Prophecy Will Be Fulfilled
By L. A. S.
“We are nearing the most important crisis that has ever come upon the world.” “We may have to plead most earnestly before legislative councils for the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.” By these words, which the reader may remember having read in Sister White’s article in the previous issue of this paper, we are again reminded that a period of oppression and persecution such as we have not yet known is before us. The prophecy of Revelation 13, concerning as the work of a power that would attempt to force the conscience of those who worship God, and compel them to receive the mark of antichristianity under penalty of death, is surely to be fulfilled. This prophecy has not become lost in the procession of world events; it has not been turned out of its course, as a comet sometimes when it encounters the solar system’s forces of gravitation. It is pointed our way; it is coming, and at this present hour is close at hand. Both in the political and in the religious realm the signs of the coming crisis are more numerous and more striking than ever before. The papacy is doing its work, extending its influence, and strengthening its hold upon the nation, steadily nearing the goal of an alliance under which provision will be made by the government “for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions,” as the spirit of prophecy has foretold. In the political realm we have seen within the last few years the crumbling and disintegration of the structure of civil liberty reared by the founders of the nation, so that to-day, in vast sections of the country, only the shell of republican government remains. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have been made subjects of contemptuous speech in the national legislature, set aside as the outgrown swaddling clothes of the republic’s infancy, now to be exchanged for the appropriate garb of empire. In the industrial world capital on the one hand, and labor on the other, have ruthlessly overridden every principle and law constituting the supposed bulwarks of individual rights. All this means that when the enemies of God’s truth shall rise up in rage against those who keep his commandments, neither in the institutions of the government nor in popular sentiment will there be any barrier to the enforcement of the most oppressive measures against them. The mere forms of republican government without the spirit will offer no effective resistance to the tide of religious persecution. Evidently, now is the time to prepare for that which we may soon have to do,— plead before legislative councils for the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. These reminders are not sent us to be passed by unheeded. An important part of the work of witnessing for the truth will be done in just this way. “Thus in his providence God has designed that the claims of his law shall be brought before men in positions of highest authority.” We must be prepared not to escape the crisis that is coming, but to improve the opportunities it will bring us. Christ must dwell in the heart by faith, else he can not speak through the lips. It is the voice of God that must be heard before the legislative councils of the nation.