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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 edition. Excerpt:... by works, and, entering in, to tear away page after page out of the Sacred Scriptures, till each, pleasing himself, had left little but empty boards; you would drive out of the Church the authorized teachers of the Gospel, the Sabbath and the Sacrament would soon follow in their train, and what would then remain but a code of empty morality which the Mussulman, the Deist, and the Infidel might profess? And this, Mr. Paterson, you call the glorious era of Christianity!" "I do," said Mr. Paterson, "call this a glorious era of Christianity; though, give me leave to say, Mr. Smith, that your picture is not a faithful one; it is a caricature." "Have I not heard you say, Mr. Smith," cried Sophia, "that you are looking forwards to a glorious era in Christianity?" "Yes, Miss Sophia," I said, "I look for an enlargement and exaltation of Christ's Church: but how is this to be brought about? not by the admission of wolves into the Church, but by the changing tbe wolf's heart into that of the sheep. Christ is the door of the Church, or, to use a more appropriate simile, he is the Shepherd of the sheep, and he will suffer no wolf, though clad in sheep's clothing, to enter into his pasture: he has many sheep to bring into his fold, and by and by there will be one fold and one Shepherd, but there shall be no wolf among the sheep." "O, happy time!" cried Clara; "when will it come?" "Meanwhile," added I, "as our good Mr. Hill said last Sunday, many shall come in Christ's name, and would deceive the very elect. But, perhaps, there is no one sign by which we may more easily detect these false teachers, than by their teaching salvation in some way or other,...