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15 - The Bible and the French Revolution - The Great Controversy · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen. The Bible and the French Revolution in the
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Speaker 1: sixteenth century, the Reformation, presenting an open Bible to the people,
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Speaker 1: had sought admission to all the countries of Europe. Some
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Speaker 1: nations welcomed it with gladness as a messenger of Heaven.
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Speaker 1: In other lands, the papacy succeeded to a great extent
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Speaker 1: in preventing its entrance, and the light of Bible knowledge,
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Speaker 1: with its elevating influences, was almost wholly excluded in one country.
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Speaker 1: Though the light found entrance, it was not comprehended by
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Speaker 1: the darkness. For centuries, truth and error struggled for the mastery.
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Speaker 1: At last, the evil triumph, and the truth of Heaven
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Speaker 1: must thrust out. This is the condemnation that light has
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Speaker 1: come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.
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Speaker 1: The nation was left to reap the results of the
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Speaker 1: course which she had chosen. The restraint of God's spirit
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Speaker 1: was removed from a people that had despised the gift
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Speaker 1: of his grace. Evil was permitted to come to maturity,
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Speaker 1: and all the world saw the fruit of wilful rejection
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Speaker 1: of the light. The war against the Bible carried forward
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Speaker 1: for so many centuries in France culminated in the scenes
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Speaker 1: of the revolution. That terrible outbreaking was but the legitimate
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Speaker 1: result of Rome's suppression of the scriptures. It presented the
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Speaker 1: most striking illustration which the world has ever witnessed of
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Speaker 1: the working out of the papal policy, an illustration of
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Speaker 1: the results to which for more than a thousand years
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Speaker 1: the teaching of the Roman Church had been tending. The
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Speaker 1: suppression of the scriptures during the period of papal supremacy
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Speaker 1: was foretold by the prophets, and the Revelator points also
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Speaker 1: to the terrible results that were to accrue, especially to France,
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Speaker 1: from the domination of the man of Sin, said the
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Speaker 1: Angel of the Lord the Holy City. Shall they tread
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Speaker 1: under foot forty and two months, and I will give
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Speaker 1: power unto my two witnesses, And they shall prophesy a thousand,
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Speaker 1: two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth. And
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Speaker 1: when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that
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Speaker 1: ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them,
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Speaker 1: and shall overcome them and kill them. And their dead
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Speaker 1: bodies shall lie in the street of the great city,
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Speaker 1: which spiritually is called Sodom, and Egypt, where also our
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Speaker 1: Lord was crucified. And they that dwell upon the earth
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Speaker 1: shall rejoice over them and make marry, and shall send
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Speaker 1: gifts one to another. Because these two prophets tormented them
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Speaker 1: that dwelt on the earth, And after three days and
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Speaker 1: a half the spirit of life from God entered into them,
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Speaker 1: and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell
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Speaker 1: upon them which saw them. The periods here mentioned forty
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Speaker 1: and two months and a thousand, two hundred and three
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Speaker 1: score days are the same alike, representing the time in
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Speaker 1: which the Church of Christ was to suffer oppression from Rome.
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Speaker 1: The twelve hundred sixty years of papal supremacy began in
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Speaker 1: eighty five thirty eight, and would therefore terminate in seventeen
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Speaker 1: ninety eight. At that time, a French army entered Rome
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Speaker 1: and made the pope a prisoner, and he died in exile.
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Speaker 1: Though a new pope was soon afterward elected, the papal
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Speaker 1: hierarchy has never since been able to wield the power
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Speaker 1: which it before possessed. The persecution of the Church did
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Speaker 1: not continue throughout the entire period of the twelve hundred
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Speaker 1: sixty years. God in mercy to his people cut short
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Speaker 1: the time of their fiery trial. In foretelling the great
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Speaker 1: tribulation to befall the church, the Savior said, except those
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Speaker 1: days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.
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Speaker 1: But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.
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Speaker 1: Through the influence of the Reformation, the persecution was brought
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Speaker 1: to an end prior to seventeen ninety eight. Concerning the
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Speaker 1: two witnesses, the prophet declares further, these are the two
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Speaker 1: olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God
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Speaker 1: of the Earth. Thy word said the Psalmons is a
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Speaker 1: lamp unto my feet, and alight unto my path. The
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Speaker 1: two witnesses represent the scriptures of the Old and the
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Speaker 1: New Testament. Both are important testimonies to the origin and
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Speaker 1: perpetuity of the law of God. Both are witnesses also
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Speaker 1: to the plan of salvation. The types, sacrifices, and prophecies
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Speaker 1: of the Old Testament point forward to a savior to come.
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Speaker 1: The gospels and epistles of the New Testament tell of
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Speaker 1: a Savior who has come in the exact manner foretold
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Speaker 1: by type and prophecy. They shall prophesy A thousand, two
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Speaker 1: hundred three score days, clothed in sackcloth. During the greater
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Speaker 1: part of this period, God's witnesses remained in a state
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Speaker 1: of obscurity. The papal power sought to hide from the
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Speaker 1: people the Word of truth, and set before them false
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Speaker 1: witnesses to contradict its testimony. When the Bible was proscribed
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Speaker 1: by religious and secular authority, when its testimony was perverted,
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Speaker 1: and every effort made that men and demons could invent
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Speaker 1: turn the minds of the people from it, when those
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Speaker 1: who dared proclaim its sacred truths were hunted, betrayed, tortured,
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Speaker 1: buried in dungeon cells, martyred for their faith, or compelled
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Speaker 1: to flee to mountain fastnesses and to dens and caves
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Speaker 1: of the earth. Then the faithful witnesses prophesied in sackcloth.
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Speaker 1: Yet they continued their testimony throughout the entire period of
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Speaker 1: twelve hundred sixty years. In the darkest times, there were
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Speaker 1: faithful men who loved God's word and were jealous for
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Speaker 1: his honor. To these loyal servants were given wisdom, power,
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Speaker 1: and authority to declare his truth during the whole of
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Speaker 1: this time, And if any man will hurt them, fire
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Speaker 1: proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies. And
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Speaker 1: if any man will hurt them, he must in this
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Speaker 1: manner be killed. Men cannot, with impunity trample upon the
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Speaker 1: word of God. The meaning of this fearful denunciation is
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Speaker 1: set forth in the closing chapter of the Revelation. I
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Speaker 1: testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
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Speaker 1: prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto
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Speaker 1: these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that
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Speaker 1: are written in this book. And if any man shall
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Speaker 1: take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,
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Speaker 1: God shall take away his part out of the Book
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Speaker 1: of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from
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Speaker 1: the things which are written in this book. Such are
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Speaker 1: the warnings which God has given to guard men against
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Speaker 1: changing in any manner that which He has revealed or commanded.
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Speaker 1: These solemn denunciations apply to all who, by their influence
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Speaker 1: lead men to regard lightly the law of God. They
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Speaker 1: should cause those to fear and tremble who flippantly declare
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Speaker 1: it a matter of little consequence whether we obey God's
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Speaker 1: law or not. All who exalt their own opinions above
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Speaker 1: divine revelation. All who would change the plain meaning of
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Speaker 1: Scripture to suit their own convenience or for the sake
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Speaker 1: of conforming to the world, are taking upon themselves a
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Speaker 1: fearful responsibility. The written word the law of God will
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Speaker 1: measure the character of every man and condemn all whom
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Speaker 1: this unerring test shall declare wanting. When they shall have finished,
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Speaker 1: are finishing their testimony. The period when the two witnesses
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Speaker 1: or to prophesy clothed in sackcloth ended in seventeen ninety eight.
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Speaker 1: As they were approaching the termination of their work in obscurity,
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Speaker 1: war was to be made upon them by the power
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Speaker 1: represented as the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.
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Speaker 1: In many of the nations of Europe, the powers it
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Speaker 1: ruled in church and state had for centuries been controlled
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Speaker 1: by Satan through the medium of the papacy. But here
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Speaker 1: is brought to view a new manifestation of Satanic power.
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Speaker 1: It had been Rome's policy, under a profession of reverence
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Speaker 1: for the Bible, to keep it locked up in an
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Speaker 1: unknown tongue and hidden away from the people under her rule.
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Speaker 1: The witness's prophesied clothed in sackcloth, but another power the
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Speaker 1: beast from the bottomless pit was to arise to make
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Speaker 1: open avowed war upon the word of God. The great city,
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Speaker 1: in whose streets the witnesses are slain, and where their
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Speaker 1: dead bodies lie, is spiritually Egypt. Of all nations presented
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Speaker 1: in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of
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Speaker 1: the Living God and resisted his commands. No monarch ever
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Speaker 1: ventured upon more open and high handed rebellion against the
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Speaker 1: authority of Heaven than did the King of Egypt. When
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Speaker 1: the messages brought him by Moses in the name of
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Speaker 1: the Lord. Pharaoh proudly answered, who is Jehovah that I
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Speaker 1: should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know
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Speaker 1: not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go. This is atheism,
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Speaker 1: and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to
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Speaker 1: a similar denial of the claims of the Living God,
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Speaker 1: and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance.
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Speaker 1: The Great City is also compared spiritually to Sodom. The
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Speaker 1: corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was
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Speaker 1: especially manifested in licentiousness, and this sin was also to
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Speaker 1: be a pre eminent characteristic of the nation that should
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Speaker 1: fulfill the specifications of this scripture. According to the words
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Speaker 1: of the prophet, then a little before the year seventeen
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Speaker 1: ninety eight, some power of Satanic origin and character would
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Speaker 1: rise to make war upon the Bible. And in the
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Speaker 1: land where the testimony of God's two witnesses should thus
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Speaker 1: be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom. This prophecy has received
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Speaker 1: a most exact and striking fulfillment in the history of France.
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Speaker 1: During the Revolution in seventeen ninety three, the world for
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Speaker 1: the first time heard an assembly of men, born and
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Speaker 1: educated in civilization and assuming the right to govern one
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Speaker 1: of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united
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Speaker 1: voice to deny the most solemn truth which man's soul receives,
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Speaker 1: and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a deity.
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Speaker 1: France is the only nation in the world concerning which
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Speaker 1: the authentic records, so that as a nation she lifted
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Speaker 1: her hand in open rebellion against the author of the universe.
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Speaker 1: Plenty of blasphemers, plenty of infidels there have been and
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Speaker 1: still continued to be in England, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere.
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Speaker 1: But France stands apart in the world's history as a
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Speaker 1: single state which, by the decree of her legislative Assembly
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Speaker 1: pronounced that there was no God, and of which the
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Speaker 1: entire population of the capital and a vast majority elsewhere
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Speaker 1: women as well as men, danced and sang with joy
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Speaker 1: in accepting the announcement. France presented also the characteristic which
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Speaker 1: especially distinguished Sodom during the revolution. There was manifest a
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Speaker 1: state of moral debasement and corruption similar to that which
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Speaker 1: brought destruction upon the cities of the Plain, and the
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Speaker 1: historian presents together the atheism and the licentiousness of France
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Speaker 1: as given in the Prophecy. Intimately connected with these laws
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Speaker 1: affecting religion was that which reduced the union of marriage,
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Speaker 1: the most safe engagement which human beings can form, and
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Speaker 1: the permanence of which leads most strongly to the consolidation
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Speaker 1: of society, to the state of a mere civil contract,
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Speaker 1: of a transitory character, which any two persons might engage
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Speaker 1: in and cast loose at pleasure. If Fienes had set
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Speaker 1: themselves to work to discover a mode of most effectually
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Speaker 1: destroying whatever is venerable, graceful, or permanent in domestic life,
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Speaker 1: and of obtaining, at the same time an assurance that
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Speaker 1: the mischief which it was their object to create should
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Speaker 1: be perpetuated from one generation to another. They could not
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Speaker 1: have invented a more effectual plan than the degradation of marriage.
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Speaker 1: Sophie Aarknew, an actress famous for the witty things she said,
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Speaker 1: described the Republican marriage as the sacrament of adultery, where
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Speaker 1: also our Lord was crucified. This specification of the prophecy
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Speaker 1: was also fulfilled by France. In no land had the
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Speaker 1: spirit of enmity against Christ been more strikingly displayed. In
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Speaker 1: no contry had the Truth encountered more bitter and cruel opposition.
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Speaker 1: In the persecution which France had visited upon the confessors
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Speaker 1: of the Gospel, she had crucified Christ in the person
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Speaker 1: of his disciples. Century after century, the blood of the
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Speaker 1: saints had been shed, while the Waldenseis laid down their
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Speaker 1: lives upon the mountains of Piedmont for the word of
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Speaker 1: God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Similar witness
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Speaker 1: to the truth had been borne by their brethren, The
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Speaker 1: Albigenzes of France in the days of the Reformation, its
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Speaker 1: disciples had been put to death with horrible tortures. Kings
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Speaker 1: and nobles, high born women and delicate maidens. The pride
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Speaker 1: and chivalry of the nation had feasted their eyes upon
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Speaker 1: the agonies of the martyrs of Jesus. The brave Huguenots,
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Speaker 1: battling for those rites which the human heart holds most sacred,
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Speaker 1: had poured out their blood on many a hard fought field.
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Speaker 1: The Protestants were counted as outlaws, a price was set
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Speaker 1: upon their heads, and they were hunted down like wild beasts.
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Speaker 1: The Church of the desert. The few descendants of the
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Speaker 1: ancient Christians that still lingered in France in the eighteenth century,
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Speaker 1: hiding away in the mountains of the South, still cherished
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Speaker 1: the faith of their fathers. As they ventured to meet
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Speaker 1: by night on mountain side or lonely moor, they were
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Speaker 1: chased by draboons and dragged away to life long slavery
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Speaker 1: in the galleys. The purest, the most refined, and the
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Speaker 1: most intelligent of the French were chained in horrible torture
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Speaker 1: amidst robbers and assassins. Others, more mercifully dealt with, were
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Speaker 1: shot down in cold blood, as unarmed and helpless, they
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Speaker 1: fell upon their knees in prayer. Hundreds of aged men,
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Speaker 1: defenseless women, and innocent children were left dead upon the
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Speaker 1: earth at their place of meeting. Intraversing the mountain side
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Speaker 1: of the forest where they had been accustomed to assemble,
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Speaker 1: it was not unusual to find at every four paces
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Speaker 1: dead bodies dotting the sword, and corpses hanging suspended from
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Speaker 1: the trees. Their country laid waste with the sword, the axe,
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Speaker 1: the faggot was converted into one vast, gloomy wilderness. These
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Speaker 1: atrocities were enacted in no dark age, but in the
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Speaker 1: brilliant era of Louis the fourteenth. Science was then cultivated,
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Speaker 1: letters flourished, the divines of the court and of the
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Speaker 1: capital were learned and eloquent men, and greatly affected the
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Speaker 1: graces of meekness and charity. But blackest in the black
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Speaker 1: catalog of crime, most horrible among the fiendish deeds of
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Speaker 1: all the dreadful centuries was the Saint Bartholomew massacre. The
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Speaker 1: world still recalls with shuddering horror the scenes of that
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Speaker 1: most cowardly and cruel onslaught the King of France, urged
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Speaker 1: on by Romish priests and prelates, lent his sanction to
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Speaker 1: the dreadful work. A bell tolling it the dead of
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Speaker 1: night was a signal for the slaughter. Protestants by thousands,
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Speaker 1: sleeping quietly in their homes, trusting to the plighted honor
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Speaker 1: of their king, were dragged forth without a warning and
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Speaker 1: murdered in cold blood. As Christ was the invisible leader
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Speaker 1: of his par people from Egyptian bondage, so was Satan
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Speaker 1: the unseen leader of his subjects in this horrible work
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Speaker 1: of multiplying martyrs. For seven days, the massacre was continued
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Speaker 1: in Paris, the first three with inconceivable fury, and it
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Speaker 1: was not confined to the city itself, but by special
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Speaker 1: order of the king, was extended to all the provinces
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Speaker 1: and towns where Protestants were found. Neither age nor sex
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Speaker 1: was respected, Neither the innocent babe nor the man of
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Speaker 1: gray hairs was spared. Noble and peasant, old and young,
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Speaker 1: mother and child were cut down together throughout France. The
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Speaker 1: butchery continued for two months. Seventy thousand of the very
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Speaker 1: flower of the nation perished. When the news of the
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Speaker 1: massacre reached Rome. The exultation among the clergy knew no bounds.
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Speaker 1: The Cardinal of Lorraine rewarded the messenger with a thousand crowns.
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Speaker 1: The cannon of sin Angelo thundered forth a joyous salute.
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Speaker 1: The bells rang out from every steeple. Bonfire's turn night
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Speaker 1: and day, and Gregory the thirteenth, attended by the cardinals
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Speaker 1: and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, went in long procession to the
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Speaker 1: church of Saint Luis, where the Cardinal of Lorraine chanted
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Speaker 1: at Tedeum. A medal was struck to commemorate the massacre,
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Speaker 1: and in the Vatican may still be seen three frescoes
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Speaker 1: of Vasari describing the attack upon the Admiral, the King,
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Speaker 1: and council, plotting the massacre, and the massacre itself. Gregory
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Speaker 1: sent Charles the Golden Rose, and four months after the massacre,
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Speaker 1: he listened complacently to the sermon of a French priest
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Speaker 1: who spoke of that day so full of happiness and joy,
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Speaker 1: when the Most Holy Father received the news and went
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Speaker 1: in solemn state to render thanks to God and Saint Luis.
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Speaker 1: The same master spirit that urged on the Saint Bartholomew
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Speaker 1: massacre led. Also in the scenes of the revolution, Jesus
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Speaker 1: Christ was declared to be an impostor, and the rallying
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Speaker 1: cry of the French infidels was crushed. The wretch meaning
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Speaker 1: Christ heaven darre ring, blasphemy and abominable wickedness went hand
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Speaker 1: in hand, and the basest of men, the most abandoned
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Speaker 1: monsters of cruelty and vice, were most highly exalted. In
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Speaker 1: all this, supreme homages paid to Satan Hoyle, Christ, in
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Speaker 1: his characteristics of truth, purity, and unselfish love, was crucified.
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Speaker 1: The beast that ascended thought of the bottomless pit shall
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Speaker 1: make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them.
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Speaker 1: The atheistical power that ruled in France during the Revolution
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Speaker 1: and the reign of Terror did wage such a war
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Speaker 1: against God and his Holy Word as the world had
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Speaker 1: never witnessed. The worship of the deity was abolished by
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Speaker 1: the National Assembly. Bibles were collected and publicly burned with
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Speaker 1: every possible manifestation of scorn. The law of God was
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Speaker 1: trampled under foot, The institutions of the Bible were abolished.
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Speaker 1: The weekly rest day was set aside, and instead every
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Speaker 1: tenth day was devoted to reveling in blasphemy, Baptism and
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Speaker 1: the communion were prohibited, and announcements posted conspicuously over the
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Speaker 1: burial places declared death to be an eternal sleep. The
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Speaker 1: fear of God was said to be so far from
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Speaker 1: the beginning of wisdom that it was the beginning of folly.
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Speaker 1: All religious worship was prohibited, except that of liberty in
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Speaker 1: the country. The constitutional Bishop of Paris was brought forward
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Speaker 1: to play the principal part in the most impudent and
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Speaker 1: scandalous farce ever acted in the face of a national representation.
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Speaker 1: He was brought forward in full procession to declare to
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Speaker 1: the Convention that the religion which he had taught so
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Speaker 1: many years was in every respect a piece of priestcraft
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Speaker 1: which had no foundation either in history or sacred truth.
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Speaker 1: He disowned, in solemn and explicit terms, the existence of
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Speaker 1: the deity to whose worship he had been consecrated, and
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Speaker 1: devoted himself in future to the homage of liberty, equality,
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Speaker 1: virtue and morality. He then laid on the table his
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Speaker 1: episcopal decorations and received a fraternal embrace from the President
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Speaker 1: of thead Convention. Several apostate priests followed the example of
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Speaker 1: this prelate, and they that dwell upon the earth shall
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Speaker 1: rejoice over them and make mary, and shall send gifts
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Speaker 1: one to another. Because these two prophets tormented them that
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Speaker 1: dwelt on the earth, Infidel France had silenced the reproving
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Speaker 1: voice of God's two witnesses. The word of truth lay
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Speaker 1: dead in her streets, and those who hated the restrictions
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Speaker 1: and requirements of God's law were jubilant. Men publicly defied
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Speaker 1: the King of Heaven like the sinners of old. They cried,
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Speaker 1: how doth God know? And is their knowledge in the
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Speaker 1: most High? With blasphemous boldness, almost beyond belief. One of
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Speaker 1: the priests of the New Order said, God, if you exist,
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Speaker 1: avenger injured name, I bid you defiance. You remain silent,
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Speaker 1: You dare not launch your thunders? Who after this will
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Speaker 1: believe in your existence? What an echo is this of
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Speaker 1: the Pharaoh's demand? Who is Jehovah that I should obey
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Speaker 1: his voice? I know not? Jehoaova the fool hath said
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Speaker 1: in his heart there is no God. And the Lord
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Speaker 1: declares concerning the perverters of the truth, their folly shall
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Speaker 1: be manifest unto all after France had renounced the worship
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Speaker 1: of the living God, the high and lofty one that
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Speaker 1: inhabited eternity. It was only a little time till she
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Speaker 1: descended to degrading idolatry by the worship of the Goddess
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Speaker 1: of Reason in the person of a profligate woman, And
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Speaker 1: this in the representative assembly of the nation and by
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Speaker 1: its highest civil and legislative authorities, says the historian, one
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Speaker 1: of the ceremonies of this insane time stands unrivaled for
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Speaker 1: absurdity combined with impiety. The doors of the Convention were
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Speaker 1: thrown open to a band of musicians, preceded by whom
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Speaker 1: the members of the municipal body entered in solemn procession,
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Speaker 1: singing a hymn in praise of liberty, and escorting as
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Speaker 1: the object of their future worship of ailed female, whom
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Speaker 1: they termed the Goddess of Reason. Being brought within the bark,
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Speaker 1: she was unveiled with great form and placed on the
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Speaker 1: right of the President, when she was generally recognized as
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Speaker 1: a dancing girl of the opera, to this person as
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Speaker 1: the fittest representative of that reason whom they worshiped. The
21:13
Speaker 1: National Convention of France rendered public homage. This impious and
21:17
Speaker 1: ridiculous mummery had a certain fashion, and the installation of
21:21
Speaker 1: the Goddess of Reason was renewed and imitated throughout the nation,
21:24
Speaker 1: in such places where the inhabitants desired to show themselves
21:28
Speaker 1: equal to all the heights of the revolution, said the
21:31
Speaker 1: orator who introduced the worship of Reason, legislators, fanaticism has
21:36
Speaker 1: given way to reason. Its bleared eyes could not endure
21:40
Speaker 1: the brilliancy of the light. This day, an immense concourse
21:43
Speaker 1: has assembled beneath these Gothic vaults, which for the first
21:47
Speaker 1: time re echoed the truth. There the French have celebrated
21:50
Speaker 1: the only true worship, that of liberty, that of reason.
21:54
Speaker 1: There we have formed wishes for the prosperity of the
21:57
Speaker 1: arms of the Republic. There we have abandoned inanimate idols
22:01
Speaker 1: for reason, for that animated image, the masterpiece of nature.
22:05
Speaker 1: When the goddess was brought into the convention, the orator
22:08
Speaker 1: took her by the hand, and, turning to the assembly, said,
22:11
Speaker 1: mortals ceased to tremble before the powerless thunders of a
22:15
Speaker 1: god whom your fears have created. Henceforth, acknowledge no divinity
22:19
Speaker 1: but Reason I offer you its noblest and purest image.
22:23
Speaker 1: If you must have idols, sacrifice only to such as
22:26
Speaker 1: this fall before the August's Senative Freedom, Oh veil of Reason.
22:32
Speaker 1: The Goddess, after being embraced by the President, was mounted
22:35
Speaker 1: on a magnificent car and conducted amid an immense crowd
22:38
Speaker 1: to the cathedral of Notre Dame to take the place
22:41
Speaker 1: of the deity. There she was elevated on the high
22:44
Speaker 1: altar and received the adoration of all present. This was
22:49
Speaker 1: followed not long afterward by the public burning of the Bible.
22:53
Speaker 1: On one occasion, the popular Society of the Museum entered
22:57
Speaker 1: the hall of the municipality, exclaiming vive la raison, and
23:01
Speaker 1: carrying on top of a poll the half burned remains
23:04
Speaker 1: of several books, among others breviaries, missiles, and the Old
23:07
Speaker 1: and New Testaments, which expiated in a great fire, said
23:11
Speaker 1: the President, all the fooleries which they have made the
23:13
Speaker 1: human race commit. It was popery that had begun the
23:17
Speaker 1: work which atheism was completing. The policy of Rome had
23:21
Speaker 1: brought out those conditions social, political, and religious, that were
23:25
Speaker 1: hurrying France on to ruin. Writers, in referring to the
23:29
Speaker 1: horrors of the revolution. Say that these excesses are to
23:33
Speaker 1: be charged upon the Throne and the Church in strict justice.
23:37
Speaker 1: They are to be charged upon the Church. Popery had
23:40
Speaker 1: poisoned the minds of kings against the Reformation as an
23:43
Speaker 1: enemy to the Crown, an element of discord that would
23:46
Speaker 1: be fatal to the peace and harmony of the nation.
23:49
Speaker 1: It was the genius of Rome that, by this means
23:52
Speaker 1: inspired the direst cruelty and the most galling oppression which
23:55
Speaker 1: proceeded from the throne. The spirit of liberty went with
23:59
Speaker 1: the Bible. Wherever the Gospel was received. The minds of
24:03
Speaker 1: the people were awakened. They began to cast off the
24:06
Speaker 1: shackles that had held them bond slaves of ignorance, vice,
24:09
Speaker 1: and superstition. They began to think and act as men.
24:13
Speaker 1: Monarchs saw it, and trembled for their despotism. Rome was
24:18
Speaker 1: not slow to inflame their jealous fears, said the Pope
24:21
Speaker 1: to the Regent of France in fifteen twenty five. This
24:25
Speaker 1: mania Protestantism will not only confound and destroy religion, but
24:30
Speaker 1: all principalities, nobility, laws, orders, and ranks. Besides, a few
24:35
Speaker 1: years later, a papal Nuncia warned the King Sire be
24:39
Speaker 1: not deceived. The Protestants will upset all civil as well
24:42
Speaker 1: as religious order. The throne is in as much danger
24:46
Speaker 1: as the altar. The introduction of a new religion must
24:49
Speaker 1: necessarily introduce a new government. And theologians appealed to the
24:54
Speaker 1: prejudices of the people by declaring that the Protestant doctrine
24:57
Speaker 1: entice his men away to novelties and folly. It robs
25:00
Speaker 1: the king of the devoted affection of his subjects, and
25:04
Speaker 1: devastates both church and state. Thus Rome succeeded in arraying
25:08
Speaker 1: France against the Reformation. It was to uphold the throne,
25:12
Speaker 1: preserve the nobles, and maintain the laws that the sort
25:15
Speaker 1: of persecution was first unsheathed in France. Little did the
25:20
Speaker 1: rulers of the land foresee the results of that fateful policy.
25:24
Speaker 1: The teaching of the Bible would have implanted in the
25:26
Speaker 1: minds and hearts of the people those principles of justice, temperance, truth, equity,
25:32
Speaker 1: and benevolence, which are the very corner stone of a
25:34
Speaker 1: nation's prosperity. Righteousness exalteth a nation. Thereby the throne is established.
25:42
Speaker 1: The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect
25:45
Speaker 1: quietness and assurance forever. He who obeys the divine law
25:50
Speaker 1: will most truly respect and obey the laws of his country.
25:54
Speaker 1: He who fears God will honor the King in the
25:56
Speaker 1: exercise of all just and legitimate authority. But unhappy France
26:01
Speaker 1: prohibited the Bible and banned its disciples century after century,
26:06
Speaker 1: men of principle and integrity, men of intellectual acuteness and
26:10
Speaker 1: moral strength, who had the courage to avow their convictions
26:14
Speaker 1: and the faith to suffer for the truth. For centuries,
26:17
Speaker 1: these men toiled as slaves in the galleys, perished the stake,
26:21
Speaker 1: or rotted in dungeon cells. Thousands upon thousands found safety
26:25
Speaker 1: in flight, and this continued for two hundred and fifty
26:28
Speaker 1: years after the opening of the Reformation. Scarcely was there
26:33
Speaker 1: a generation of Frenchmen during that long period that did
26:36
Speaker 1: not witness the disciples of the Gospel fleeing before the
26:39
Speaker 1: insane fury of the persecutor, and carrying with them the intelligence,
26:43
Speaker 1: the arts, the industry, the order in which as a
26:46
Speaker 1: rule they pre eminently excelled to enrich the lands on
26:49
Speaker 1: which they found an asylum, and in proportion as they
26:53
Speaker 1: replenished other countries with these good gifts, did they empty
26:56
Speaker 1: their own of them? If all that was now driven
26:58
Speaker 1: away had been retained France, If during these three hundred
27:02
Speaker 1: years the industrial skill of the exiles had been cultivating
27:05
Speaker 1: her soil. If during these three hundred years their artistic
27:09
Speaker 1: bent had been improving her manufactures. If during these three
27:13
Speaker 1: hundred years their creative genius and analytic power had been
27:16
Speaker 1: enriching her literature and cultivating her science. If their wisdom
27:20
Speaker 1: had been guiding her counsels their bravery, fighting her battles,
27:24
Speaker 1: their equity, framing her laws and the religion of the Bible,
27:27
Speaker 1: strengthening the intellect, and governing the conscience of her people.
27:31
Speaker 1: What a glory would it this day have encompassed France,
27:34
Speaker 1: What a great, prosperous and happy country, a pattern to
27:37
Speaker 1: the nations. Would she have been but a blind and
27:40
Speaker 1: inexorable bigotry chased from her soil. Every teacher of virtue,
27:44
Speaker 1: every champion of order, every honest defender of the throne.
27:49
Speaker 1: It said to the men who would have made their
27:50
Speaker 1: country a renown and glory in the earth, choose which
27:54
Speaker 1: you will have a stake, or exile. At last, the
27:57
Speaker 1: ruin of the state was complete, gained, no more conscience
28:01
Speaker 1: to be proscribed, no more religion to be dragged to
28:04
Speaker 1: the stake, no more patriotism to be chased into banishment,
28:08
Speaker 1: and the Revolution, with all its horrors, was the dire result.
28:13
Speaker 1: With the flight of the Huguenots, a general decline settled
28:16
Speaker 1: upon France. Flourishing manufacturing cities fell into decay, Fertile districts
28:22
Speaker 1: returned to their native wildness. Intellectual dullness and moral declension
28:26
Speaker 1: succeeded a period of unwonted progress. Paris became one vast almshouse,
28:32
Speaker 1: and it is estimated that at the breaking out of
28:35
Speaker 1: the revolution two hundred thousand paupers claimed charity from the
28:38
Speaker 1: hands of the king. The Jesuits alone flourished in the
28:42
Speaker 1: decaying nation and ruled with dreadful tyranny over churches and schools,
28:46
Speaker 1: the prisons and the galleys. The Gospel would have brought
28:50
Speaker 1: to France the solution of those political and social problems
28:53
Speaker 1: that baffled the skill of her clergy, her king, and
28:56
Speaker 1: her legislators, and finally plunged the nation into anarchy and
28:59
Speaker 1: world ruin. But under the domination of Rome, the people
29:03
Speaker 1: had lost the Saviour's blessed lessons of self sacrifice and
29:07
Speaker 1: unselfish love. They had been led away from the practice
29:10
Speaker 1: of self denial for the good of others. The rich
29:14
Speaker 1: had found no rebuke for their oppression of the poor.
29:16
Speaker 1: The poor no help for their servitude and degradation. The
29:20
Speaker 1: selfishness of the wealthy and powerful grew more and more
29:23
Speaker 1: apparent and oppressive for centuries. The greed and profligacy of
29:27
Speaker 1: the noble resulted in grinding extortion towards the peasant. The
29:31
Speaker 1: rich wronged the poor, and the poor hated the rich.
29:35
Speaker 1: In many provinces, the estates were held by the nobles,
29:39
Speaker 1: and the laboring classes were only tenants. They were at
29:42
Speaker 1: the mercy of their landlords and were forced to submit
29:44
Speaker 1: to their exorbitant demands. The burden of supporting both the
29:49
Speaker 1: church and the state fell upon the middle and lower classes,
29:52
Speaker 1: who were heavily taxed by the civil authorities and by
29:54
Speaker 1: the clergy. The pleasure of the nobles was considered the
29:58
Speaker 1: supreme law. The farmers and the peasants might starve for
30:02
Speaker 1: aught their oppressors cared. The people were compelled at every
30:05
Speaker 1: turn to consult the exclusive interest of the landlord. The
30:09
Speaker 1: lives of the agricultural laborers were lives of incessant work
30:13
Speaker 1: and unrelieved misery. Their complaints, if they ever dared to complain,
30:16
Speaker 1: were treated with insolent contempt. The courts of justice would
30:21
Speaker 1: always listen to a noble as against a peasant. Bribes
30:24
Speaker 1: were notoriously accepted by the judges, and the merest caprice
30:28
Speaker 1: of the aristocracy had the force of law by virtue
30:31
Speaker 1: of this system of universal corruption. Of the taxes wrung
30:35
Speaker 1: from the commonalty by the secular magnates on the one
30:38
Speaker 1: hand and the clergy on the other, not half ever
30:42
Speaker 1: found its way into the royal or episcopal treasury. The
30:45
Speaker 1: rest was squandered in profligate self indulgence, and the men
30:49
Speaker 1: who thus impoverished their fellow subjects were themselves exempt from taxation,
30:54
Speaker 1: and entitled by law or custom to all the appointments
30:57
Speaker 1: of the state. The privileged classes numbered one hundred and
31:01
Speaker 1: fifty thousand, and for their gratification millions were condemned to
31:05
Speaker 1: hopeless and degrading lives. The court was given up to
31:09
Speaker 1: luxury and profligacy. There was little confidence existing between the
31:14
Speaker 1: people and the rulers suspicion fastened upon all the measures
31:18
Speaker 1: of the government as designing and selfish. For more than
31:21
Speaker 1: half a century before the time of the Revolution, the
31:24
Speaker 1: throne was occupied by Louis the fifteenth, who, even in
31:28
Speaker 1: those evil times, was distinguished as an indolent, frivolous, and
31:31
Speaker 1: sensual monarch, with a depraved and cruel aristocracy and an
31:36
Speaker 1: impoverished and ignorant lower class. The state financially embarrassed and
31:40
Speaker 1: the people exasperated. It needed no profit's eye to foresee
31:44
Speaker 1: a terrible, impending outbreak. To the warnings of his counselors,
31:49
Speaker 1: the king was accustomed to reply, try to make things
31:52
Speaker 1: go on as long as I am likely to live.
31:54
Speaker 1: After my death, it may be as it will. It
31:57
Speaker 1: was in Vain that the necessity of reform was or.
32:00
Speaker 1: He saw the evils, but had neither the courage nor
32:03
Speaker 1: the power to meet them. The doom awaiting France was
32:06
Speaker 1: but too truly pictured in his indolent and selfish answer
32:10
Speaker 1: after me the deluge. By working upon the jealousy of
32:14
Speaker 1: the kings and the ruling classes, Rome had influenced them
32:18
Speaker 1: to keep the people in bondage, well knowing that the
32:21
Speaker 1: state would thus be weakened, and purposing by this means
32:24
Speaker 1: to fasten both rulers and people in her thrall. With
32:27
Speaker 1: far sighted policy, she perceived that in order to enslave
32:31
Speaker 1: men effectually, the shackles must be bound upon their souls,
32:35
Speaker 1: that the surest way to prevent them from escaping their
32:38
Speaker 1: bondage was to render them incapable of freedom. A thousandfold
32:42
Speaker 1: more terrible than the physical suffering which resulted from her
32:45
Speaker 1: policy was the moral degradation. Deprived of the Bible and
32:50
Speaker 1: abandoned to the teachings of bigotry and selfishness, the people
32:53
Speaker 1: were shrouded in ignorance and superstition, and sunk an in vice,
32:57
Speaker 1: so that they were wholly unfitted for self govern But
33:01
Speaker 1: the outworking of all this was widely different from what
33:04
Speaker 1: Rome had purposed. Instead of holding the masses in a
33:07
Speaker 1: blind submission to her dogmas, her work resulted in making
33:11
Speaker 1: them infidels and revolutionists. Romanism they despised as priestcraft. They
33:16
Speaker 1: beheld the clergy as a party to their oppression. The
33:20
Speaker 1: only God they knew was the God of Rome. Her
33:22
Speaker 1: teaching was their only religion. They regarded her greed and
33:26
Speaker 1: cruelty as the legitimate rut of the Bible, and they
33:28
Speaker 1: would have none of it. Rome had misrepresented the character
33:32
Speaker 1: of God and perverted his requirements, and now men rejected
33:35
Speaker 1: both the Bible and its author. She had required a
33:39
Speaker 1: blind faith in her dogmas under the pretended sanction of
33:42
Speaker 1: the scriptures. In the reaction, Voltaire and his associates cast
33:47
Speaker 1: aside God's word altogether and spread everywhere the poison of infidelity.
33:52
Speaker 1: Rome had ground down the people under her iron heel,
33:55
Speaker 1: and now the masses, degraded and brutalized. In their recoil
33:59
Speaker 1: from her Tearsny cast off all restraint. Enraged at the
34:03
Speaker 1: glittering cheat to which they had so long paid homage,
34:06
Speaker 1: they rejected truth and falsehood together, and, mistaking license for liberty,
34:11
Speaker 1: the slaves of vice exalted in their imagined freedom. At
34:15
Speaker 1: the opening of the revolution, by a concession of the King,
34:18
Speaker 1: the people were granted a representation exceeding that of the
34:21
Speaker 1: nobles and the clergy combined. Thus the balance of power
34:25
Speaker 1: was in their hands, but they were not prepared to
34:28
Speaker 1: use it with wisdom and moderation. Eager to redress the
34:31
Speaker 1: wrongs they had suffered, they determined to undertake the reconstruction
34:35
Speaker 1: of society. An outraged populace, whose minds were filled with
34:39
Speaker 1: bitter and long treasured memories of wrong, resolved to revolutionize
34:44
Speaker 1: the state of misery that had grown unbearable, and to
34:47
Speaker 1: revenge themselves upon those whom they regarded as the authors
34:50
Speaker 1: of their sufferings. The oppressed wrought out the lesson they
34:53
Speaker 1: had learned under tyranny and became the oppressors of those
34:56
Speaker 1: who had oppressed them. Unhappy friends reaped in blood. The
35:01
Speaker 1: harvest she had sown terrible were the results of her
35:04
Speaker 1: submission to the controlling power of Rome, where France, under
35:08
Speaker 1: the influence of Romanism, had set up the first stake
35:11
Speaker 1: at the opening of the Reformation. There the Revolution set
35:15
Speaker 1: up its first guillotine on the very spot where the
35:18
Speaker 1: first martyrs to the Protestant faith were burned in the
35:21
Speaker 1: sixteenth century. The first victims were guillotined in the eighteenth.
35:25
Speaker 1: In repelling the gospel which would have brought her healing,
35:28
Speaker 1: France had opened the door to infidelity and ruin. When
35:32
Speaker 1: the restraints of God's law were cast aside, it was
35:35
Speaker 1: found that the laws of man were inadequate to hold
35:37
Speaker 1: in check the powerful tides of human passion, and the
35:41
Speaker 1: nations swept on to revolt an anarchy. The war against
35:45
Speaker 1: the Bible inaugurated an era which stands in the world's
35:48
Speaker 1: history as the reign of terror. Peace and happiness were
35:51
Speaker 1: banished from the homes and hearts of men. No one
35:54
Speaker 1: was secure. He who triumphed today was suspected condemned tomorrow.
36:00
Speaker 1: Vilence and lust held undisputed sway. King, clergy and nobles
36:05
Speaker 1: were compelled to submit to the atrocities of an excited
36:08
Speaker 1: and maddened people. Their thirst for vengeance was only stimulated
36:12
Speaker 1: by the execution of the king, and those who had
36:15
Speaker 1: decreed his death soon followed him to the scaffold. A
36:19
Speaker 1: general slaughter of all suspected of hostility to the revolution
36:22
Speaker 1: was determined. The prisons were crowded at one time, containing
36:26
Speaker 1: more than two hundred thousand captives. The cities of the
36:30
Speaker 1: kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of
36:33
Speaker 1: revolutionists was against another party, and France became a vast
36:37
Speaker 1: field for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions.
36:41
Speaker 1: In Paris, one tumult succeeded another, and the citizens were
36:45
Speaker 1: divided into a medley of factions that seemed intent on
36:48
Speaker 1: nothing but mutual extermination, And to add to the general misery,
36:53
Speaker 1: the nation became involved in a prolonged and devastating war
36:56
Speaker 1: with the great powers of Europe. The country was nearly banks,
37:00
Speaker 1: the armies were clamoring for arrears of pay, the Parisians
37:03
Speaker 1: were starving, the provinces were laid waste by brigands, and
37:07
Speaker 1: civilization was almost extinguished in anarchy and license. All too well,
37:13
Speaker 1: the people had learned the lessons of cruelty and torture
37:15
Speaker 1: which Rome had so diligently taught. A day of retribution
37:19
Speaker 1: at last had come. It was not now the disciples
37:23
Speaker 1: of Jesus that were thrust into dungeons and dragged to
37:26
Speaker 1: the stake. Long ago these had perished or been driven
37:29
Speaker 1: into exile. Unsparing, Rome now felt the deadly power of
37:34
Speaker 1: those whom she had trained to delight in deeds of blood.
37:37
Speaker 1: The example of persecution, which the clergy of France had
37:41
Speaker 1: exhibited for so many ages, was now retorted upon them
37:44
Speaker 1: with signal vigor. The scaffolds ran red with the blood
37:47
Speaker 1: of the priests. The galleys and the prisons, once crowded
37:51
Speaker 1: with Huguenots, were now filled, with their persecutors changed to
37:55
Speaker 1: the bench and toiling at the oar. The Roman Catholic
37:58
Speaker 1: clergy experienced all those woes which their church had so
38:01
Speaker 1: freely inflicted on the gentle heretics. Then came those days
38:06
Speaker 1: when the most barbarous of all codes was administered by
38:09
Speaker 1: the most barbarous of all tribunals, When no man could
38:12
Speaker 1: greet his neighbors or say his prayers without danger of
38:15
Speaker 1: committing a capital crime, When spies lurked in every corner,
38:18
Speaker 1: when the guillotine was long and hard at work every morning,
38:22
Speaker 1: when the jails were filled as close as the holds
38:24
Speaker 1: of a slave ship, when the gutters ran foaming with
38:27
Speaker 1: blood into the Seine, while the daily wagon loads of
38:30
Speaker 1: victims were carried to their doom through the streets of Paris.
38:34
Speaker 1: The proconsuls whom the Sovereign Committee had sent forth to
38:37
Speaker 1: the departments, reveled in an extravagance of cruelty unknown even
38:41
Speaker 1: in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine rose
38:44
Speaker 1: and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long
38:48
Speaker 1: rows of captives were mowed down with grape shot. Holes
38:51
Speaker 1: were made in the bottom of crowded barges, leon was
38:55
Speaker 1: turned into a desert at Aha, even the cruel mercy
38:58
Speaker 1: of a speedy death was to night to the prisoners.
39:01
Speaker 1: All down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great
39:04
Speaker 1: flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses twined
39:08
Speaker 1: together in hideous embraces. No mercy was shown to sex
39:12
Speaker 1: or age. The number of young lads and of girls
39:16
Speaker 1: of seventeen who were murdered by that execrable government is
39:19
Speaker 1: to be reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the breast
39:23
Speaker 1: were tossed from pike to pike along the Jacobin ranks.
39:27
Speaker 1: In the short space of ten years, multitudes of human
39:30
Speaker 1: beings perished. All this was as Satan would have it.
39:35
Speaker 1: This was what for Ages. He had been working to
39:37
Speaker 1: secure his policy as deception from first to last, and
39:42
Speaker 1: his steadfast purposes to bring woe and wretchedness upon men,
39:45
Speaker 1: to deface and defile the workmanship of God, to mar
39:49
Speaker 1: the divine purposes of benevolence and love, and thus cause
39:52
Speaker 1: grief in heaven. Then by his deceptive arts he blinds
39:56
Speaker 1: the minds of men and leads them to throw back
39:59
Speaker 1: the blame of his works work upon God. As if
40:01
Speaker 1: all this misery were the result of the Creator's plan.
40:05
Speaker 1: In like manner, when those who have been degraded and
40:08
Speaker 1: brutalized through his cruel power achieved their freedom, he urges
40:12
Speaker 1: them on to excess as and atrocities. Then this picture
40:15
Speaker 1: of unbridled licenses pointed out by tyrants and oppressors as
40:19
Speaker 1: an illustration of the results of liberty. When error in
40:23
Speaker 1: one garb has been detected, Satan only masks it in
40:26
Speaker 1: a different disguise, and multitudes receive it as eagerly as
40:29
Speaker 1: at the first when the people found Romanism to be
40:33
Speaker 1: a deception, and he could not do this agency lead
40:35
Speaker 1: them to transgression of God's law. He urged them to
40:38
Speaker 1: regard all religion as a cheat and the Bible of fable,
40:42
Speaker 1: and casting aside the divine statutes, they gave themselves up
40:45
Speaker 1: to unbridled iniquity. The fatal error which wrought such woe
40:49
Speaker 1: for the inhabitants of France was the ignoring of this
40:52
Speaker 1: one great truth, that true freedom lies within the prescriptions
40:56
Speaker 1: of the Law of God. Oh that thou hadst hearkened
40:59
Speaker 1: to My commandments, then had thy peace been as a river,
41:03
Speaker 1: and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. There
41:06
Speaker 1: is no peace saith the Lord unto the wicked. But
41:10
Speaker 1: whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be
41:13
Speaker 1: quiet from fear of evil. Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose
41:18
Speaker 1: and denounce God's law, But the results of their influence
41:22
Speaker 1: prove that the well being of man is bound up
41:24
Speaker 1: with his obedience of the divine statues. Those who will
41:28
Speaker 1: not read the lesson from the Book of God are
41:30
Speaker 1: bidden to read it. In the History of Nations, when
41:34
Speaker 1: Satan wrought through the Roman Church to lead men away
41:36
Speaker 1: from obedience, his agency was concealed, and his work was
41:40
Speaker 1: so disguised that the degradation and misery which resulted were
41:43
Speaker 1: not seen to be the fruit of transgression, and his
41:47
Speaker 1: power was so far counteracted by the working of the
41:49
Speaker 1: spirit of God that his purposes were prevented from reaching
41:53
Speaker 1: their full fruition. The people did not trace the effect
41:57
Speaker 1: to its cause and discover the source of their miseries.
42:00
Speaker 1: But in the Revolution the law of God was openly
42:03
Speaker 1: set aside by the National Council, and in the reign
42:06
Speaker 1: of terror which followed, the working of cause and effect
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Speaker 1: could be seen by all. When France publicly rejected God
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Speaker 1: and set aside the Bible. Wicked men and spirits of
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Speaker 1: darkness exulted in their attainment of the objects so long
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Speaker 1: desired a kingdom free from the restraints of the law
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Speaker 1: of God. Because sentence against an evil work was not
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Speaker 1: speedily executed. Therefore the heart of the sons of men
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Speaker 1: was fully set in them to do evil. But the
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Speaker 1: transgression of a just and righteous law must inevitably result
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Speaker 1: in misery and ruin. Though not visited at once with judgments,
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Speaker 1: the wickedness of men was nevertheless surely working out their doom.
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Speaker 1: Centuries of apostasy and crime had been treasuring a wrath
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Speaker 1: against the day of retribution. And when their iniquity was full,
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Speaker 1: the despisers of God learned too late that it is
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Speaker 1: a fearful thing to have worn out the divine patience.
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Speaker 1: The restraining spirit of God, which imposes a check upon
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Speaker 1: the cruel power of Satan, was in a great measure removed,
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Speaker 1: and he whose only delight as the wretchedness of men,
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Speaker 1: was permitted to work his will. Those who had chosen
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Speaker 1: the service of rebellion were left to reap its fruits
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Speaker 1: until the land was filled with crimes too horrible for
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Speaker 1: pen to trace. From devastated provinces and ruined cities. A
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Speaker 1: terrible cry was heard, a cry of bitterest anguish. France
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Speaker 1: was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order,
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Speaker 1: the family, the state, and the church all were smitten
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Speaker 1: down by the impious hand that had been lifted against
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Speaker 1: the law of God. Truly spake the wise man. The
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Speaker 1: wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. Though a sinnered
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Speaker 1: you evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged.
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Speaker 1: Yet surely I know that it shall be well with
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Speaker 1: them that fear God, which fear before Him. But it
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Speaker 1: shall not be well with the wicked. They hated knowledge
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Speaker 1: and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Therefore
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Speaker 1: shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
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Speaker 1: and be filled with their own devices. God's faithful witnesses,
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Speaker 1: slain by the blasphemous power that ascendeth out of the
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Speaker 1: bottomless pit, were not long to remain silent. After three
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Speaker 1: days and a half, the spirit of life from God
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Speaker 1: entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and
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Speaker 1: great fear fell upon them which saw them. It was
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Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety three that the decrees which abolished the
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Speaker 1: Christian religion and set aside the Bible past the French Assembly.
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Speaker 1: Three years and a half later, a resolution rescinding these decrees,
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Speaker 1: thus granting toleration to the scriptures, was adopted by the
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Speaker 1: same body. The world stood aghast at the enormity of
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Speaker 1: guilt which had resulted from a rejection of the sacred Oracles,
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Speaker 1: and men recognized the necessity of faith in God and
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Speaker 1: his word as the foundation of virtue and morality. Saith
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Speaker 1: the Lord, whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed, and against
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Speaker 1: whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up the
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Speaker 1: thine eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel.
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Speaker 1: Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know.
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Speaker 1: I will cause them to know mine hand and my might,
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Speaker 1: and they shall know that my name is Jehovah. Concerning
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Speaker 1: the two witnesses, the prophet declares further, And they heard
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Speaker 1: a great voice from heaven, saying unto them, come up hither.
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Speaker 1: And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and
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Speaker 1: their enemies beheld them. Since France made war upon God's
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Speaker 1: two witnesses, they have been honored as never before. In
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Speaker 1: eighteen o four, the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized.
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Speaker 1: This was followed by similar organizations with numerous branches upon
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Speaker 1: the continent of Europe. In eighteen sixteen, the American Bible
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Speaker 1: Society was founded. When the British Society was formed, the
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Speaker 1: Bible had been printed and circulated in fifty tongues. It
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Speaker 1: has since been translated into more than four hundred languages
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Speaker 1: and dialects. For the fifty years preceding seventy seen ninety two,
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Speaker 1: little attention was given to the work of foreign missions.
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Speaker 1: No new societies were formed, and there were but few
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Speaker 1: churches that made any effort for the spread of Christianity
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Speaker 1: in heathen lands. But toward the close of the eighteenth
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Speaker 1: century a great change took place. Men became dissatisfied with
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Speaker 1: the results of rationalism and realized the necessity of divine
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Speaker 1: revelation and experimental religion. From this time the work of
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Speaker 1: foreign missions attained an unprecedented growth. The improvements in printing
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Speaker 1: have given an impetus to the work of circulating the Bible.
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Speaker 1: The increased facilities for communication between different countries, the breaking
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Speaker 1: down of ancient barriers of prejudice and national exclusiveness, and
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Speaker 1: the loss of secular power by the Pontiff of Rome,
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Speaker 1: have opened the way for the entrance of the Word
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Speaker 1: of God. For some years the Bible has been sold
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Speaker 1: without restraint in the streets of Rome, and it has
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Speaker 1: now been carried to every part of the habitable globe.
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Speaker 1: The Infidel Voltaire once boastingly said, I am weary of
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Speaker 1: hearing people repeat that twelve men establish the Christian religion.
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Speaker 1: I will prove that one man may suffice to overthrow it.
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Speaker 1: A century has passed since his death. Millions have joined
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Speaker 1: in the war upon the Bible. But it is so
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Speaker 1: far from being destroyed that where there were a hundred
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Speaker 1: in Voltaire's time, there are now ten thousand, yes, a
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand copies of the Book of God. In the
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Speaker 1: words of an early reformer concerning the Christian Church, the
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Speaker 1: Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.
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Speaker 1: Saith the Lord. No weapon that is formed against thee
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Speaker 1: shall prosper, And every tongue that shall rise against thee
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Speaker 1: in judgment, thou shalt condemn. The word of our God
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Speaker 1: shall stand forever. All His commandments are sure, they stand
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Speaker 1: fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.
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Speaker 1: Whatever is built upon the authority of man will be overthrown.
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Speaker 1: But that which is founded upon the rock of God's
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Speaker 1: immutable word shall stand forever. End of Chapter fifteen.