The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 341

good tidings of great joy. Those who really love the Saviour cannot but
hail with gladness the announcement founded upon the word of God that
He in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered is coming again, not
to be insulted, despised, and rejected, as at His first advent, but in power
and glory, to redeem His people. It is those who do not love the Saviour
that desire Him to remain away, and there can be no more conclusive
evidence that the churches have departed from God than the irritation
and animosity excited by this Heaven-sent message.
Those who accepted the advent doctrine were roused to the necessity
of repentance and humiliation before God. Many had long been
halting between Christ and the world; now they felt that it was time
to take a stand. “The things of eternity assumed to them an unwonted
reality. Heaven was brought near, and they felt themselves guilty before
God.”—Bliss, page 146. Christians were quickened to new spiritual
life. They were made to feel that time was short, that what they had
to do for their fellow men must be done quickly. Earth receded, eternity
seemed to open before them, and the soul, with all that pertained to its
immortal weal or woe, was felt to eclipse every temporal object. The
Spirit of God rested upon them and gave power to their earnest appeals
to their brethren, as well as to sinners, to prepare for the day of God.
The silent testimony of their daily life was a constant rebuke to formal
and unconsecrated church members. These did not wish to be dist urbed
in their pursuit of pleasure, their devotion to money-making, and their
ambition for worldly honor. Hence the enmity and opposition excited
against the advent faith and those who proclaimed it.
As the arguments from the prophetic periods were found to be
impregnable, opposers endeavored to discourage investigation of the
subject by teaching that the prophecies were sealed. Thus Protestants
followed in the steps of Romanists. While the papal church withholds
the Bible (see Appendix) from the people, Protestant churches claimed
that an

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