We are frequently told on every hand that the world is growing better; but the Word of God tells us that the last days will be perilous because of apostasy, and that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” See 2 Tim. 3:1-5, 13. The sins mentioned in the first four verses are among those professing godliness. Here is the testimony of Dr. A. T. Pierson, editor of the Missionary Review of the World, a man who has exceptional advantages of observation:— “It is but too sadly obvious that never in the history of these nineteen centuries has the world more encroached upon the church or the church been more assimilated in the world. The amazing decline in doctrinal soundness, the decay of vital piety and spirituality, the godless extravagance prevailing even among disciples, the abounding conformity to the world, the practical denial of Christian stewardship, the neglect of private prayer, the growing indifference to public worship, the vastness of the unoccupied field of missions, and the utter inadequacy of present means and methods to overtake this destitution—these, and many other evils and perils now confronting us, demand such a new standard of holy living and giving, praying and preaching, denying of self and serving of God, as can never become actual without a new Pentecost from above.” But all this is just what our Lord foretold would come. Matt. 24:12-14. It is a precursor of his coming.