No Martyrs After Probation Closes

[devotional at egwlists.whiteestate.org]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for September 26
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No Martyrs After Probation Closes

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in
trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. Ps. 91:15. 


The people of God will not be free from suffering; but while persecuted
and distressed, while they endure privation and suffer for want of food
they will not be left to perish. . . . 

Yet to human sight it will appear that the people of God must soon seal
their testimony with their blood as did the martyrs before them. They
themselves begin to fear that the Lord has left them to fall by the hand
of their enemies. It is a time of fearful agony. Day and night they cry
unto God for deliverance. . . . 

The eye of God, looking down the ages, was fixed upon the crisis which
His people are to meet, when earthly powers shall be arrayed against
them. Like the captive exile, they will be in fear of death by
starvation or by violence. But the Holy One who divided the Red Sea
before Israel, will manifest His mighty power and turn their captivity.
"They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up
my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that
serveth him." Malachi 3:17. If the blood of Christ's faithful witnesses
were shed at this time, it would not, like the blood of the martyrs, be
as seed sown to yield a harvest for God. Their fidelity would not be a
testimony to convince others of the truth; for the obdurate heart has
beaten back the waves of mercy until they return no more. If the
righteous were now left to fall a prey to their enemies, it would be a
triumph for the prince of darkness. Says the psalmist: "In the time of
trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his
tabernacle shall he hide me." Psalm 27:5. Christ has spoken: "Come, my
people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee:
hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be
overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." Isaiah 26:20, 21. Glorious
will be the deliverance of those who have patiently waited for His
coming and whose names are written in the book of life. 

>From Maranatha - Page 277