PART II

The Church in History




CHAPTER V

CORRUPTION OF EVANGELICAL FAITH


It is not my purpose to write an ecclesiastical history, but in order
to make clear the work of final reformation, it will be necessary to
present at least a brief sketch of historic Christianity, outlining
particularly those leading features which show a radical departure
from the true church as originally constituted by our Lord and his
apostles.

[Sidenote: "The faith"]

In the days of primitive Christianity there was something called "the
gospel," "the truth," "the form of sound words," "_the faith."_ To
understand its fundamental nature is not difficult, for it has been
preserved and handed down to us in the writings of the New Testament.
According to this record, the gospel message, or "the faith," centered