(17) highminded (R.V. puffed up)-inflated with pride or self-conceit.

(18) lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (Gk. philedonos rather than philotheos)—voluptuous rather than pious.

(19) having a form of godliness-an outward appearance or resemblance of religion :

(20) but denying the power thereof rejecting altogether the idea or necessity of any miraculous element in connection with it.

Such is the inspired description and character of the men who are to become notorious in the closing days of this dispensation, and who, by their preponderating influence in the political and religious world, will prepare the way for that ultimate development of evil when the Man of Sin shall be revealed-"the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. ii. 3, 4.)

The mark of the beast can already be detected in the commercial spirit and enterprise of the day, and things are hastening on to that final condition when no one will be permitted to buy or sell to transact business locally or internationally-except those who in their right hands or in their foreheads have received the mark of the beast or the number of his name. (Rev. xiii. 17.) Whatever the ultimate fulfilment of those mystic figures, six hundred, threescore and six whoever the man whose regime and doom are so graphically described in the inspired Word: we see already in the number of his name the climax of all human work and wisdomasserting and repeating itself unto the end, but never able to convert the Satanic six into the Divine seven,

or to touch the perfection which belongeth unto Jehovah alone.

One of the most subtle devices of the great enemy of souls as an angel of light has ever been to separate those things which are essentially connected in the mind of God: to dissever doctrine from life, and to rear up a religious profession on a foundation of rubbish to teach the soul-destroying error that one creed is as good as another, and that so long as the life is right and the heart sincere, it does not matter what we believe, or what particular interpretation we put upon the distinctive dogmas which constitute the articles of our faith.

It is the insidious growth of these pernicious views, so plausible and so pleasant to the natural heart and conscience, that has emboldened "Christian" philosophy of the twentieth century to repudiate altogether the faith and practice of past generations, to deny the supernatural origin and Divine authority of the Bible, and to demand a "reconstruction of belief" which shall be intelligible to human reason, and fulfil all the requirements of contemporary science. Christianity is represented as being one religion out of many—as a moral system founded on the teaching of Christ, in the same way that Judaism is founded on the teaching of Moses: as Islamism is founded on the teaching of Mahomet, or the Chinese religion on the teaching of Confucius; the Bible is judged by the same standard as the Koran or the Shaster, and fallen humanity is exalted as the object of faith and worship in the place of the Holy One of God. The sin of unbelief (“the sin which is admired of many," Heb. xii. 1, R.V. marg.)-systematic rejection of the facts and open hostility to the doctrines of Scripture is haunting all the churches, and the professing people of God are inhaling the poisonous atmosphere with every breath they draw.

But in spite of "profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called " (1 Tim. vi. 20, R.V.) the Bible remains to us just what it has been from the beginning-"not the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh" in all them that believe. (1 Thess. ii. 13.) The Christian faith of the first century-which was "grounded and settled" (founded and immovably secure) on the supernatural revelation of God in Jesus Christis the only genuine faith of the twentieth century. "God and His doctrine " cannot be separated: to blaspheme the doctrine is to blaspheme God. (1 Tim. vi. 1.) It is not citizenship in a Christian country, or attachment to a Christian community,—not even conformity to a code of morality in assumed agreement with New Testament teaching, that entitles any of us to become Christians in the sight of God, or in the sight of men; but an unequivocal belief in Christian Truth as it is set forth in the Holy Scriptures, and an implicit acceptance of the fundamental principles of the doctrine of Christ.

"Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the Truth." (Psalm lx. 4.)

Doctrine and life are indissolubly connected in the Word of God, and they must be positively united in the experience and testimony of every believer in Christ. The primary condition of a good Christian confession is an absolute blending of faith and practice. We cannot live the life unless we have savingly received the doctrine, and the only trustworthy evidence that we have savingly received the doctrine is that we are found living the life. "By their fruits ye shall know them." (Matt. vii. 20.)

The Banner has been given in order that it may be displayed—lifted up as an ensign-in the presence of the enemy-because of the Truth. The same word and the same thought occurs in another connection in Isaiah lix. 19:

"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.' Truth is mighty, and Truth will ultimately prevail in that day when the Redeemer's feet shall stand again on Zion, and they shall "fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun." But Truth will not prevail under the present order of things, any more than it prevailed in the days of Isaiah. In a spiritual sense, it is strikingly true to-day that "judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter: yea, Truth faileth." (Isa. lix. 14, 15.) Nevertheless, while men proceed from evil to evil, because "there is no fear of God before their eyes," it is the bounden duty of every blood-washed Christian "walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost," to be "valiant for the Truth upon the earth," and to defend it against the cataclysm of popish and rationalistic error which is sweeping over the world; and this can only be done by faithful adherence to apostolic precepts and apostolic practice.

"If any man speak, let him speak as it were oracles of God: if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God supplieth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter iv. 11.) Divine methods cannot be rendered more effective by the cleverness and craft of man. It is the simple manifestation of the Truth that promotes the glory of God. Casuistry and insincerity in thought, or speech, or action, in reference to spiritual concerns-as to other concerns-is distinctly opposed to and severely condemned by the plain statements of Scripture. If we have obtained mercy we have "renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the Truth commending ourselves to

every man's conscience in the sight of God." (2 Cor. iv. 2.) The jesuitical maxim that the end justifies the means-however carefully it may be coated over with sophistical sugar-is as detrimental to the soul's prosperity as it is fatal to the success of Christian enterprise.

It is written of the one who was separated from his brethren that he might be joined unto the Lord: "My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me and was afraid before My name. The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips." (Mal. ii. 5, 6.) Such is the evidence of Christian life and eternal salvation; the absolute relationship of doctrine and life. The covenant of life and peace is the covenant of sovereign grace, certified and sealed by the blood of the Son of God; and the acceptance of the gift is proved by separation from iniquity, and unswerving testimony concerning the Truth of God.

As we approach the termination of the "last hour," and false teachers advertise their destructive heresies with greater audacity, it is more than ever incumbent upon all who "hold fast the form of sound words in the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus," to lift up the banner in the presence of the enemy, and to take a determined stand beneath it in defence of Christian Truth, and in direct and uncompromising opposition to every form of antichristian error; to reiterate in the ears of men that there can be no salvation except on the terms that God Himself hath declared-no escape from the wages of sin and the eternal misery of hell-except by the hearty reception of that word of faith once for all delivered unto the saints, and which by the grace of God is still nigh to every one of us.

"Participation in great Babylon's sins must needs bring great Babylon's doom, be the offender who or where he may." The churches, as lampstands of Divine light, are failing