civil government that the authority of the state will also be
employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.

Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has employed it to
punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant churches that have followed
in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers, have
manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience. An example
of this is given in the long-continued persecution of dissenters by the
Church of England. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
thousands of non-conformist ministers were forced to leave their churches,
and many, both of pastors and people, were subjected to fine,
imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.

It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid of the civil
government, and this prepared the way for the development of the
papacy,--the beast. Said Paul, "There" shall "come a falling away, ... and
that man of sin be revealed."(744) So apostasy in the church will prepare
the way for the image to the beast.

The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord there will exist a
state of religious declension similar to that in the first centuries. "In
the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be _lovers of their
own selves,_ covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, _despisers of those that are good_,
traitors, heady, high-minded, _lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; having a form of godliness_, but denying the power thereof."(745)
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils."(746) Satan will work "with all power and signs and lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." And all that "received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved," will be left to
accept "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."(747) When this
state of ungodliness shall be reached, the same results will follow as in
the first centuries.

The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is regarded by
many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a forced uniformity can
ever be made. But there has been for years, in churches of the Protestant
faith, a strong and growing sentiment in favor of a union based upon
common points of doctrine. T