^0  ADVENT  CHRISTIAN   HISTORY

the  widening  call,  she  needed  to  be  freshly  awakened,  to
separation,  self-denial,  and  service.,

4.  Prophetic  study  was  being  revived  among  the  de-
vout, and  this  was  designed,  not  only  to  furnish  enlarged
Christian  evidence,  but  also  to  lead  the  church  back  to
the  true  hope.  Bible  societies  bieing  widely  organized,
and  the  Bible  extensively  circulated,  the  world  was  to  be
called  to  consider  its  message  of  the  coming  Kingdom,  and
the  last  judgment,  and  its  good  news  of  salvation  would
be  thus  more  clearly  emphasized,  and  its  need  be  more
deeply  felt.
5.  Further,  the  Advent  message  came  to  the  church
at  such  time  that  it  seemed  designed  of  God  to  prevent
what  a  noted  divine  has  called  the  "Protestant  Apostacy,"
to  sanctify  and  re-commission  the  church,  to  call  her  anew
to  a  sacred  and  mighty  ministry.  Rejecting  this  great
truth — the  substance  of  the  message— -she  fell  into  ways  of
worldliness  and  folly.  The  church  edifice  was  changed
from  a  house  of  prayer  to  a  house  of  play,  and  congrega-
tions vied  with  one  another,  each  striving  to  provide  the
most  winsome  entertainment,  the  finest  money-raising
scheme  and  the  biggest  frolic.  Had  the  church  heeded  the
voice  of  God,  and  regarded  the  favor  of  His  providence,
she  could  not  thus  have  turned  to  folly.  The  solemn  truth,
with  its  spiritual  grace,  would  have  been  her  safeguard
and  keeper.
