[From John Wesley, Sermon 71, on "The Signs of the Times."]
AND as it was with them in ancient times, so it is with the present generation. Thousands of those who bear the name of Christ are now given up to an undiscerning mind. The god of this world hath so blinded their eyes that the light can not shine upon them; so that they can no more discern the signs of the times than the Pharisees and Sadducees could of old. A wonderful instance of this spiritual blindness, this total inability to discern the signs of the times mentioned in Scripture, is given us in the very celebrated work of a late eminent writer who supposes the New Jerusalem came down from heaven when Constantine the Great called himself a Christian. I say called himself a Christian; for I dare not affirm that he was one, any more than Peter the Great. I can not but believe he would have come nearer the mark if he had said that it was the time when a huge cloud of infernal brimstone and smoke came up from the bottomless pit! For surely there never was a time wherein Satan gained so fatal an advantage over the church of Christ as when such a flood of riches and honor and power broke in upon it, particularly on the clergy.