heaven. Then by his deceptive arts he
blinds the minds of men, and leads them to throw back the blame of his
work upon God, as if all this misery were the result of the Creator's
plan. In like manner, when those who have been degraded and brutalized
through his cruel power achieve their freedom, he urges them on to
excesses and atrocities. Then this picture of unbridled license is pointed
out by tyrants and oppressors as an illustration of the results of
liberty.

When error in one garb has been detected, Satan only masks it in a
different disguise, and multitudes receive it as eagerly as at the first.
When the people found Romanism to be a deception, and he could not through
this agency lead them to transgression of God's law, he urged them to
regard all religion as a cheat, and the Bible a fable; and casting aside
the divine statutes, they gave themselves up to unbridled iniquity.

The fatal error which wrought such woe for the inhabitants of France was
the ignoring of this one great truth: that true freedom lies within the
proscriptions of the law of God. "O that thou hadst hearkened to My
commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as
the waves of the sea." "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the
wicked." "But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil."(418)

Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose and denounce God's law; but the
results of their influence prove that the well-being of man is bound up
with his obedience of the divine statutes. Those who will not read the
lesson from the book of God, are bidden to read it in the history of
nations.

When Satan wrought through the Roman Church to lead men away from
obedience, his agency was concealed, and his work was so disguised that
the degradation and misery which resulted were not seen to be the fruit of
transgression. And his power was so far counteracted by the working of the
Spirit of God, that his purposes were prevented from reaching their full
fruition. The people did not trace the effect to its cause, and discover
the source of their miseries. But in the Revolution, the law of God was
openly set aside by the National Council. And in the Reign of Terror which
followed, the working of cause and effect could be seen by all.

When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and
spirits of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long
desired,--a king