THE DRAGON'S WARFARE by H. C. MILLER

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1868

THE DRAGON'S WARFARE.

By H. C. MILLER

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev. xii, 17.

As a general thing too many are apt to apply this wholly in the future, when Satan, in wrath, stirs up the wicked of earth to decree the death of the saints on certain conditions. In this is danger, because it causes sleeping, and unfaithful watching at the post now, just as some sentinel, thinking the enemy at a distance, and the battle to be on the morrow, drowsily leans on his arms, and knows not his danger until the enemy has come upon him as a flood, and he is a captive before aware of his danger. In a war there is much done besides the pitched battle. There are the skirmishes, the sorties, the reconnoissance in force, the capture of advance guards, feints, spies sent out, the midnight attack, &c. A wise and crafty, and a skillful commander is constantly on the alert, giving his opponent no rest, day nor night. Is the dragon, “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,” less wise? Nay. It is written of him that “he walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” “Woe to the inhabitants of earth and sea, for the Devil is come down to you having great wrath.”

“Satan, with malicious art, Watches each unguarded heart.”

The manner of his warfare is not honorable, is not always open, and frank, but with guile, craft, and with trap and snare. “Watch, therefore, and pray always,” is the warning. He wars against them that keep the commandments of God. He stirs up the unconsecrated to aid him.

Have some earnest but erring ones been corrected? Is the hand of the Lord smiting in love and mercy, that the spirit may be saved? Satan stirs up some to lay on too, not in love, but in a spirit of resentment, with a tender mercy that is at least but cruel, in order to crush the burdened soul already sorrowful, and repenting, under a load of despondency. It is his mode of warfare.

See in case of David and Shimei. He weakens his opponents by false reports, or by reports calculated to weaken their influence, causing his dupes to delight in circulating them, even making them feel that in this they are doing God's service, blinded to the fact that their spirit is of that kind that speaketh on this wise, saying, “Report, and we will report it.”

Again, he taketh some who serve the Lord Jesus on this wise: He causes cold neglect to weaken the hands, and is never so jubilant as when some useful and zealous servant of Jesus is forced to some out-of-the-way corner of the vineyard, where his hands are tied, and the good work he or she might have done, or may have begun, is left to fall.

Such are some of the modes in which this adversary wages war. And his skill is only equaled by the weakness of those he seeks to destroy. May I get strength from Him in whom is strength to resist the Devil.

H. C. MILLER.