THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESENT AGE.
By H. E. S. Hopkins
PAUL, in his second epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:1–5) gives us a plain description of the spirit of the present age: “Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection [“unsociable” (Rom. 1:30), margin], truce-breakers, 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.” Is not there need of watching and praying as never before, that none of these traits of character be found in us, but that we abound in the fruits of the Spirit,—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,—that we may be fitted for translation?