are heavy-laden , and I will give you rest .” Matthew 11:28 .
It is Satan ’ s constant effort to misrepresent the character of God , the nature of sin , and the real issues at stake in the great controversy . His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law and gives men license to sin . At the same time he causes them to cherish false conceptions of God so that they regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love . The cruelty inherent in his own character is attributed to the Creator ; it is embodied in systems of religion and expressed in modes of worship . Thus the minds of men are blinded , and Satan secures them as his agents to war against God . By perverted conceptions of the divine attributes , heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices necessary to secure the favor of Deity ; and horrible cruelties have been perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry .
The Roman Catholic Church , uniting the forms of paganism and Christianity , and , like paganism , misrepresenting the character of God , has resorted to practices no less cruel and revolting . In the days of Rome ’ s supremacy there were instruments 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
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