shelter its deformity; and "mystery," which is one of the names that falsehood takes, is found to reign. Every one may readily see that those events in the Church, associated as they were with the love of rule and dominion among its leaders, must have thrust aside all orderly communication with the Divine author of its truth, and thrown down that plane of the human mind on which spiritual progress is effected. Hence arose the vicarship of the Pope,[1] the canonization of the dead, the invocation of saints, the sale of indulgences, the obligations of the confessional, the division of the Eucharist, and finally the dark ages with all their evils. All these things are entirely apart from the teachings of true Christianity; but being thrust into it, their existence therein fulfils some of the predictions which we have seen are to be the prelude of the Lord's second coming. Certainly they prove the necessity for such an occurrence; for by what other power could their mischiefs be arrested?
But the main evil in those corruptions is that which has turned the Church away from the direct acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ as the true God and eternal life, —the only wise God our Saviour. It is true that those who say there are three persons in the Godhead, and that each is by Himself God and Lord, also say that there is but one God. But these are words to which no sensible ideas can be attached; and they are employed simply to guard against what otherwise might expose them to the derision of mankind. Still, every one sees that the statements involve obvious contradictions. This, at least, is well known to all who think; and therefore it has been said to be a mystery, not for comprehension but for faith. The
- ↑ The fourth general council, held at Chalcedon in 455, was the first to offer to the Bishop of Rome the title of Universal Bishop.
