As long as the house of The Holy Spirit remains a haven for criminals the reputation of the church will remain in ruins.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The Spirit hasn't deserted the church today.
The spirit of the kingdom undermines its defenses. People will rise against the king. A new peace is made; holy laws deteriorate. Paris has never before found herself in such dire straits.
Our own theological Church, as we know, has scorned and vilified the body till it has seemed almost a reproach and a shame to have one, yet at the same time has credited it with power to drag the soul to perdition.
It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.
When anyone has the power to destroy the whole human race in a matter of hours, it becomes a moral issue. The church must speak out.
Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.
Indeed, no one does more injury in the church than he who acts perversely and yet has the name and order of sanctity.
The quality of the Lord's church on earth, cannot be seen by any man, so long as he lives in the world, still less how the church in process of time has turned aside from good to evil.
There the union of Church and State tends strongly to paralyze some of the members of the body of Christ. Here there is no such influence to destroy spiritual life and power.
The Church is the safe place to be. I can safely believe everything the Church teaches. It will not harm me, and in fact it will equip me to grow and grow and have a better and better ability to experience that direct presence.