The very days in which our lot is cast have been sketched by a pen that never colors--never exaggerates, but always presents men and things precisely as they are.--"This know also, that in _the last days_"--quite distinct from "_the latter times_" of 1 Timothy iv.--far in advance, more pronounced, more closely defined, more strongly marked, these last days in which "perilous [or difficult] times shall come. For men shall be _lovers of their own selves_, covetous, _boasters_, proud, blasphemers, _disobedient to parents_, unthankful, unholy, _without natural affection_, truce-breakers, _false accusers_, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, _lovers of pleasures more_ [or rather] _than lovers of God_." And then mark the crown which the inspired apostle puts upon this appalling superstructure!--"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." (2 Tim. iii. 1-5.) What a terrible picture! We have here, in a few glowing, weighty sentences, _infidel_ christendom, just as in 1 Timothy iv. we have _superstitious_ christendom. In the latter, we see popery; in the former, infidelity. Both elements are at work around us, but the latter will yet rise into prominence--indeed, even now it is advancing with rapid strides. The very leaders and teachers of christendom are not ashamed or afraid to attack the foundations of Christianity. A so-called Christian bishop is not ashamed or afraid to call in question the integrity of the five books of Moses, and, with them, of the whole Bible; for, most assuredly, if Moses was not the inspired writer of the Pentateuch, the entire edifice of holy Scripture is swept from beneath our feet. The writings of Moses are so intimately bound up with all the other grand divisions of the divine Volume, that if they are touched, all is gone. We boldly affirm that if the Holy Ghost did not inspire Moses, the servant of God, to write the first five books of our English Bible, we have not an inch of solid ground to stand upon; we are positively left without a single atom of divine authority on which to rest our souls; the very pillars of our glorious Christianity are swept away, and we are left to grope our way, in hopeless perplexity, amid the conflicting opinions and theories of infidel doctors, without so much as a single ray from Inspiration's heavenly lamp.