at self-exaltation, but was
seeking to secure liberty for all the inhabitants of heaven, that by this
means they might attain to a higher state of existence.

God, in His great mercy, bore long with Lucifer. He was not immediately
degraded from his exalted station when he first indulged the spirit of
discontent, nor even when he began to present his false claims before the
loyal angels. Long was he retained in heaven. Again and again he was
offered pardon, on condition of repentance and submission. Such efforts as
only infinite love and wisdom could devise, were made to convince him of
his error. The spirit of discontent had never before been known in heaven.
Lucifer himself did not at first see whither he was drifting; he did not
understand the real nature of his feelings. But as his dissatisfaction was
proved to be without cause, Lucifer was convinced that he was in the
wrong, that the divine claims were just, and that he ought to acknowledge
them as such before all heaven. Had he done this, he might have saved
himself and many angels. He had not at this time fully cast off his
allegiance to God. Though he had forsaken his position as covering cherub,
yet if he had been willing to return to God, acknowledging the Creator's
wisdom, and satisfied to fill the place appointed him in God's great plan,
he would have been re-instated in his office. But pride forbade him to
submit. He persistently defended his own course, maintained that he had no
need of repentance, and fully committed himself, in the great controversy,
against his Maker.

All the powers of his master-mind were now bent to the work of deception,
to secure the sympathy of the angels that had been under his command. Even
the fact that Christ had warned and counseled him, was perverted to serve
his traitorous designs. To those whose loving trust bound them most
closely to him, Satan had represented that he was wrongly judged, that his
position was not respected, and that his liberty was to be abridged. From
misrepresentation of the words of Christ, he passed to prevarication and
direct falsehood, accusing the Son of God of a design to humiliate him
before the inhabitants of heaven. He sought also to make a false issue
between himself and the loyal angels. All whom he could not subvert and
bring fully to his side, he accused of indifference to the interests of
heavenly beings. The very work which he himself was doing, he charged upon
those who remained true to