The Coming Conflict by Mary L. Williams

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 8, 1877

The Coming Conflict.

By Mary L. Williams

The powers of light and darkness, which have ever been in irreconcilable conflict, and which will remain antagonistic until truth triumphs over all opposing forces, are now marshaling their legions for a grand and fearful struggle. The time rapidly approaches when the great question will not be, Is this or that orthodox? but it will be, Shall we take the Bible alone as a rule of faith and life? Such is the nature of the coming conflict, as indicated by the signs of the times. Come it must, and come it will, and that, too, ere long. Scoffers may ridicule the idea, but the day to reckon with the “mother church,” and all who are in any way related to her or have commerce with her, will come, and will not be delayed, though men close their eyes to the portentous signs, and go on in foolish wranglings over ecclesiastical dogmas and human opinions.

The papal power is as relentless in its hatred of the Bible and enlightened Christianity to-day as when, by solemn edict, John Huss was burned or Wycliffe’s bones were disinterred and reduced to ashes. It is folly to talk of a change in the spirit of the “man of sin, the son of perdition.” No change has taken place; none will, for none is intended. For ages the mutterings of papal thunder have been heard from across the wave, but now the flashes of the angry lightning blaze in our faces. The powers of earth are soon to be shaken: the set time to judge the great harlot and favor Zion is at hand. Soon Zion’s enemies will be overthrown; but before that is done, the hurricane of human passion, intensified by religious bigotry and blind superstition, will sweep in all its fury over the land. Silently and insidiously, but still certainly, the minions of the pope are laboring to destroy all that stands in the way of papal supremacy, temporal and spiritual, in the United States and elsewhere.

Danger has come, but the nominal churches sleep on. To this country religious truth and freedom were compelled to fly, to seek an asylum in the wilderness, and hither has the “man of sin,” with his army, followed; and to-day they stand ready and waiting for opportunity to strike Protestantism to the heart. It is time Protestants were laying aside Romish rites and ceremonies, such as Sunday-keeping and infant sprinkling, and many other things about which neither Christ nor the apostles ever uttered a single word. “To Rome or to the Bible”—to this test all must come, and then the contest, if we may so speak, will be between the “man of sin” and those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

But God is soon to judge and destroy the “great harlot,” and all who are in affinity with her, and whom she has made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Retribution may appear slow in coming, but it will come. Cold unbelief and unconcern may seem good enough now, but the ways thereof are the ways of destruction. Lot will soon have passed out of Sodom, and “the salt of the earth” have vanished; and then the rebellious and careless will be like stubble for the fire. The down-trodden law will assert its dignity and vindicate its honor. All hail to the day when these things shall be fulfilled. The cross shall then give place to the crown, and gladness supplant sighing and tears. Hope shall change to fruition, and the exile reach his eternal home. Oh! let us rejoice and give thanks that such promises have been left us. Let us stay ourselves upon them, and feed upon their preciousness. They are “well-ordered and sure,” and cannot disappoint us. Time may intervene, and great changes may occur before they are fulfilled, but they are all immutable and abiding.

The command of Jesus is, “Occupy till I come.” We must keep steadfastly to the duties of our post, for the enemy is ever found at his. Jesus never meant that the signs of his coming should frighten us, or make us unhappy. He meant that the hope of his return should be the comfort of his people in their trials, and should inflame their zeal, and inspire hopes of redemption.

MARY L. WILLIAMS.