Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/284

 tism, are very like the alternations of ague and burning fever in a patient at the last stage of physical decay, and on the eve of death. Paris may well be looked upon as the capital of modern civilization, as the great centre of all the characteristic elements of the nineteenth century. It is the opinion of all thinking men, and especially of pious men, in that capital, that modern Europe is a perfect transcript of the lower Roman empire on the eve of its dissolution. The degradation of Spain and Portugal, and their South American colonies, is proverbial. No one can travel through the fair provinces of the Italian Peninsula, and not remark the same political decay. Everywhere one beholds traces, only too apparent, of the existence of the most destructive elements; the old hereditary reverence for religion becoming weaker and weaker; infidelity making fresh inroads in every quarter; the antagonism between the State and the Church becoming more pronounced every hour; and the most deplorable political theories absolutely depriving men of all common sense. Whichever way we look, everything is like Babel, a perfect chaos of every sort of evil principle. We have already shown in the course of this work, that while the secular world is thus hastening on to destruction, there is, blessed be God, a corresponding revival of vital religion and earnest devotion in the Church of God, as if God were preparing His Church for that solemn hour, in which the warning voice will be heard in accents unmistakeable, "Come out of her, my