1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

Babylon is built, is being dried up--"alarge falling off." Her epitaph is written,--"The ordinary religious teaching...is quite dead." They received not thelove of the truth; and for this causeGod is sending (Sinaitic MSS.) themstrong delusion, that they should believea lie." The father of lies hasbeen permitted to delude them intobuilding on falsehood and making liestheir refuge, and now "none speakethpublicly in truthfulness (Var. Rend.),nor any pleadeth for truth. They hatchcockatrices' (adders') eggs...he thateateth them dieth, and that which iscrushed (analyzed) breaketh out into aR718 : page 8viper (Isaiah 59:5). The adders' eggsare Satan's (the serpent's) lies, thesemen made systems have hatched them;thinking minds, unable to see theirorigin, have analyzed them, and thevipers, Infidelity and Spiritualism,the progeny of Satan, have come forth.The application of these and otherScriptures to the times we live in, tothose who are wakeful and watchful, confirmthe accuracy and truthfulness ofthe prophetic records as being fromGod; but to those who are not takingheed unto the "sure word of prophecy,"everything is doubt and uncertainty;page 8and notwithstanding that they say"peace and safety" and give assurancesof growth and prosperity, the facts areto the contrary. The Bishop's reportat the last General Conference of theM.E. Church, shows an increase of lessthan four to each church in four years, orless than one to each church per year;and this includes probationers; andif only one in each church goes back to