"“But a blind and inexorable bigotry chased from her soil every teacher of virtue, every champion of order, every honest defender of the throne; it said to the men who would have made their country a ‘renown and glory’ in the earth, Choose which you will have, a stake or exile. At last the ruin of the state was complete; there remained no more conscience to be proscribed; no more religion to be dragged to the stake; no more patriotism to be chased into banishment.”—Wylie, b. 13, ch. 20. And the Revolution, with all its horrors, was the dire result. GC 279.1"
"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The EGW passage describes the persecution of those who would have made their country a 'renown and glory,' echoing the sentiment of Matthew 5:10, which promises a heavenly reward for those persecuted for righteousness' sake.
"(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."
Both passages describe the persecution and exile of righteous individuals. Hebrews 11:38 speaks of those who were forced to live in harsh conditions due to their faith, while the EGW passage describes the expulsion of virtuous people from France.
"“With the flight of the Huguenots a general decline settled upon France. Flourishing manufacturing cities fell into decay; fertile districts returned to their native wildness; intellectual dullness and moral declension succeeded a period of unwonted progress. Paris became one vast almshouse, and it is estimated that, at the breaking out of the Revolution, two hundred thousand paupers claimed charity from the hands of the king. The Jesuits alone flourished in the decaying nation, and ruled with dreadful tyranny over churches and schools, the prisons and the galleys.” GC 279.2"
"Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee."
Both passages describe a nation suffering decline and oppression as a consequence of disobedience. Deuteronomy 28:48 warns of serving enemies in want, while the EGW passage describes France's decline and the rise of oppressive forces.
"The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish."
Both passages describe a land suffering and decaying. Isaiah 24:4 speaks of the earth mourning and languishing, while the EGW passage describes the decline of France, with cities falling into decay and intellectual dullness prevailing.
"The gospel would have brought to France the solution of those political and social problems that baffled the skill of her clergy, her king, and her legislators, and finally plunged the nation into anarchy and ruin. But under the domination of Rome the people had lost the Saviour's blessed lessons of self-sacrifice and unselfish love. They had been led away from the practice of self-denial for the good of others. The rich had found no rebuke for their oppression of the poor, the poor no help for their servitude and degradation. The selfishness of the wealthy and powerful grew more and more apparent and oppressive. For centuries the greed and profligacy of the noble resulted in grinding extortion toward the peasant. The rich wronged the poor, and the poor hated the rich. GC 279.3"
"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
The EGW passage describes the oppression of the poor by the rich in France, which aligns with the general theme of Jesus' teachings about the dangers of wealth and the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, as exemplified by Matthew 19:24. The connection is thematic, focusing on the social implications of wealth and poverty.
In many provinces the estates were held by the nobles, and the laboring classes were only tenants; they were at the mercy of their landlords and were forced to submit to their exorbitant demands. The burden of supporting both the church and the state fell upon the middle and lower classes, who were heavily taxed by the civil authorities and by the clergy. “The pleasure of the nobles was considered the supreme law; the farmers and the peasants might starve, for aught their oppressors cared.... The people were compelled at every turn to consult the exclusive interest of the landlord. The lives of the agricultural laborers were lives of incessant work and unrelieved misery; their complaints, if they ever dared to complain, were treated with insolent contempt. The courts of justice would always listen to a noble as against a peasant; bribes were notoriously accepted by the judges; and the merest caprice of the aristocracy had the force of law, by virtue of this system of universal corrupti…
"Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth."
The EGW passage describes the exploitation of laborers by the nobles in France, which directly parallels the warning in James 5:4 about the cries of defrauded laborers reaching the Lord. The connection is thematic and focuses on social injustice.