“Another feature of the present crisis is, that God will test the faith of his waiting ones, and all those persons who are making almanacs for the Lord, and fixing dates for the fulfilling of certain prophecies, are going to be disappointed. We are living a life of faith in every particular, clear down to the last moment of his appearing in the sky. The Scriptures are very clear in setting forth two facts concerning Christ’s coming. On the one hand we are told of the signs that would precede his coming, and we are told to watch those things, and they will indicate his coming as near; on the other hand we are expressly told that the day and hour of his appearing will never be made known beforehand, and our wisdom lies in not forgetting the signs on the one hand, nor in fixing dates on the other. Hence Jesus commands us to keep in the attitude of a watcher, always ready, always expecting, yet not knowing. In the parable of the ten virgins, our Savior clearly intimates that the bridegroom will tarry beyond the time that his people expected him. The picture is that of a crowd of passengers sitting in a station and waiting for a night train which is behind time, and while they are yet waiting they get drowsy and nod. The sentence, ‘They all slumbered and slept,’ should more properly be, they became ‘drowsy and nodded.’ This applies to the very elect, who will be taken into the wedding, and indicates a crisis of the trial of the faith of the sanctified ones. “But the most significant of all things in the present crisis is the testing of true faith in all points of doctrine. There never was a time since the fall of Adam when the human race was so drenched with the muddy waters of heresy. Everything moves with lightning rapidity. The principles that lie hidden in every system of government, education, social life, and manifold forms of religion, are swiftly pushing themselves to prestige and open manifestation. Sin is not only working out every species of wickedness that can be invented, but the intellect of the so-called Christianized world is showing signs of decay in its ability to grasp sturdy Bible truth, and is largely turning from the Bible to old worn-out heathen ideas. Every doctrine of the Bible is being twisted into fanciful theories. The scriptures teaching of sin and the need of broken-hearted repentance is practically ignored by thousands of ministers and church-members. The absolute divinity of Jesus is growing weaker in the faith of many who claim to teach his gospel, and some who profess to be very orthodox say they do not pray to Jesus. The literal resurrection of the body taught by the Scriptures is caricatured and treated lightly by professed theologians, ministers, and professed Christians. The immortality of the soul and its conscious existence, either in heaven or hell, during the sleep of the body in death, is being rejected for the old heathen notion. The experience of justifying and sanctifying grace,