In the August No. of Help and Food we pointed out the terrible and rapid advance of unbelief in the professing Church as preparatory to the final apostasy, predicted in Scripture, which shall introduce "the man of sin, the son of perdition" after the true Church is "caught up to meet the Lord in the air " (see 2 Thess. 2:2-6 with 1 Thess. 4:15-17).

The conflict spoken of then was among the representatives of the Baptist Federation of Churches in convention at Indianapolis, in which the "Modernists" (who refuse the cardinal doctrines of Christianity) had the upper-hand. The same is also active among the Presbyterian body. So bold is the destructive teaching of Modernists in the Presbytery of New York, that the Presbytery of Philadelphia felt constrained to make appeal and protest by a circular of recent date, from which we copy the following:

"The Presbytery of Philadelphia begs to remind its brethren of the Presbytery of New York that at the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, held in Atlantic City, in the year 1916, numerous overtures were brought up to the Assembly, filled with complaint against the Presbytery of New York, and one from the Presbytery of Cincinnati, asking that the Presbytery of New York be exscinded from the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. A conference then was held between the Commissioners of the complaining Presbyteries and the Commissioners of the Presbytery of New York, who expressed their pain and grief that such drastic action should have been proposed with reference to the Presbytery of New York. At the end of this conference, by the unanimous approval of the conferees, including all the Commissioners from the Presbytery of New York, a paper was presented to the Assembly, and adopted by the Assembly, calling the attention of all the Presbyteries to the requirements of the Confession of Faith as to the licensing of candidates for the ministry. The paper concluded with the following affirmation, solemnly ratified by the Commissioners, sitting in the General Assembly of the Church:

"The General Assembly calls the attention of the Presbyteries to the deliverance of the General Assembly of 1910, which is as follows:

"1. It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God and our standards that the Holy Spirit did so inspire, guide and move the writers of Holy Scripture as to keep them from error.

"2. It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God and our standards that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.

"3. It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God and our standards that Christ offered up Himself a sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice and to reconcile us to God.

"4. It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God and of our standards concerning our Lord Jesus Christ that on the third day He rose again from the dead with the same body with which He suffered, with which also He ascended into heaven, and there sitteth to the right hand of His Father, making intercession.

"5. It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God as the supreme standard of our faith that our Lord Jesus showed His power and love by working mighty miracles. This working was not contrary to nature, but superior to it."

The Presbytery of Philadelphia, in deep earnestness, would inquire of the Presbytery of New York if in its opinion the teachings and preaching which are now being proclaimed in the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City are not in open denial of, and hostility to, these ratified declarations of our Church."

Spite of the New York Presbytery's assent to the pronouncements of the General Assembly in 1916, the Modernists' teaching goes on freely. What of it being false to their confession of faith?-they insist on continuing as one body, while openly repudiating their creed. "The new knowledge and the old faith have to be blended in a new combination," proclaims the smooth-tongued orator of a leading Presbyterian Church, who then goes on to enumerate what the Fundamentalists would bind them to, but which the Modernists repudiate. He says:

"They insist that we must all believe in the historicity of certain special miracles, pre-eminently the virgin birth of our Lord; that we must believe in a special theory of inspiration-that the original documents of the Scripture (which of course we no longer possess) were in errantly dictated to men a good deal as a man might dictate to a stenographer; that we must believe in a special theory of the atonement-that the blood of our Lord, shed in a substitutionary death, placates an alienated Deity and makes possible welcome for the returning sinner; and that we must believe in the second coming of our Lord upon the clouds of heaven to set up a millennium here, as the only way in which God can bring history to a worthy denouement. Such are some of the stakes which are being driven, to mark a dead-line of doctrine around the church. Shall they be allowed to succeed?"

Alas, they know but too well that the mass of churchgoers and unconverted church-members are on their side.

And what of the large Methodist Episcopal body? It is well-known that for many years it has been one of the loosest of "Orthodox" denominations-orthodox no longer. Dr. Munhall, editor of "The Eastern Methodist," has combated the new theology in that denomination for many years. In answering inquiries, in a recent issue, he says:"I know of no Methodist pastor in the city of New York that believes the Bible is the Word of God, and preaches it." Then he advises inquiring parents not to send their sons or daughters to the Methodist Colleges and Universities, which are full of evolution theories and "Higher Criticism."

Well, reader, what is the outlook?-The Coming of the Lord draweth nigh! If the Protestant nations which have been so blest and exalted by the Word of God, freely circulated among them, do now reject it, the apostasy is upon us, and the Lord's word to the false church is, "I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 3:16). But to them who will keep His word and not deny His name He says:"Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3:11).