t love to Jesus that inspires
this utterance. The force of truth urges the words from unwilling lips. As
the wicked went into their graves, so they come forth, with the same
enmity to Christ, and the same spirit of rebellion. They are to have no
new probation, in which to remedy the defects of their past lives. Nothing
would be gained by this. A lifetime of transgression has not softened
their hearts. A second probation, were it given them, would be occupied as
was the first, in evading the requirements of God and exciting rebellion
against Him.

Christ descends upon the Mount of Olives, whence, after His resurrection,
He ascended, and where angels repeated the promise of His return. Says the
prophet: "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee." "And
His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst
thereof, ... and there shall be a very great valley." "And the Lord shall
be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His
name one."(1157) As the New Jerusalem, in its dazzling splendor, comes
down out of heaven, it rests upon the place purified and made ready to
receive it, and Christ, with His people and the angels, enters the holy
city.

Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy. While
deprived of his power, and cut off from his work of deception, the prince
of evil was miserable and dejected: but as the wicked dead are raised, and
he sees the vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes revive, and he
determines not to yield the great controversy. He will marshal all the
armies of the lost under his banner, and through them endeavor to execute
his plans. The wicked are Satan's captives. In rejecting Christ they have
accepted the rule of the rebel leader. They are ready to receive his
suggestions and to do his bidding. Yet, true to his early cunning, he does
not acknowledge himself to be Satan. He claims to be the prince who is the
rightful owner of the world, and whose inheritance has been unlawfully
wrested from him. He represents himself to his deluded subjects as a
redeemer, assuring them that his power has brought them forth from their
graves, and that he is about to rescue them from the most cruel tyranny.
The presence of Christ having been removed, Satan works wonders to support
his claims. He makes the weak strong, and inspires all with his own spirit
and ener