That there has been a great departure from the doctrines, ordinances and discipline of the Church as it existed in the days of Christ and his apostles, must be evident to every unbiased enquirer into religious truth. This has been demonstrated to some extent in that already presented to the reader. But the full measure of the apostasy that has taken place would take volumes to represent in detail. The proofs are ample that it has been universal. When Jesus Christ commenced his ministry on earth he found the people who claimed to be the special subjects of divine blessing and approbation, with all their priests and ministers and learned divines, entirely out of the way of life and salvation. None were acceptable unto God. He denounced the most pious, respectable, devout and educated among them as hypocrites and "whited sepulchres." Their foreign missionary enterprises he declared obnoxious to the Almighty, and informed them that when they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte they made him "two-fold more the child of hell" (Matthew 23:15). He pronounced them blind guides who made clean the outside, but within were full of extortion and excess. The Spirit of the Lord had departed from those who honored his name with their lips, but who had departed from his ways, and who, in place of the word of God, "taught for doctrine the commandments of men." They were without authority from God, although they claimed to have it by descent and ordination through a long line of predecessors and prophets. It should not be deemed impossible that a similar universal apostasy could take place after the establishment of the Church of Christ by him and his apostles. But whether so considered or not, the facts are too patent to be denied when they confront the honest and enlightened mind.