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15 - The Bible and the French Revolution - The Great Controversy · Sacred Texts Archive

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