The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 656

emotion of the soul, every line written, every word uttered, every act that
led men to rest in a refuge of falsehood, has been scattering seed; and
now, in the wretched, lost souls around him, he beholds the harvest.
Saith the Lord: “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of My
people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” “With
lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made
sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return
from his wicked way, by promising him life.” Jeremiah 8:11; Ezekiel
13:22.
“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My
pasture! ... Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings.” “Howl,
ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal
of the flock: for your days for slaughter and of your dispersions are
accomplished; ... and the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the
principal of the flock to escape.” Jeremiah 23:1, 2; 25:34, 35, margin.
Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right
relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of
all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the divine precepts gave
rise to thousands of springs of evil, discord, hatred, iniquity, until the
earth became one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the
view that now appears to those who rejected truth and chose to cherish
error. No language can express the longing which the disobedient and
disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever—eternal life. Men
whom the world has worshiped for their talents and eloquence now see
these things in their true light. They realize what they have forfeited by
transgression, and they fall at the feet of those whose fidelity they have
despised and derided, and confess that God has loved them.
The people see that they have been deluded. They accuse one another
of having led them to destruction; but all unite in heaping their bitterest
condemnation upon the ministers. Unfaithful pastors have prophesied
smooth things; they have led their hearers to make void the law of God
and to

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