For, if the right of private judgment is allowed by the Protestant church, why are men condemned and expelled from that church for ncwother crime than honestly attempting to obey the word of God, in some particulars not in accordance with her creed?  This is the beginning of apostasy.  Read Chas. Beecher’s work, “The Bible a Sufficient Creed.”  “Is not the Protestant church,” he asks, “apostate?” Is not the apostasy which we have reason to fear, “already formed?” But apostasy in principle always leads to corruption in practice.  And so Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, sets forth the condition of the professed church of Christ in the last days.  A rank growth of twenty heinous sins, with no redeeming virtues, shows that the fruits of the Spirit will be choked and rooted out by the works of the flesh.  We can look nowhere else for this picture of Paul’s to be fulfilled except to the Protestant church; for the class of which he speaks maintain a form of godliness, or the outward services of a true Christian worship.

And is not the church of our day beginning to manifest to an alarming degree the very characteristics which the apostle has specified?  Fifteen clergymen of the city of Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday, Feb. 5, 1871, distributed a circular, entitled “A Testimony,” to fifteen congregations of that city.  To this circular the Rochester Democrat of Feb. 7 made reference as follows:—­

“The ‘Testimony’ sets out by stating that the foregoing pastors are constrained to bear witness to what they ’conceive to be a fact of our time; viz., That the prevailing standard of piety, among the professed people of God, is alarmingly low; that a tide of worldliness is setting in upon us, indicating the rapid approach of an era, such as is foretold by Paul in his second letter to Timothy, in the words, “In the last days perilous times shall come."’ These conclusions are reached, not by comparisons with former times, but by applying the tests found in the Scriptures.  They instance as proof, ‘the spirit of lawlessness which prevails.’  The circular then explains how this lawlessness (religious) is shown.  Men have the name of religion, but they obey none of its injunctions.  There is also a growing disposition to practice, in religious circles, what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God.  The tendency to adopt worldly amusements, by professed Christians, is further stated in evidence.”

This testimony is very explicit.  When men “have the name of religion, but obey none of its injunctions,” they certainly may be said to have a form of godliness, but to deny the power; and when they “practice in religious circles what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God,” they may be truthfully said to be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”  And Rochester is not an exception in this respect.  It is so all over the land, as the candid everywhere, by a sad array of facts, are compelled to admit.