Bring the Lower Passions Into Subjection

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that ... they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:11, 12, NKJV.

Near the close of this earth's history Satan will work with all his powers in the same manner and with the same temptations wherewith he tempted ancient Israel just before their entering the Land of Promise. He will lay snares for those who claim to keep the commandments of God, and who are almost on the borders of the heavenly Canaan. He will use his powers to their utmost in order to entrap souls, and to take God's professed people upon their weakest points.

Those who have not brought the lower passions into subjection to the higher powers of their being, those who have allowed their minds to flow in a channel of carnal indulgence of the baser passions, Satan is determined to destroy with his temptations--to pollute their souls with licentiousness. He is not aiming especially at the lower and less important marks, but he makes use of his snares through those whom he can enlist as his agents to allure or attract men and women to take liberties which are condemned in the law of God.

And those in responsible positions, teaching the claims of God's law, whose mouths are filled with arguments in vindication of His law, against which Satan has made such a raid--over such he sets his hellish powers and his agencies at work, and overthrows them upon the weak points in their character, knowing that those who offend on one point are guilty of all, thus obtaining complete mastery over the entire person. Mind, soul, body, and conscience are involved in the ruin. If they be messengers of righteousness, and have had great light, or if the Lord has used them as His special workers in the cause of truth, then how great is the triumph of Satan! How he exults! How God is dishonored! ...

Satan knows it is his time. He has but little time left now in which to work, and he will work with tremendous power to ensnare the people of God upon their weak points of character.... It is necessary to guard the thoughts; to fence the soul about with the injunctions of God's Word; and to be very careful in every thought, word, and action not to be betrayed into sin.--The Review and Herald, May 17, 1887.