord? The loyal angels could see only terrible conse-
quences from this dissension, and with earnest entreaty they counseled
the disaffected ones to renounce their purpose and prove themselves
loyal to God by fidelity to His government.
In great mercy, according to His divine character, God bore long
with Lucifer. The spirit of discontent and disaffection had never before
been known in heaven. It was a new element, strange, mysterious,
unaccountable. Lucifer himself had not at first been acquainted with
the real nature of his feelings; for a time he had feared to express the