There is coming, rapidly and surely, an almost universal guilt upon the inhabitants of the great cities because of the steady increase of determined wickedness. God has given life to man, in order that through a knowledge of the Word and by practicing its principles, the human agent may become one with God, obedient to the divine will. But Satan has been working constantly by many devisings to bring man into disfavor with God. In the antediluvian world, human agencies brought in all manner of devisings and ingenious practices to make of no effect the law of Jehovah. They cast aside His authority, because it interfered with their schemes. As in the days before the Flood, so now the time is right upon us when the Lord God must reveal His omnipotent power.... (HP 345.2) MC VC