their teachings lead many of their deluded followers to everlasting death. There are some false teachers also, in some of the Protestant Churches; perverting the truth. Their followers, like those described by Isaiah, will not hear the law of God. "Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever : That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear of the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from among us " (Isaiah 30: 8). "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4: 3). "But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you" (2 Peter 2: 1). Paul tells the saints at Colosse,"Beware, lest any man spoil you,

through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Col. 2: 8). The saints of the present day, need the same warning; that they may not be "spoiled" by the teachings of some ministers and professors in theological seminaries, "which are not after Christ." And also, by "Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith" (1 Tim. 6: 20). They who seek to find God, and the way of salvation in any Church or from any ministers, whose teachings are "not after Christ," are lost. What the Bible teaches concerning the errors in doctrine and practice in the churches spoken of in it, will appear in another chapter.

UNION OF THE CHURCH.

"As Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they, also, may be one in us " (John 17: 21).

THE cry at the present day for the union of the visible Church is mostly founded on ignorance or on infidelity. It is contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and contrary to the prayer of Christ. The cry is, for all Churches calling themselves Christian to unite; whether they are evangelical, infidel, idolatrous or antichrist; and, that all creeds and confessions must be put aside. This can never be. The true Church may, as has been the case, disappear, or be hidden for a time; but it will, even if only a comparative handful, be kept separate and distinct. It will separate itself from those Churches "which hold the truth in unrighteousness," or put their traditions in the place of the Scriptures. Jesus did this, when He separated His followers from the Church in His day. Christ's prayer for them who believe in Him is, "They might be one, even as He and the Father are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; "That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them" (John 17: 11, 22, 26). The union of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is not union with a

Church; but is Christ in them, and they in Him. United, they are partakers of the same Spirit; and thus they are one in Him, and in one another. Believers in Him have always been, and are now, united in Him. His prayer has been answered ever since it was offered.

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In almost all ages, the greater part of the visible Church has been opposed to the truth; and it has been and still is the greatest enemy of Christ and of His followers. Christ, speaking to the leaders and rulers of the visible Church in His day, said, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city" (Matt. 23: 29). These words have been literally fulfilled by the visible Church. It crucified Christ; killed, or persecuted them who believed in Him; and for the greater part of the time, ever since, it has wherever it had temporal places it is doing so now. concerning the Church was fulfilled, "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth" (Matt. 23: 35). The lapsed Churches, generally, hate the truth and them

continued to do so, power; and in some Thus Christ's Word

that hold it more than the world does. This was the case before Christ came. It was for this Cain killed Abel. The ten tribes of Israel when they forsook God, became the greatest enemies of the two who remained faithful to His Word and service. Whenever affinity was made with each other, Judah was led into idolatry.

The marriages of the children of God with the children of the world, were followed by the corruption of the entire human race; and was the cause of the Flood sent to destroy all living, excepting those saved in the Ark. In the former dispensation, the children of God were forbidden to form alliances with the idolatrous nations around them; they were forbidden to introduce any of their forms of worship; they were forbidden to join them in worldly business or pursuits; and particularly forbidden to have any marriages between them; "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods" (Deut. 7: 3). Solomon, the wisest of men, was thus led astray. Such was the fate of Ahab after he married Jezebel. And such now generally follows, when children of Christian parents marry the daughters of lapsed Churches, or of the world. In the New Testament the children of God are told, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with