he opposition of the
hosts of darkness. Evil angels will assail him, alarmed that his influence
is taking the prey from their hands. Evil men, rebuked by his example,
will unite with them in seeking to separate him from God by alluring
temptations. When these do not succeed, then a compelling power is
employed to force the conscience.

But so long as Jesus remains man's intercessor in the sanctuary above, the
restraining influence of the Holy Spirit is felt by rulers and people. It
still controls, to some extent, the laws of the land. Were it not for
these laws, the condition of the world would be much worse than it now is.
While many of our rulers are active agents of Satan, God also has His
agents among the leading men of the nation. The enemy moves upon his
servants to propose measures that would greatly impede the work of God;
but statesmen who fear the Lord are influenced by holy angels to oppose
such propositions with unanswerable arguments. Thus a few men will hold in
check a powerful current of evil. The opposition of the enemies of truth
will be restrained that the third angel's message may do its work. When
the final warning shall be given, it will arrest the attention of these
leading men through whom the Lord is now working, and some of them will
accept it, and will stand with the people of God through the time of
trouble.

The angel who unites in the proclamation of the third angel's message, is
to lighten the whole earth with his glory. A work of world-wide extent and
unwonted power is here foretold. The Advent Movement of 1840-44 was a
glorious manifestation of the power of God; the first angel's message was
carried to every missionary station in the world, and in some countries
there was the greatest religious interest which has been witnessed in any
land since the Reformation of the sixteenth century; but these are to be
exceeded by the mighty movement under the last warning of the third angel.

The work will be similar to that of the day of Pentecost. As the "former
rain" was given, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the opening of
the gospel, to cause the upspringing of the precious seed, so the "latter
rain" will be given at its close, for the ripening of the harvest. "Then
shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is
prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the
latter and former rain unto the earth."(1048) "Be glad then, ye children
of Zion, an