The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 443

The European Union in Prophecy
attainment, Satan has substituted the sinful, erring nature of man himself as the only
object of adoration, the only rule of judgment, or standard of character. This is
progress, not upward, but downward.
It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we
become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is
allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and
reverence. Man will never rise higher than his standard of purity or goodness or truth.
If self is his loftiest ideal, he will never attain to anything more exalted. Rather, he
will constantly sink lower and lower. The grace of God alone has power to exalt man.
Left to himself, his course must inevitably be downward.
To the self-indulgent, the pleasure-loving, the sensual, spiritualism presents
itself under a less subtle disguise than to the more refined and intellectual; in its
grosser forms they find that which is in harmony with their inclinations. Satan
studies every indication of the frailty of human nature, he marks the sins which each
individual is inclined to commit, and then he takes care that opportunities shall not
be wanting to gratify the tendency to evil. He tempts men to excess in that which is
in itself lawful, causing them, through intemperance, to weaken physical, mental, and
moral power. He has destroyed and is destroying thousands through the indulgence
of the passions, thus brutalizing the entire nature of man. And to complete his work,
he declares, through the spirits that "true knowledge places man above all law;" that
"whatever is, is right;" that "God doth not condemn;" and that " all sins which are
committed are innocent." When the people are thus led to believe that desire is the
highest law, that liberty is license, and that man