church. "No man can serve two masters" now any more than when Christ uttered the saying. Although Satan has deceived the mass of sectarian professors into the false belief that they can serve sin and Christ right along togethersin daily in word, thought, and deed, and yet be Christians—but the Book has not changed, and it is still true that "he that committeth sin is of the devil." The same purity, unity, glory, power, and perfect peace, that God put in his church are yet there, though only appropriated by few men on earth. The miraculous gifts that the Lord set in the body have never been taken out. Gifts of wisdom, of knowledge, of healing, of discerning of spirits, and of casting out devils -all these are yet in the church, notwithstanding the teaching of sectarians to the contrary. Not finding these gifts in their bodies, they have taught that God has recalled such things. He has never promised to set in men's structures what he has placed in his own church. But since we have returned from Babylon to the heavenly Jerusalem, we find all the precious gifts yet remaining in it and awaiting the faith once delivered to the saints to grasp them and develop them into use. There is not one non

essential incorporated into the Word of God, nor yet one element that was to drop out after the death of the apostles or at any subsequent time.

The inspired apostle Paul, speaking of the new-testament ordinances, said to the Corinthians, "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread," etc. 1 Cor. 11:23. And in verse 2 he commanded them, saying, "Keep the ordinances, as I delivered them unto you." So God's people are not left at liberty to modify one of the ordinances in the least, much less to substitute the sprinkling rite of paganism and Romanism for the sacred ordinance of burial with Christ in baptism. How presumptuous it is to cast away one of the ordinances of Christ, as the largest portion of professors do, or all of them, as the Quakers and a few others do, taking the ridiculous position that the law of Christ met with a revision some time after the apostles died! How directly opposite to the words of Christ this falsehood! Thus we read: "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he

come." And the command to baptize all who believe in Christ is incorporated in the commission which authorizes the perpetual ministry and to which is subjoined the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

So the obligation to administer the ordinance of baptism extends parallel with the commission to preach the gospel to the end of the world; and so of every element of the entire divine system. There is not a mutable factor in it. This fact is clearly established in Jude 3: "Beloved,... I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints." The verb "delivered" is in the aorist tense and therefore denotes that it was "delivered once for all," as rendered in the Revised Version and nearly all other translations. If it was delivered once for all, it is therefore unchangeable to the end of time. Even the language of the Common Version, "once delivered unto the saints," conveys that idea. So we repeat that the church as it stood in its primitive glory and unity exists unchanged today.

INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE CHURCH,

Upon the erroneous supposition that the church which Christ built was entirely destroyed Mormonism has built her house. Her adherents maintain that the apostasy destroyed the church, that hence it became necessary for man to build another, and that under divine inspiration Joseph Smith reestablished the church of God upon earth. Now, if we can prove that the church of God has never been destroyed, but that it exists today, we shall establish the fact that all the Mormon sects are but human frauds imposed upon the people.

In Dan. 2:44 the new-testament church was prophesied of as a kingdom set up by the God of heaven, a kingdom which should never be destroyed, but should stand forever. This accords with the language of Jesus in Matt. 16:18: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." These solemn declarations of heaven's truth are sufficient to establish the fact that the church which Christ built will stand forever. If the gates of hell can not prevail against it, it is indestructible and exists today.

Yes, dear reader, that divine temple stands just as solid and firm as in days of yore. Though it has witnessed bloody scenes of martyrdom and has for centuries been largely hidden from human view by the ecclesiastical rubbish of men, yet it has never been destroyed-never. Earthly kingdoms and governments have passed away; great and mighty changes have been wrought in the earth; but the church of God has stood unshaken; and now, as the burning truth of God consumes the piles of ecclesiastical rubbish, and the glorious light of the evening-time dispels the mists and fogs of the dark and cloudy days, she appears again in her wondrous beauty and pristine glory. So shall she stand while the cycles of eternity roll.

Let us briefly view the elements that compose the church. Christ is its head (Col. 1:18), foundation (1 Cor. 3: 11), door (John 10:7, 9), and governor (Isa. 9: 6, 7). Its walls are salvation (Isa. 26: 1); its law is the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2); its bond of union is the love of God (Col. 2:2); its membership consists of the saved of all nations. Now, to destroy the

church would be to destroy its foundation, which the apostle Paul declares "standeth sure"; its