If it be asked, What this one thing is? It is the SPIRIT OF GOD brought again to HIS FIRST POWER OF LIFE IN US. Nothing else is wanted by us, nothing else intended for us, by the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel. Nothing else is, or can be effectual, to the making sinful man become again a godly creature.

"Everything else, be it what it will, however glorious and divine in outward appearance, everything that angels, men, churches, or reformations, can do for us, is dead and helpless, but so far as it is the immediate work of the Spirit of God breathing and living in it."] These words were penned in 1761 by William Law in his Address to the Clergy. They were true then, and they are true today.

The apostle Paul states in Colossians 1:26-29:

"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily."

There is nothing that can stand in the gap for the Spirit of God; no substitute, nothing of the flesh can meet the requirements of a Holy God. "For all have sinned and fallen short..." includes ALL of us. All of our good works; all of our perceived righteousness, is as filthy rags.

[Put Not Your Trust In Princes...

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help" Psalms 146:3.

"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD" Jeremiah 17:5.

"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" Jeremiah 10:23.

The following are excerpts taken from "The Number of Man," by Philip Mauro, written in 1908. We can learn much from the past. For instance, it came as quite a shock to me to learn that 100 years ago, men were warning the people of the very things that were then just exposing themselves, but today have been widely incorporated as acceptably held beliefs and practices, in both the religious as well as the secular arena. Problem being, today we have been so conditioned to believe that our darkness is light, that we don't even see it. This short dissertation goes a long way to explain what is taking place in our newly formed union between the church and the world. One of them has changed, and its not the world.

[THE RELATION BETWEEN ECONOMIC AND RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

At this point another question arises, namely, Have the industrial movements of the day any relation to, and anything in common with, the co-temporaneous religious movements? Are these movements converging? and if so, in what sort of a system or social order are they likely to eventuate? This question is one of thrilling interest and of vital importance to mankind.

If we were to interrogate those who are prominently identified with these great movements, they would, for the most part, assure us that these mighty currents of thought and action are carrying humanity forward to conditions vastly better and happier than have ever yet been experienced during its long voyage across the ocean of time. The industrial leaders generally assure us of a coming period of abounding and universal prosperity; and the religious leaders and prophets predict the happiest consequences as sure to result from the fact that religious men are everywhere laying aside old prejudices and narrow theological ideas,... ideas which were imposed upon mankind in the days when the human reason...was shackled and the Bible was held to be Divine and authoritative, but which are offensive to, and have been wholly rejected by, the modern mind. [considering that this was said 100 years ago, we can only imagine what these men would say if they could see the condition of the world today. Didn't Jesus tell us this, in His letter to the church of Ephesus?... "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent" Revelation 2:5.] To such persons the meaning of these mighty religious movements is that mankind, in the exercise of its new-found intellectual freedom, is sweeping rapidly forward to a great unification or brotherhood, which shall embrace and blend all shades of religious opinion into one harmonious system. This is the vision which many prophets of the day are beholding with rapt attention, and are describing with glowing words.

More and more come to see that their lines of development run parallel, and be therefore induced to federate themselves into ever greater and greater unions, until at last the time must come when a single world-federation of religion, the CHURCH OF MAN, will rise out of the ruins of the ancient faiths, when the great religious crises of the world will be at an end, and the strife between the logical necessity of the modern scientific world-concept and the psychic necessity of religion will be solved in the ultimate harmonization of both.

2. A Common Basis--Faith in the Powers of Man.

The faith of the world is based on Man, the fundamental principle of that faith being that Man possesses the inherent power to lift himself out of all evil conditions, and to overcome all existing hindrances to his progress. On the other hand a fundamental proposition of Christian doctrine is that man is impotent and untrustworthy, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help" (Psa 146:3).

"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm" (Jer. 17:5). It is impossible to conceive of a religious system more opposed to Christianity than one whose main teaching is that man may and must put his trust in his own inherent power and goodness. It is, however, a settled article in the creed of the world, and of the world's religions of whatever name, that Man is now in process of developing and of putting into exercise his own inherent powers (which have in large part been latent hitherto), and is, by means thereof, progressing rapidly towards ideal social conditions.

The propagation of the idea of the "Solidarity of Man," or the essential identity of the interests of all mankind, has two consequences which should be noted. First, it tends to obliterate the important teaching of Scripture that instead of one united humanity having a common destiny, there are two great sections of humanity, one composed of those who have life through faith in the Son of God, and the other of those who have not life;... one embracing the children of God and the other the children of wrath.

Second, it tends to obscure or wholly cover up the absolute necessity of individual salvation. This it does by creating the impression that salvation is a collective or social affair, to be accomplished not for each individual man, but for the entire human race as an entity.

From these considerations it is easy to see that the current doctrines of the "brotherhood of man" are traceable to the "spirit of error," and to see also the deadly consequences of the propagation of such doctrines.

3. A Common Religious Principle--Worship of Man.

This is, practically, a re-statement of the fact that there exists at the present time a wide-spread faith in collective Man. But it is important to have distinctly before our minds the fact that it is the inevitable tendency of this trust in Man to take a religious form, leading on eventually to "Humanism," or the worship of Man, which, as prophecy foretells, is the ultimate form which false religion is to assume. Few are aware of the immense progress that has already been made towards the establishment of Humanism as a distinctive religious system. It calls for an exercise of "wisdom" and for much spiritual "understanding," to count the number of the beast; but whenever the count is properly made the number of his name is found to be "the number of Man."

In many quarters where the name and forms of Christianity are still retained, the substance of true Christianity ("the doctrine of Christ") has been already displaced by the principles of Humanism; while in the great socialistic movement of the day, which is menacing the existing economic order of society, Humanism is distinctly avowed as the coming universal religion of mankind, (end quote)].

Another 100 years before Philip Mauro lived, William Law stated: "The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam, through the Spirit and power of Christ are many. But the one great dragon enemy, called antichrist, is self-exaltation. This is his birth, his pomp, and his throne; when self-exaltation ceases, the last enemy is destroyed, and all that came from the pride and death of Adam is swallowed up in victory."

What is humanism, but the self-exaltation of man?

Weekly hundreds of thousands of souls pour into these affluent, trendy, mega-churches across this nation, and get pumped up with how wonderful they are and how much God loves them. Worldly prosperity and religion have become synonymous goals sought after by leader and laity alike. We know that the Word forewarns us...."This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away" 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Just who does this instruction apply to? From whom are we to 'turn away?' Surely not today's pre-eminent leaders? What does the Bible tell us about how we are to judge spiritual things? Is it written that we can tell by our feelings? By how many books he or she has on the best-seller's list? By the size of the congregation? By whether or not they are accepted by the world's leaders? Just what is the criteria for Christians... in this or any generation?

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" James 4:4.

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15:18-19.

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" Luke 14:26-27.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.