Leaving his place in the immediate presence of God , Lucifer went forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels . Working with mysterious secrecy , and for a time concealing his real purpose under an appearance of reverence for God , he endeavoured to excite dissatisfaction concerning the laws that governed heavenly beings , intimating that they imposed an unnecessary restraint . Since their natures were holy , he urged that the angels should obey the dictates of their own will . He sought to create sympathy for himself by representing that God had dealt unjustly with him in bestowing supreme honour upon Christ . He claimed that in aspiring to greater power and honour he was not aiming at self-exaltation , but was seeking to secure liberty for all the inhabitants of heaven , that by this means they might attain to a higher state of existence .
God in His great mercy bore long with Lucifer . He was not immediately degraded from his exalted station when he first indulged the spirit of discontent , nor even when he began to present his false claims before the loyal angels . Long was he retained in heaven . Again and again he was offered pardon on condition of repentance and submission . Such efforts as only infinite love and wisdom could devise were made to convince him of his error . The spirit of discontent had never before been known in heaven . Lucifer himself did not at first see whither he was drifting ; he did not understand the real nature of his feelings . But as his dissatisfaction was proved to be without cause , Lucifer was convinced that he was in the wrong , that the divine claims were just , and that he ought to acknowledge them as such before all heaven . Had he done this , he might have saved himself and many angels . He had not at this time fully cast off his allegiance to God . Though he had forsaken his position as covering cherub , yet if he had been willing to return to God , acknowledging the Creator ' s wisdom , and satisfied to fill the place appointed him in God ' s great plan , he would have been reinstated in his office . But pride forbade him to submit . He persistently defended his own course , maintained that he had no need of repentance , and fully committed himself , in the great controversy , against his Maker .
All the powers of his master mind were now bent to the work of deception , to secure the sympathy of the angels that had been under his command . Even the fact that Christ had warned and counseled him was perverted to serve his traitorous designs . To those whose loving trust bound them most closely to him , Satan had represented that he was wrongly judged , that his position was not respected , and that his liberty was to be abridged . From misrepresentation of the words of Christ he passed to prevarication and direct falsehood , accusing the Son of God of a design to humiliate him before the inhabitants of heaven . He sought also to make a false issue between himself and the loyal angels . All whom he could not subvert and bring fully to his side he accused of indifference to the interests of heavenly beings . The very work which he himself was doing he charged upon those who remained true to God . And to sustain his charge of God ' s injustice toward him , he resorted to misrepresentation of the words and acts of the Creator . It was his policy to perplex the angels with subtle arguments concerning the purposes of God . Everything that was simple he
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