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We continue with extracts from Benjamin Wills Newton’s book, Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms, the chapter 6 — THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY, AS GIVEN IN THE PARABLES OF MATTHEW XIII.

I would commend a close reading of these extracts for they deal with the very issue of ‘decay within Christendom’ that we see all around.

Here is Part 3, which covers end of page 156-160.

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The introduction of false professors greatly, of course, affected the appearance which the Church presented to the world. A field intermingled with tares cannot appear as one in which wheat only grows. The loveliness of its aspect must be gone. Nevertheless, the corporate standing of the Churches was not thereby forfeited. They were still regarded by the Lord as worthy of being represented before Him by their original and proper symbol — “candlesticks of gold.” The steadfastness even of individual saints, although endangered, was not necessarily destroyed by the approximation of evil, however near. Neither was the executive agency of the Churches necessarily perverted ; and· it is by the acts of its executive that the character of every corporate body is determined. Holy discipline might have been exercised. (more…)