to pardon. To him who loves self-indulgence, it is more pleasing to confess to a fellow mortal than to open the soul to God. It is more palatable to human nature to do penance than to renounce sin. It is easier to mortify the flesh by sackcloth and nettles and galling chains than to crucify fleshly lust. Heavy is the yoke which the carnal heart is willing to bear rather than bow to the yoke of Christ. There is a striking similarity between the Church of Rome and the Jewish Church at the time of Christ's first advent. While the Jews secretly trampled upon every principle of the law of God, they were outwardly rigorous in the observance of its precepts, loading it down with exactions and traditions that made obedience painful and burdensome. As the Jews profess to revere the law, so do Romanists claim to reverence the cross. They exalt the symbol of Christ's sufferings, while in their lives they deny Him who it represents. Brothers and sisters, Gideon's ephod became a religion of external. And this is the religion of human nature when that human that's entering into the religion denies the power of God. And this religion of Rome is the biblical, prophetical, prophetic religion of God. It's the classic illustration of this religion of externals. But it's the same religion of the Jews during the days of Christ where they magnified the law in word but not in deed. Rome magnifies the cross in word but not in deed. Gideon's group magnified the ephod and the breastplate in word but not in deed because the very premise of this ephod and breastplate is that it was a counterfeit. Patriarchs and Prophets, page 317. How often in our own day is the love of pleasure disguised by a form of godliness? A religion that permits men, while observing the rites of worship, to devote themselves to selfish or sensual gratification is as pleasing to the multitudes now as in the days of Israel. And there are still pliant errands who, while beholding positions of authority in the church, will yield to the desires of the unconsecrated and thus encourage them in sin. Throughout time, this religion, this legal religion, is manifested by men that have been want the religion but not the power thereof. And that's the story of, part of the story of what Gideon is illustrating in Adventism during this time period when we are wandering in the wilderness as was ancient Israel.