No. 6.  
BY CHARLES W. PENROSE
 
That there has been a great departure from the doctrines, ordinances and discipline of the Church as it existed in the days of Christ and His Apostles, must be evident to every unbiased enquirer into religious truth. This has been demonstrated to some extent in tracts already presented to the reader. But the full measure of the apostasy that has taken place would take volumes to represent in detail. The proofs are ample that it has been universal
 
When Jesus Christ commenced His ministry on earth He found the people who claimed to be the special subjects of divine blessing and approbation, with all their Priests and ministers and learned divines, entirely out of the way of life and salvation. None were acceptable unto God. He denounced the most pious, respectable, devout and educated among them as hypocrites and "whited sepulchres." Their foreign missionary enterprises he declared obnoxious to the Almighty, and informed them that when they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte they made him "two fold more the child of hell." (Matt. XXIII; 15). He pronounced them blind guides who made clean the outside, but within were full of extortion and excess. The spirit of the Lord had departed from those who honored His name with their lips, but who had departed from His ways, and who, in place of the word of God, "taught for doctrine the commandments of men." They were without authority from God, although they claimed to have it by descent and ordination through a long line of predecessors and prophets. It should not be deemed impossible that a similar universal apostasy could take place after the establishment of the Church of Christ by Him and His Apostles. But whether so considered or not, the facts are too patent to be denied when they confront the honest and enlightened mind.
 
It has been shown that the Gospel as taught and administered by Christ and His Apostles required first, faith in {228} God and Jesus Christ; second, repentance, which included reform of conduct; third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of divinely authorized men; and that obedience to these brought the gifts of the spirit, including love, joy, peace, patience, brotherly kindness, charity, healings, tongues, interpretations, discerning of spirits, miracles, prophecy, revelation, and the unity in one body of all who were baptized into the Church, no matter what had been their previous beliefs. Also that the ordinances of the Gospel were administered by men inspired of God, who were in communion with Him, and who were ordained to act for and in behalf of Deity, so that what they performed by that authority on earth was acknowledged and sealed in heaven. And that in the Church of Christ there were Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, Elders, and other officers, who were constituent parts of the body of Christ. This may be further seen by a careful reading of 1st Cor. XII, from which it clearly appears that God placed these in the Church, that they were all essential to its existence, and that one of them could not say to any of the others, "I have no need of thee."
 
Look at the condition of so-called Christendom today! There are no inspired Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers, administering by divine authority and in the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. In their place there are contending Priests and Teachers guided by the wisdom of men, the learning of the schools and the traditions of the Fathers, not even claiming that there is any direct communication between them and God, but persuading mankind that revelation has ceased, and the voice of prophecy is hushed forever. Not one of the clashing, jarring and discordant sects of the day proclaim the Gospel as it was preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost, and as taught by all the duly authorized servants of God in the primitive Christian Church. The gifts and signs which Christ promised to true believers, and which were enjoyed by the members of His Church according to their needs and their faith, are not only absent from the churches of these degenerate times, but are pronounced needless and "done away." There is no "unity of the faith," no actual "knowledge of the Son of God," no manifestations of His divine acceptance nor of the power and glory of the Holy Ghost.
 
What is the reason of this transformation? Has God changed? Is Christ divided? Is the Holy Spirit dead? Or, have not men changed the order, ordinances, discipline, doctrines, {229} and spirit of the Church of Christ? Is not the prediction of Isaiah the Prophet concerning these times literally fulfilled? "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." He said it should be "As with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him." (Isaiah XXIV; 2-5).
 
The deplorable condition of affairs in modern Christendom was foreseen and predicted by the Apostles of Jesus Christ, whose forebodings have come down to us in the New Testament. Paul, writing to Timothy, spoke in this wise: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." (2nd Tim. III; 1-5). Also: "Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in............