The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 454

The European Union in Prophecy
of torture to compel assent to her doctrines. There was the stake for those who would
not concede to her claims. There were massacres on a scale that will never be known
until revealed in the judgment. Dignitaries of the church studied, under Satan their
master, to invent means to cause the greatest possible torture and not end the life of
the victim. In many cases the infernal process was repeated to the utmost limit of
human endurance, until nature gave up the struggle, and the sufferer hailed death as
a sweet release.
Such was the fate of Rome's opponents. For her adherents she had the discipline
of the scourge, of famishing hunger, of bodily austerities in every conceivable, heart-
sickening form. To secure the favor of Heaven, penitents violated the laws of God by
violating the laws of nature. They were taught to sunder the ties which He has formed
to bless and gladden man's earthly sojourn. The churchyard contains millions of
victims who spent their lives in vain endeavours to subdue their natural affections, to
repress, as offensive to God, every thought and feeling of sympathy with their fellow
creatures.
If we desire to understand the determined cruelty of Satan, manifested for
hundreds of years, not among those who never heard of God, but in the very heart and
throughout the extent of Christendom, we have only to look at the history of
Romanism. Through this mammoth system of deception the prince of evil achieves his
purpose of bringing dishonour to God and wretchedness to man. And as we see how
he succeeds in disguising himself and accomplishing his work through the leaders of
the church, we may better understand why he has so great antipathy to the Bible. If
that Book is read, the mercy and love of God will be revealed; it will be seen that He
lays upon men none of these heavy burdens. All that He asks is a broken and contrite
heart, a humble, obedient spirit.
Christ gives no example in His life for men and women to shut themselves in
monasteries in order to become fitted for heaven. He has never taught that love and
sympathy must be repressed. The Saviour's heart overflowed with love. The nearer
man approaches to moral perfection, the keener are his sensibilities, the more acute
is his perception of sin, and the deeper his sympathy for the afflicted. The pope claims
to be the vicar of Christ; but how does his character bear comparison with that of our
Saviour? Was Christ ever known to consign men to the prison or the rack because
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