The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 633

the righteous; and they visit the assemblies of the wicked, as they went to
Sodom, to make a record of their deeds, to determine whether they have
passed the boundary of God’s forbearance. The Lord delights in mercy;
and for the sake of a few who really serve Him, He restrains calamities
and prolongs the tranquillity of multitudes. Little do sinners against God
realize that they are indebted for their own lives to the faithful few whom
they delight to ridicule and oppress.
Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils
angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them;
human ears have listened to their appeals; human lips have opposed their
suggestions and ridiculed their counsels; human hands have met them
with insult and abuse. In the council hall and the court of justice these
heavenly messengers have shown an intimate acquaintance with human
history; they have proved themselves better able to plead the cause of the
oppressed than were their ablest and most eloquent defenders. They have
defeated purposes and arrested evils that would have greatly retarded the
work of God and would have caused great suffering to His people. In the
hour of peril and distress “the angel of the Lord encampeth round about
them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” Psalm 34:7.
With earnest longing, God’s people await the tokens of their coming
King. As the watchmen are accosted, “What of the night?” the answer
is given unfalteringly, “‘The morning cometh, and also the night.’ Isaiah
21:11, 12. Light is gleaming upon the clouds above the mountaintops.
Soon there will be a revealing of His glory. The Sun of Righteousness
is about to shine forth. The morning and the night are both at hand—the
opening of endless day to the righteous, the settling down of eternal night
to the wicked.”
As the wrestling ones urge their petitions before God, the veil
separating them from the unseen seems almost withdrawn. The heavens
glow with the dawning of eternal day, and like the melody of angel songs
the words fall upon the

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