s the
result of a studied effort of the prince of darkness to conceal from men
that which reveals his deceptions. For this reason, Christ the Revelator,
foreseeing the warfare that would be waged against the study of the
Revelation, pronounced a blessing upon all who should read, hear, and
observe the words of the prophecy.

19. LIGHT THROUGH DARKNESS.

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The work of God in the earth presents, from age to age, a striking
similarity in every great reformation or religious movement. The
principles of God's dealing with men are ever the same. The important
movements of the present have their parallel in those of the past, and the
experience of the church in former ages has lessons of great value for our
own time.

No truth is more clearly taught in the Bible than that God by His Holy
Spirit especially directs His servants on earth in the great movements for
the carrying forward of the work of salvation. Men are instruments in the
hand of God, employed by Him to accomplish His purposes of grace and
mercy. Each has his part to act; to each is granted a measure of light,
adapted to the necessities of his time, and sufficient to enable him to
perform the work which God has given him to do. But no man, however
honored of Heaven, has ever attained to a full understanding of the great
plan of redemption, or even to a perfect appreciation of the divine
purpose in the work for his own time. Men do not fully understand what God
would accomplish by the work which He gives them to do; they do not
comprehend, in all its bearings, the message which they utter in His name.

"Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection?" "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts." "I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from
the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet
done."(572)

Even the prophets who were favored with the special illumination of the
Spirit, did not fully comprehend the import of the revelations committed
to them. The meaning was to be unfolded from age to age, as the people of
God should need the instruction therein contained.

Peter, writing of the salvation brought to light through the gospel, says:
Of this salvation "the prophet