again it is the New Testament. Whatever the averments may be, the point of attack is the Personality of Jesus. This issue is not to be evaded. We shall have to continue to insist that culture is not salvation; that education is not new birth; that Socrates cannot take the place of Jesus. The gospel creates an everlasting crisis and solves it. With advent of the days of stress will come the Spirit of divine power. The Master lived on earth, not to approve, but to improve; He came not to bring peace, but the sword. He is both the cause of social desire and unrest and its consumation and cure. The church could not, therefore, dp other than to hold fast to 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints,' and to preach it with clearness and courage and consistency."
Bishop Ryle's "Prophetical Creed."
T HERE are many who have the greatest possible respect for the late Bishop Byle, and who thank God for his great and long-con- tinued testimony. These maj be willing to attach some importance to what he calls the chief articles of his "prophetical creed," which in 1867 he speaks of as having ' ' lived in the be- lief of them for a quarter of a cen- t u r y , " and in the belief of t h em ," he adds, " I hope to d i e ." And he did. I. I believe that the world will never be completely converted to Chris- tianity by any existing agency before the end eomes. In spite of all that can be done by ministers, churches, schools and missions, the wheat and the tares will grow together until the harvest. And when the end comes, it will find thé earth in much the same state that
it was when the flood came in the days of Noah. (Matt, xiii: 24-30; xxivr 37-39.) | II. I believe that the widespread un- belief, indifference, formalism and wick- edness, which are to be seen, throughout Christendom, are only what we ought t-.> expect in God's Word. Troublous times, departures from the faith, evil men waxing worse and worse, love wax- ing cold, are things distinctly predicted. So f ar from making me doubt the truth of Christianity, they help to confirm my faith. Melancholy and sorrowful as the sight is, if I did not see it I should think the Bible was not true. (Matt, xxiv: 12; 1 Timothy iv: 1; 2 Timothy iii: 1, 13, 14.) III. I believe that the grand purpose of the present dispensation is to gather out of the world an elect people, and
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