Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

Slavery and the War 257hardened. His counselors and mighty men strengthened themselvesagainst God and endeavored to explain the plagues as the result ofnatural causes. Each visitation from God was more severe than thepreceding one, yet they would not release the children of Israel untilthe angel of the Lord slew the first-born of the Egyptians. From theking upon the throne down to the most humble and lowly, there waswailing and mourning. Then Pharaoh commanded to let Israel go; butafter the Egyptians had buried their dead, he repented that he had letIsrael go. His counselors and mighty men tried to account for theirbereavement. They would not admit that the visitation or judgmentwas from God, and therefore they pursued after the children of Israel.When the Israelites beheld the Egyptian host in pursuit, some uponhorses and some in chariots, and equipped for war, their hearts failedthem. The Red Sea was before, the Egyptian host behind. They couldsee no way of escape. A shout of triumph burst from the Egyptiansto find Israel completely in their power. The Israelites were greatlyterrified. But the Lord commanded Moses to bid them go forward, andto lift up the rod and stretch out his hand over the sea and divide it. Hedid so, and lo, the sea parted, and the children of Israel passed overdry shod. Pharaoh had so long withstood God, and hardened his heartagainst His mighty, wondrous works, that he in blindness rushed intothe path which God had miraculously prepared for His people. AgainMoses was commanded to stretch forth his hand over the sea, “and the [266]sea returned to his strength,” and the waters covered the Egyptian host,and they were drowned.This scene was presented before me to illustrate the selfish love ofslavery, and the desperate measures which the South would adopt tocherish the institution, and the dreadful lengths to which they wouldgo before they would yield. The system of slavery has reduced anddegraded human beings to the level of the brutes, and the majority ofslave masters regard them as such. The consciences of these mastershave become seared and hardened, as was Pharaoh’s; and if compelledto release their slaves, their principles remain unchanged, and theywould make the slave feel their oppressive power if possible. It lookedto me like an impossibility now for slavery to be done away. Godalone can wrench the slave from the hand of his desperate, relentlessoppressor. All the abuse and cruelty exercised toward the slave is