nd will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev.
3:17-20). If Scripture language and figure mean anything, this is a
description of an unregenerate Church over which the Lord is pleading.
It is from this Church that He has withdrawn; and is seen outside,
standing and knocking. His hope is not centered upon reforming the whole
mass of professing members; for his offer is to the individual "any man"
with whom He will then have personal communion and fellowship.

Sad is the spectacle of these churches; meeting week after week to be
beguiled by the philosophy of men, and raising no voice in protest
against the denial of their only foundation as a church, and of their
only hope for time and eternity! Far more honorable were the infidels of
the past generation than these ministers. They were wholly outside the
Church. But now, behold the inconsistency! Men who are covered by the
vesture of the Church, ministering its sacraments, and supported by its
benevolence, are making an open attack upon that wisdom of God which
made Christ Jesus the only ground for all righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. The predictions for the last days are thus not only
being fulfilled by false systems and doctrines, but they are found in
the visible Church itself. "For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (II Tim. 4:3, 4).

Great religious activities are possible without coming into
complications with saving faith. It is possible to be more concerned
over the untimely death of one hundred thousand drunkards than with the
Christ-less death of twenty million human beings; or to be wholly
concerned with the educational and physical needs of the heathen, and to
neglect their greatest need in regeneration. Thus Satan may gain his own
ends, even through some so-called missionary undertakings, for in this
manner he can beguile untaught saints to limit their work to the lines
of his highest ideals. It is possible to fight against sin and not
present the Saviour; or to urge the highest Scriptural ideals and yet
offer no reasonable way of attainment.

There is a strange fascination about these undertakings which are
humanitarian, and are religious only in form and title. And there is a
strange attraction in the leader who announces that he is not concerned
wit