Preface
The publishers send out this work from a conviction that it throws
light upon a subject of paramount importance and universal interest,
and one on which light is to be greatly desired; that it presents truths
too little known or too widely ignored. The great controversy between
truth and error, between light and darkness, between the power of God
and the attempted usurpations of the enemy of all righteousness, is the
one great spectacle which it is reasonable to suppose must engage the
attention of all worlds. That such a controversy exists as the result of
sin, that it is to pass through various stages of progress, and end at last
in a manner to redound to the glory of God and the higher exaltation
of His loyal servants, is as certain as that the Bible is a revelation from
God to men. That word reveals the great features of this controversy,
a conflict which embraces the redemption of a world; and there are
special epochs when these questions assume unwonted interest, and
it becomes a matter of the first importance to understand our relation
thereto
.
Such a time is the present, for all things indicate that we may now
confidently cherish the hope that this long controversy is drawing near
its close. Yet many now seem disposed to relegate to the realm of fable
that portion of the record opening to our view the steps by which our
world became involved in this great issue; and others, though avoiding
this extreme view, seem nevertheless inclined to regard it as obsolete
and unimportant, and are thus led to treat it with neglect
.
But who would not wish to look into the secret causes of so strange
a defection; to discern its spirit, to mark its consequences, and to
learn how to avoid its results? With such themes this volume deals.
It tends to foster a living interest in those portions of God’s word
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most often neglected. It clothes with new meaning the promises and
prophecies of the sacred record, vindicates the ways of God in dealing
with rebellion, and shows forth the wonderful grace of God in devising
a way of salvation for sinful man. Thus we are taken down in the
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