sinister meaning, and the word hypocrite emerged. It should further be remembered that

in the Greek plays the actor spoke through a mask, impersonating the character he was

supposed to represent. It must further be understood, that in course of time, "good men"

who died were promoted to the rank of demons or mediators, and "demons and heroes

differed but in more or less antiquity; the more ancient heroes being called demons, and

the younger demons, heroes" (Mede).

The prevalence of "saint-worship" in the Romish Church is one of the more modern

ways in which demon mediation has usurped the place of Christ; but Spiritism is another,

for the words "speaking lies in hypocrisy" could mean "speaking lies in a mask, as an

impersonator or play actor".

The enlightened believer is neither likely to be deceived by the claims of some that

dead "saints" act as mediators, nor to be ensnared by the Spiritists at their seances; but

the Devil can pose as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness. He

can lead on to a false humility by giving undue prominence to an honoured minister of

the Word, to a Church position, to anything and everything good in itself, so long as it

comes between the believer and his Lord. In each and every case the remedy is "to hold

the Head", to remember in the calling we have received that "Christ is all, and in all".

We must not dwell unduly upon this opening phase of the apostasy that is to come, for

the words "latter times" can well refer to those times that followed close upon the end of

the apostolic age. The seeds were then sown that will bear their evil fruit in the perilous

times with which the present dispensation ends and in the Mystery of Iniquity which will

be manifested after the hope of the Church of the One Body has been realized.

There are warnings that belong to the close of the present dispensation that are found

in the second epistle to Timothy. These have a bearing upon the time now present, and to

these we must give heed.

The apostasy of I Tim. 4: started early in the history of christendom, but the

prophetic warning of II Tim. 3: refers to "the last days", the extreme verge, the days

immediately before the end of the present dispensation and possibly to the days in which

we live, or which are imminent. The one characteristic of these days here revealed, is

that they are "perilous", a word we have examined in the fourth article of this series and

one which is used of men possessed of "devils" or demons, and who were in consequence

"exceeding fierce".  The "last days" therefore will be "perilous" indeed.  In the

preparatory and incipient stages of this great and terrible apostasy, the bait was cleverly

hidden beneath seductions to abstinence and self-denial; now, as the end approaches, this

disguise is thrown away and the hideous character of the hidden plague is made manifest.

Now "self" is prominent, and instead of a false humility, we have such words as