The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 539

‘The soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom: for he was
comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.’ Verse 39.
“And what is the inference to be deduced from this language? Is
it not that endless suffering formed no part of his religious belief? So
we conceive; and here we discover a triumphant argument in support
of the more pleasing, more enlightened, more benevolent hypothesis
of ultimate universal purity and peace. He was comforted, seeing
his son was dead. And why so? Because by the eye of prophecy
he could look forward into the glorious future and see that son far
removed from all temptations, released from the bondage and purified
from the corruptions of sin, and after being made sufficiently holy and
enlightened, admitted to the assembly of ascended and rejoicing spirits.
His only comfort was that, in being removed from the present state of sin
and suffering, his belo ved son had gone where the loftiest breathings of
the Holy Spirit would be shed upon his darkened soul, where his mind
would be unfolded to the wisdom of heaven and the sweet raptures of
immortal love, and thus prepared with a sanctified nature to enjoy the
rest and society of the heavenly inheritance.
“In these thoughts we would be understood to believe that the
salvation of heaven depends upon nothing which we can do in this life;
neither upon a present change of heart, nor upon present belief, or a
present profession of religion.”
Thus does the professed minister of Christ reiterate the falsehood
uttered by the serpent in Eden: “Ye shall not surely die.” “In the day
ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.”
He declares that the vilest of sinners—the murderer, the thief, and the
adulterer—will after death be prepared to enter into immortal bliss.
And from what does this perverter of the Scriptures draw his
conclusions? From a single sentence expressing David’s submission to
the dispensation of Providence. His

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