Show f THE DRIFT TOWARDS I 1 tiie THE prevalent religious discontent la in one of the topics of the period in the t religious journals in an article on r this subject the living church church an all ei isco publication thus des bribes the situation P everybody is aware of the restless ness which so widely prevails in the ref 6 1 etious world and which is overturning the very foundations in many directions bew theories of religion or old theories to ny a new dress are promulgated every xay some of the oldest and most conservative serva tive denominations are threatened f with upheaval others are drifting along with the tide and assuming shapes in tea teach ebing ing and life which their founders bould never recognize it st 1 mt l one reason of this to ia the absence of A sufficient standard and authoritative guide ide the church established al h but in a way to destroy the lib jib erty I 1 of the peo people pie and to set up for eret cret vence aud and worship human dogmas and I 1 human beings and objects object assuming a power that belongs to no mortal and dominion over the souls of nien men to bring them into bondage the revolt from that system indru dured in the reformation has been Joll followed owed by that license which is miel mia f called liberty and by a repudiation of all authority which has reful resulted ted in i the extreme of individualism producing religious anarchy the some same artif v ele cle remarks what we oppose is ia a drift a tendency ft a movement sometimes it almost seems jah conspiracy of which professor f comerie and mr hamels are prominent re representatives in england and which in chri this country is widespread and increase ing in influence it is a ration aUstic movement to the core all creeds and statements of doctrine are disputed or explained away the inspiration of the scriptures is resolved into poetic genius the facts of our lords life are converted into myth and legend the doctrine of the atonement takes on the character of a relic of pagan superstition the church becomes an institution of purely human origin ind and character for divine truth divinely revealed which no process of human inquiry and thought could ever have discovered without the direct intervention of god truth which as re revealed baled by one who in ia himself unchangeable must be itself fixed and immutable what A ever new unfolding it may admit w we have i the be shifting guesses and conjectures of fallible men that describes de the movement which to ie working evil throughout entire christendon Christ endow it is a masked form of infidelity it despises authority it ignores all rules it sets aside or din aLcee it cuts loose from restraints t it dentes denies certainty in religion and makes individual opinion the only gelty and doubt the final cot coi digiov A religion which has no organized form no established discipline no re cognized authority and no fixed funda mental principles is not worthy of the name A society that meets simply to ventilate lors lore and exchange sentiments in which every member may believe what he can without any doctrines of cimmon acceptance as a basis toy opinion alii and without any defined being as a common MOD object of faith to la not a church in the religious sense of the terra term and abd to is as ae unlike the church established by jesus of nazareth and his apostles aa any thing dissimilar can be what the world needs today is the church of christ as aa he organized 11 1 with the same principles that he gave its it the kame authority that he placed in it the same offic officer ets ordin ordinances ancee discipline and power the same spirit gifts manifestations and blessings and the same unity that characterized the church of the first century that church is restored it is op on the earth now but it is not known as bob such and its force and attractions are not u understood because the masses of so called christians 1 1 will not investigate nor admit the possibility of mormonism Mormon iBm as they term it being anything but a delusion or a fraud therefore the prevalent discontent and division will go on while the cure for it all JV eJected and ceppi despised ed we caution all people who desire to be led by the truth to have present satisfaction and a living faith in a glorious future to avoid that which leads to disbelief that pretended christianity which to is infidelity inA delity in disguise and to seek for that certainty that knowledge by which they can become rooted and grounded in the faith and then to hold fast to that which they have received and allow nothing to turn them from the solid rock of content and peirce peace which a divine testimony alone establishes no matter in what form such an influence as that which to is now stirring in religious circles may come it is not the christianity of christ it is not in hari harmony noDy with his church nor with him and is in reality unbelief and |