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live to present the Church to Christ, but the knowledge only redoubled his desire to warn it of its perils, and exhort it ever to watch for the Lord. (2 Tim. iv, 6—.)

      2. The Apostles agree in teaching that the preaching of the Gospel—the sinfulness of men, the call to repentance, the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and salvation through His death and resurrection,—is offensive to our fallen nature; and that His disciples, therefore, must always be exposed to hostility and hate. In this, also, they only repeat what He had taught them. Says St. Paul: "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." "For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake." "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." Says St. Peter: "For even hereunto (suffering) were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us." St. James says: "Take, my brethren, the prophets . . f or an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure." In the apostolic teaching, the offense of the cross is never to cease. "The friendship of the world is enmity with God," and this enmity will reach its highest point just before the Lord's return. " In the last days perilous times shall come." "Evil men

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      and seducers will wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived." "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise of His coming? "Remember the words which are spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that there shall be mockers in the last time."

      If the Apostles expected that the preaching of the Gospel would bring all men, or a very large part of them, to repentance and faith, they would not have spoken in this way. How long would be the period of the Lord's absence, they did not know, or how many would be gathered into the Church. Had they looked for any conversion of the world, or the reception of the gospel by all nations, they could not have looked for the Lord's return in their own lifetime. They knew the Church to be an election, and it might be speedily gathered. But the whole period, whether longer or shorter, they knew to be one of trial and suffering for those faithful to their absent Lord. Of honour, wealth, power, rule, they say not a word, but shame, reproach, persecution—these are ever on their lips.

      8. The Apostles agree in teaching that Satan is "the prince of this world," and that he will continue to show to the Church the same hostility that He showed to the Lord. He will remain to the end the enemy and tempter. St. Paul says: "The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not." "I fear lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." "The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." "Put

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      on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." St. Peter says: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adver- sary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." St. John says: "He that is begotten of God, keepeth himself, . . and the evil one tempteth him not." "The whole world lieth in the evil one." (R. V.) "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

      The supremacy of Satan as the prince and god of this world continuing to the end, the Church must expect to be tempted as the Lord was tempted, and to meet with every form of subtle deception as well as of open opposition. He would come in "the guise of an angel of light." He would even suffer himself to be scoffed at as a nonentity. He would make use of all devices to deceive and to destroy. The Church, therefore, must never think herself secure, but be always on the watch, "putting on the whole armour of God." (Eph. vi, 11 —.)

      ST. PAUL AND HIS TEACHINGS.

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      Having briefly examined the teachings of the Apostles collectively as to the religious character of the last days, we proceed to examine those passages in each where mention is made of an individual man as the great enemy of God and of His Son at the time of the end. And, as St. Paul speaks most fully and distinctly on this point, we begin with him.

      This Apostle, in his second Epistle to the Thessa- lonians (written about 54 or 55 A. D.), speaks of the apostasy or falling away, out of which would come "the man of sin," "the son of perdition," "that wicked." This man, it is said by Prof. Eadie, "the fathers as a body identified with Antichrist." (Com. on Thessalonians.) As a chief source of our knowl- edge respecting him, the right understanding of St. Paul's words is of the highest importance in our enquiry.

      It is not necessary here to go into exegetical details, we need note only the chief points of the Apostle's statement: These are. First, The working of the mystery of iniquity in his day. Secondly, The apostasy, or falling away. Thirdly, The coming of the man of Sin, or of the lawless one. Fourthly, The hindrance to his revelation. Fifthly, His destruction at the Lord's coming.

      First, "The mystery of iniquity," or, as in the R. V., "the mystery of lawlessness." (2d Thess. ii, 7.)

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      Here two things are affirmed by the Apostle, the fact of a lawless spirit already working in the Church, and that this working was "a mystery." A mystery is not a thing in itself unknowable, but something hidden from the general knowledge and revealed only to the initiated. (Arcanum iniquitatis Tertul.) Thus the Lord spoke of "the mysteries of the kingdom" which His disciples alone could know; from others they were hidden. (Matt, xiii, 11, Eph. iii, 3.) It is said by Campbell ("Four Gospels"), "The spirit of antichrist hath begun to operate, but the operation is latent and unperceived." And it is said by Bishop Wordsworth in loco," What St. Paul was thus describing was then a mystery, and not as yet revealed, but working inwardly." It was made known to the Apostle by the Holy Ghost because of his position as a ruler under Christ over the Church. In like manner the Apostle John saw the spirit of antichrist already active. (1 John iv, 8.) Both discerned, what was hidden from others, that there was already working a spirit of lawlessness, a rejec- tion of apostolic authority, which, if fully developed, would set aside the rule of the Head, and make the Church her own lawgiver and ruler; and in its last manifestation would reject not only Christ's authority, but all authority of God over men. Out of it would come "the lawless one," who would make his own will the supreme law of his action. As said by Bishop Ellicott: " In the apostasy of the present, the inspired apostle sees the commencement of the fuller apostasy of the future."

      But, in what form did this incipient lawlessness so early manifest itself? We have only to read St.

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      Paul's Epistles to find the answer.* In almost all of them we find complaints that his apostolic authority was not recognized, and that he could not effectually fulfill his ministry. As the fundamental condition of all true obedience in the Church there must be love. The Lord said: "If ye love Me, keep my command- ments." Obedience based on any other motive was seeming, not real. And St. Paul himself speaks of the ministers of the Church as able to build it up only in gr through love. (Eph. iv, 16.) As this point will again meet us, we need not dwell upon it here. It is sufficient to say that in the loss of "the first love," we find the hidden root of the lawlessness, the first workings of which the apostles saw.

      Secondly. The apostasy, or falling away.

      This means, generally, a falling away from some given standard ; a defection; Here it means a falling away from the true standing of the Church as ap- pointed by Ood. This meaning is confirmed by the use of the word elsewhere (Acts xxi, 21), "thou teachest the Jews to forsake Moses"; literally, "apos- tasy from Moses.'' The word is used by St. Paul (1st Tim. iv. 1), "Some shall depart from the faith," "shall apostatize from the faith." This general mean- ing leaves undetermined the degree of the apostasy or

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      *See Bernard, "Progress of Doctrine

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