THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S beyond all probability of change, God completes the hardening process. For the time is coming when He will send them strong delusion, that they should believe The Lie, and all such will be condemned because they believe not the truth. But' today, more than ever, modern Christendom casts the mantle of holi ness around all the congregation, and is quite willing to extend her benign indul gence to all others. I f 'any preachers of the despised, “old-fashioned” sort, simple enough to believe the plain word of Scripture .in its entirety, and too far behind the times ever to catch up with modern thought and the “find ings of science,” were to go into some pulpits and insist upon personal regener ation, a new birth and a new -life, as the sine qua non of salvation and the first essential of the Christian life, they would soon be given to understand, in effect, if not in words, “Ye take too much upon yourselves. All the congre gation are holy, every one of them. Do they not attend our services and ob serve our ordinances, and contribute to the carrying on of religion? Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the con gregation?” It may safely be said, they would not be asked to preach there again. Truth has indeed fallen in the street, and the words of the Most High are as true of the religious world today as in the days of Ezekiel. “Her prophets have profaned mine holy things, they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, say ing, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath hot spoken.” If any seeking the way' of salvation should read these lines, let them search the Scriptures to ascertain what God— not man—has spoken, and they will find that we are saved, “not by works of
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righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, by the wash ing of regeneration.” And if they wish to know on whose authority this rests, they will find that in these last days God has spoken unto us by His Son, of whom He said to Moses: “Whosoever will not hearken unto His words which He shall speak in My name, I •will re quire it of him.” And the apostle adds, “It shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.”' And He said: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “Ye must be born again.” DOYLE’S “NEW RELIGION” Conan Doyle in his book “The New Religion” argues that if some one can. tell us something about ourselves that no one else knows but ourselves, it is fair to conclude that what he says about his own state of life at the time is true also. It would be perfectly fair to thus conclude if we knew that the person speaking to us was not a liar. And the Revelation that God has graciously given to us tells us that be is a liar,, a de ceiver, and the enemy of our souls. But supposing Christianity was hum bug, and it is that if what this book says is true, what would a true Christian lose by sticking close to Christianity? and what would he-gain by adopting “The New Religion?” According to Spiritism a man’s religion counts for nothing in. the spirit world, either good or bad. Papists, Protestants, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and all sorts are found there together, one as well off as the other. And therefore there is no gain in being a Spiritist, and no loss in being a Chris tian. What then do we want this re ligion for? He says Christianity can not be believed. Well, what evil is in that! If no religion is the slightest use, why should we want a new one, even if it were a true one? which it is not.— The'Witness.
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