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To God’s Workmen
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only as walls daubed with untempered mortar. When God puts His
Spirit upon men, they will work. They will proclaim the word of the
Lord; they will lift up their voice like a trumpet. The truth will not
be diminished or lose its power in their hands. They will show the
people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Satan’s Vehement Work
The conflict is to wax fiercer and fiercer. Satan will take the
field and personate Christ. He will misrepresent, misapply, and
pervert everything he possibly can, to deceive, if possible, the very
elect. Even in our day there have been and will continue to be
entire families who have once rejoiced in the truth, but who will
lose faith because of calumnies and falsehoods brought to them in
regard to those whom they have loved and with whom they have
had sweet counsel. They opened their hearts to the sowing of tares;
the tares sprang up among the wheat; they strengthened; the crop of
wheat became less and less; and the precious truth lost its power to
them. For a time a false zeal accompanied their new theories, which
hardened their hearts against the advocates of truth as did the Jews
against Christ.
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Under the zeal of Satan, some have for a time the appearance
of men in a flourishing condition; but it is only for a season. Satan
carried them so far that they do despite to the Spirit of God. They
spread themselves like a green bay tree. The Lord suffers them for
a time. He allows them to manifest their envy and hatred against
the people of God, as He has allowed Satan to develop his character,
that he might stand before the heavenly universe, before the worlds
unfallen, and the fallen world, in his true attributes, as a deceiver, an
accuser of the brethren, a murderer at heart.
Erect Barriers Against the Enemy
Many who now claim to believe the truth, but who have no
anchor, will be bound up with Satan’s party. Those who have not
worked on God’s side of the question will be left to prove a stumbling
block to those who have gained a living experience for themselves.
Let every minister, in the place of standing to criticize and question,
to doubt and oppose, if there is the semblance of a chance to do so,