We have already remarked they will retain the form of godliness. There is no open rejection of the name or the outward acts of Christianity: in appearance their standard is high, for it is a form of _godliness_. But, with all this, they deny its power; they do not like its soul-searching message. They would not for the world be accounted any thing but serious, they are regular and attentive at the round of the church’s services; they welcome your words so long as you speak of the externals of religion; but, when you search into the real matter, the new birth by the Holy Ghost; pardon through the Lamb’s blood; justification freely given through his righteousness; the deep humiliation of those who live by grace; the weaning of the affections from the world, and the fixing them unreservedly on Christ; then it is that the natural man rises up, and, if not by words, they will by facts deny its power. They will live as much in the world as ever. They will have the form of godliness at the sacrament on Sunday, they will deny its power by their eager thirst after gain and pleasure through the week. They will approve the form when the services are reverently conducted in the church: they will deny the power when called upon to cleave anew to Christ in life. And, even when there is not this cleaving to the world, there may be the denial of its power in conjunction with the form of godliness. Such is the case when the church and its forms are made more prominent than Christ and his grace. There may be the form of godliness in the expression of peculiar reverence for the things of God, in frequent bowings, in the constant use of the epithet “holy,” and in humble submission to the church’s teaching. But with all this there may be the stopping short of the power of a lively faith. The church may be like the painted window disguising the true colouring of the sun; the soul may be resting on the church’s ordinances rather than the cross; baptism may be exalted, and the new birth by the Holy Ghost forgotten; while the mind becomes so subjected to the church’s teaching, that it dares not presume to make a fearless use of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. When such is the case, we have the form of godliness without the power. (3.) A third feature of the character of the church in the latter days, as here described by prophecy, is _an ignorance of_, _and aversion to_, _the truth as it is in Jesus_. In chap. iii. _v._ 7, there is a description of future ignorance: “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”