We learn from the twenty-fourth chapter of Isaiah that the effects of this ancient apostasy would be so universal as to cover all classes of society, affecting not only the religious and social circles, but the business transactions of the human family. In the second verse he says: "And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him." By reading the fifth verse of the same chapter we learn that even the earth upon which we dwell is seriously effected. Isaiah says: "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant." As a testimony to the fulfillment of this prophecy, thousands of people in the American Union are witnesses to the fact, that in many parts the land will not produce such prolific crops as it would several years ago, but is gradually growing weaker and losing its virtue. Many places once fruitful are now turned aside as being too poor to cultivate, and are occupied by hedge grass, sassafras bushes and growths of small pine. Such is the rapid decline of the strength of the soil. I have been informed that in one state some of the people, desiring to learn why the soil was losing its virtue, took quantities of earth from different points and had it analyzed. The analysis revealed the fact that the soil had lost its salt and was therefore comparatively of but little worth, only to be trodden under the foot of man. This test of the soil in one section is a fair sample of the same condition of the land in many other places. These are the terrible effects, Isaiah informs us, of the inhabitants of the earth transgressing "the laws," changing "the ordinances," and breaking the "everlasting covenant." Among other important features wherein the everlasting covenant has been broken is that pertaining to the marriage contract, which, agreeable to the laws of heaven, is binding through time and eternity, not recognizing death, which is said to be the "wages of sin," as having power to sever that which is joined together by the power and authority of God. The world is now following the pattern of the Sadducees (who denied the resurrection), and therefore pronounce the ceremony of marriage "until death do you part."