The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 669
her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character transmitted to
her son, the passions encouraged and developed by her influence and
example, have borne fruit in crimes that caused the world to shudder.
There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be Christ’s
ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to
control the consciences of His people. There are the proud pontiffs who
exalted themselves above God and presumed to change the law of the
Most High. Those pretended fathers of the church have an account to
render to God from which they would fain be excused. Too late they are
made to see that the Omniscient One is jealous of His law and that He
will in no wise clear the guilty. They learn now that Christ identifies His
interest with that of His suffering people; and they feel the force of His
own words: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matthew 25:40.
The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God on the
charge of high treason against the government of heaven. They have
none to plead their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of
eternal death is pronounced against them.
It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble independence
and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death. The wicked see what
they have forfeited by their life of rebellion. The far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory was despised when offered them; but how
desirable it now appears. “All this,” cries the lost soul, “I might have
had; but I chose to put these things far from me. Oh, strange infatuation!
I have exchanged peace, happiness, and honor for wretchedness, infamy,
and despair.” All see that their exclusion from heaven is just. By their
lives they have declared: “We will not have this Man [Jesus] to reign
over us.”
As if entranced, the wicked have looked upon the coronation of the
Son of God. They see in His hands the tables of the divine law, the
statutes which they have despised and
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