MISTAKES are dangerous in proportion to the importance of the subject to which they relate. If Satan cannot binder us from attempting to save our souls, he will be very well content if he can cause us to make some fatal mistake in our effort to do it. If he can cause us to trust in the cross on which Christ was crucified, instead of trusting in Him who died thereon, he is entirely satisfied. If we can be induced to hope for salvation through the mother of Christ, and not through her Son, that also will answer his mind well. If we depend upon the fire of purgatory to cleanse our sins, and neglect the blood of Christ, that will be every way satisfactory to Satan. If we say, Lord, Lord, and do not the things He commands, Satan will never object to our prayers. If we name the name of Christ, and do not depart from iniquity, he will be even better pleased with us than though we only passed for sinners. If he can cause us to devote our energies to repenting tomorrow, or next week, or next year, and keep on neglecting the present day, he will be satisfied with that. If he can make us ashamed of repentance, and keep us from being ashamed of sin, he will make us his certain prey.
If he can make us think that there is some real good in sin, and that there is some advantage in disobeying God, he will catch us with his hook as he does all the world. If he can induce us to lay up our treasure in this world, and not in the next, he will make our ruin certain as his own. If he can make us think that our favorite sins are small sins, which God will not regard because we have put away so many great sins, for which, perhaps, we cared nothing, he will take us in his snare to our own ruin. Reader, he means to ensnare you. Examine yourself and see how the case is with you. Take to you the whole armor of God, that you may stand against the wiles of the devil.
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Oct. 5 1869