The iniquity and spiritual darkness that prevailed under the supremacy of Rome were the inevitable result of her suppression of the Scriptures ; but where is to be found the cause of the widespread infidelity , the rejection of the law of God , and the consequent corruption , under the full blaze of gospel light in an age of religious freedom ? Now that Satan can no longer keep the world under his control by withholding the Scriptures , he resorts to other means to accomplish the same object . To destroy faith in the Bible serves his purpose as well as to destroy the Bible itself . By introducing the belief that God ' s law is not binding , he as effectually leads men to transgress as if they were wholly ignorant of its precepts . And now , as in former ages , he has worked through the church to further his designs . The religious organizations of the day have refused to listen to unpopular truths plainly brought to view in the Scriptures , and in combating them they have adopted interpretations and taken positions which have sown broadcast the seeds of skepticism .
Clinging to the papal error of natural immortality and man ' s consciousness in death , they have rejected the only defense against the delusions of spiritualism . The doctrine of eternal torment has led many to disbelieve the Bible . And as the claims of the fourth commandment are urged upon the people , it is found that the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is enjoined ; and as the only way to free themselves from a duty which they are unwilling to perform , many popular teachers declare that the law of God is no longer binding . Thus they cast away the law and the Sabbath together . As the work of Sabbath reform extends , this rejection of the divine law to avoid the claims of the fourth commandment will become wellnigh universal . The teachings of religious leaders have opened the door to infidelity , to spiritualism , and to contempt for God ' s holy law ; and upon these leaders rests a fearful responsibility for the iniquity that exists in the Christian world .
Yet this very class put forth the claim that the fast-spreading corruption is largely attributable to the desecration of the so-called " Christian sabbath ," and that the enforcement of Sunday observance would greatly improve the morals of society . This claim is especially urged in America , where the doctrine of the true Sabbath has been most widely preached . Here the temperance work , one of the most prominent and important of moral reforms , is often combined with the Sunday movement , and the advocates of the latter represent themselves as laboring to promote the highest interest of society ; and those who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies of temperance and reform . But the fact that a movement to establish error is connected with a work which is in itself good , is not an argument in favor of the error . We may disguise poison by mingling it with wholesome food , but we do not change its nature . On the contrary , it is rendered more dangerous , as it is more likely to be taken unawares . It is one of Satan ' s devices to combine with falsehood just enough truth to give it
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