THE CONDITION OF THE CHURCH.
JOHN G. WOOLLEY declares that there is built into the church because of her "dawdling stoppages," "coarse connective tissue, such as 'the world that lieth in wickedness' is built of." He continues:— "And so we have a fleshly, earthly, unresponsive, ineffectual church, invalid and on the defensive. But, conscious of her failing health and yearning for power, her enfeebled spirit clutches at every quackery that promises short, impossible cut across the laws of life to life. This explains the 'fair,' the 'bazaar,' the temperance prayer-meetings of Republicans and Democrats; the Anti-Saloon Leagues of men who vote the saloon a jubilee year—one in four."—Voice, Endeavor Lesson, Feb. 14, 1897. And the same thing explains the "law-and-order leagues," the "Christian citizenship organizations," the "Sabbath unions," etc., etc. There is but one true source of power for the church, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit. There is but one captain, and that is Jesus Christ. There is but one book of orders, and that is the Bible. That church that leaves these for earthly or political organizations is false to her Spouse, Jesus Christ, and is guilty of spiritual adultery. " 'God has a controversy with his people' which must be settled—or settled for. I do not see what cautery he will burn withal, or what wild deluge pour, but out of some furnace of torture, stripped and scathed—down from some Ararat, awed and grateful, a fragment of what she was, she must come, chastened and eager to meet her Lord in honor, truth for truth, and keep her unto him as long as they both shall live."—John G. Woolley. But that will be the remnant church developed by God’s great threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-14.