In reading the history of the church, one is overwhelmed to see how innovations have crept in and eat the vitals out of the church. At every period of the church, when there was any vitality in it, any spirituality or devotion to God, there has been a constant effort on the part of the enemy, through some well-meaning, but worldly minded professors of religion, to work things into the church, or to work something out of it, in the nature of the case calculated to corrupt and destroy it. We must be awake to these wily manœuverings and guard against them, or they will ruin the great work so well begun and so successfully carried on in our time. The insidious, wily and stealthy machinations of the Grecian and Gnostic philosophers, did an immense work in corrupting the primitive church. Many of these did this, too, with the best intentions in the world. They thought it would be a grand acquisition to the Christian religion, an accomplishment and refinement, to append to it philosophy, and require every preacher to be a philosopher. These were constantly edging into the pure religion of Christ their fine philosophical notions, pagan customs and ceremonies, and destroying the church whenever they did it. On the other hand, learned Judaizers were foisting Judaism into the church at every opportunity. Between Judaizers on the one hand, and Gnostic philosophers on the other, they amalgamated Christianity, Judaism and Paganism, and made Romanism. It was easy to obtain the idea of infant membership from Judaism, the idea of image worship from Paganism, and the idea of one true church from Christianity, and thus incorporate a system with a membership based in the flesh, making all the infants members, without any regeneration, under pagan idolatry, in worshipping images, and at the same time, with the idea that they are the true church. THE BIBLE GROUND. For fifty years, we, as christians, have stood on the Bible alone, as a rule of faith and practice. Till recently, no difficulty was experienced in reducing it to practice. For forty years after the effort was first made in this country, to return to original ground, to the apostolic faith and practice, and restore the ancient order of things; submit to the law of the Lord in all things; we found no difficulty of consequence. But on the other hand we realized our vantage ground, answered all the cavils of creed-mongers, fought our way through, built up churches on Christ, set them in order under the law of God, and thus were happy in the Lord. No people in this country have ever been as happy and prosperous. All worked well. We silenced all opposition.