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The Great Controversy
to condemn the guilty or justify the obedient. Would we know the
result of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried.
Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the
controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw
off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the
cruelest of tyrants. When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the
way is open for the prince of evil to establish his power in the earth.
Wherever the divine precepts are rejected, sin ceases to appear
sinful or righteousness desirable. Those who refuse to submit to the
government of God are wholly unfitted to govern themselves. Through
their pernicious teachings the spirit of insubordination is implanted in
the hearts of children and youth, who are naturally impatient of control;
and a lawless, licentious state of society results. While scoffing at the
credulity of those who obey the requirements of God, the multitudes
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eagerly accept the delusions of Satan. They give the rein to lust and
practice the sins which have called down judgments upon the heathen.
Those who teach the people to regard lightly the commandments of
God sow disobedience to reap disobedience. Let the restraint imposed
by the divine law be wholly cast aside, and human laws would soon
be disregarded. Because God forbids dishonest practices, coveting,
lying, and defrauding, men are ready to trample upon His statutes as
a hindrance to their worldly prosperity; but the results of banishing
these precepts would be such as they do not anticipate. If the law
were not binding, why should any fear to transgress? Property would
no longer be safe. Men would obtain their neighbor’s possessions by
violence, and the strongest would become richest. Life itself would
not be respected. The marriage vow would no longer stand as a sacred
bulwark to protect the family. He who had the power, would, if he
desired, take his neighbor’s wife by violence. The fifth commandment
would be set aside with the fourth. Children would not shrink from
taking the life of their parents if by so doing they could obtain the
desire of their corrupt hearts. The civilized world would become a
horde of robbers and assassins; and peace, rest, and happiness would
be banished from the earth.
Already the doctrine that men are released from obedience to God’s
requirements has weakened the force of moral obligation and opened
the floodgates of iniquity upon the world. Lawlessness, dissipation,
and corruption are sweeping in upon us like an overwhelming tide. In