The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 620

for in their whole lives they can see little good. They are fully conscious
of their weakness and unworthiness. Satan endeavors to terrify them
with the thought that their cases are hopeless, that the stain of their
defilement will never be washed away. He hopes so to destroy their
faith that they will yield to his temptations and turn from their allegiance
to God.
Though God’s people will be surrounded by enemies who are bent
upon their destruction, yet the anguish which they suffer is not a dread
of persecution for the truth’s sake; they fear that every sin has not been
repented of, and that through some fault in themselves they will fail to
realize the fulfillment of the Saviour’s promise: I “will keep thee from
the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world.” Revelation
3:10. If they could have the assurance of pardon they would not shrink
from torture or death; but should they prove unworthy, and lose their
lives because of their own defects of character, then God’s holy name
would be reproached.
On every hand they hear the plottings of treason and see the active
working of rebellion; and there is aroused within them an intense desire,
an earnest yearning of soul, that this great apostasy may be terminated
and the wickedness of the wicked may come to an end. But while they
plead with God to stay the work of rebellion, it is with a keen sense of
self-reproach that they themselves have no more power to resist and urge
back the mighty tide of evil. They feel that had they always employed
all their ability in the service of Christ, going forward from strength to
strength, Satan’s forces would have less power to prevail against them.
They afflict their souls before God, pointing to their past repentance
of their many sins, and pleading the Saviour’s promise: “Let him take
hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall
make peace with Me.” Isaiah 27:5. Their faith does not fail because
their prayers

619