Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/264

 some other source. False Christs and false prophets will be attended with wars and rumours of wars, that is, disputations and contentions, with all their retinue of spiritual famine, pestilence, and earthquakes. How can an untrue idea concerning God, and mistaken teachings respecting His requirements from men, be productive of any other results? Now, if this be true, is it not plain that the end has come? The professing Church may not see this; the perception and acknowledgment of errors by those who are in them are difficult attainments. Corrupted Churches have always clung with pertinacity to their own inventions; and how shall corrupted Christianity be exempt from so deplorable a failing? It may indeed confess, because it will read in the Scriptures that iniquity will abound, that the love of many will wax cold, and that the day of the Lord will not come unless there come a falling away first; but it will always hesitate to acknowledge that such a period has come upon itself. It will be hard for it to believe that it contains within itself the abomination of desolation, and it is not to be expected that it will pronounce its own condemnation. What, then, is to be done in such a case? When the Church has come to an end, how is it to be informed of that fact? and by what means is a system of pure spiritual theology to be restored and made known to mankind? Doubtless this can be effected only by some providential interposition of the Lord, and in that providence He will fulfil His promise to come again—to come, not by the manifestation of His person in the world, but by unfolding the true light of His Word to men.

The doctrines of a genuine Church are drawn wholly from the Word, and they are intended to teach mankind how to believe wisely concerning God, His kingdom, and Providence; and that they should live in agreement with