God. Upon this battle we
are now entering,--a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of
Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and
tradition.

The agencies which will unite against truth and righteousness in this
contest are now actively at work. God's holy word, which has been handed
down to us at such a cost of suffering and blood, is but little valued.
The Bible is within the reach of all, but there are few who really accept
it as the guide of life. Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in
the world merely, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines
which are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of
creation as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of man, the
atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God, are practically rejected,
either wholly or in part, by a large share of the professedly Christian
world. Thousands who pride themselves upon their wisdom and independence,
regard it an evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the
Bible; they think it a proof of superior talent and learning to cavil at
the Scriptures, and to spiritualize and explain away their most important
truths. Many ministers are teaching their people, and many professors and
teachers are instructing their students, that the law of God has been
changed or abrogated; and those who regard its requirements as still
valid, to be literally obeyed, are thought to be deserving only of
ridicule or contempt.

In rejecting the truth, men reject its Author. In trampling upon the law
of God, they deny the authority of the Lawgiver. It is as easy to make an
idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or
stone. By misrepresenting the attributes of God, Satan leads men to
conceive of Him in a false character. With many, a philosophical idol is
enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the living God, as He is revealed
in His word, in Christ, and in the works of creation, is worshiped by but
few. Thousands deify nature, while they deny the God of nature. Though in
a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world to-day as verily
as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The god of many
professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians,
journalists,--the god of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and
universities, even of some theological institutions,--is little better than
Baal, the sun-god of Pheni