d
and spiritual direction, except when indolence, careless indifference, and
our own folly have led us astray. These are evils which continually assail
us, and we often make friends with them, not knowing what we are doing for
the most part, until the blood of life has almost ebbed away. We are not,
indeed, removed from a world where sin abounds and where deceiving voices
may allure us this way and that. Like the pastoral country of the Orient,
the walks of life are fraught with perils: false teachers, false
doctrines, false prophets, pseudo-christs;(31) "perils from our own
nation, and perils from abroad, perils in the city and perils in the
wilderness, perils in the sea and perils from false brethren"(32)--all
trying to attract and lead us away from the paths of justice and deliver
us to the enemy of our souls.

It is necessary that we should know that wolves are abroad in sheep's
clothing; "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ."(33) They come to us with winning words and easy
teachings, with new creeds, new forms of belief, new ways to the promised
land.

The doctrine and truths which Christ taught and which He entrusted to His
Church are set aside or explained away by these modern teachers, and the
novel and the strange are made to assume the role of the old, the familiar
and the true. The harm done is incalculable. How many innocent and unwary
sheep have been lost to the fold of Christ by following the call of these
unworthy preachers and false shepherds! What multitudes of precious souls
have been deceived by their polished words and led away into paths of
error, into deadly ways of thinking, believing, and acting, never to
return to the path that leads to life!

This poisoning of the soul and the heart by erroneous doctrines is
effected in many and diverse ways; the victims of falsehood are variously
captured. There are the wisdom and sagacity of men, there are the
conquests of science and the learning of the philosophers, the discoveries
of our day, the strides of history, the breakdown and overthrow of many
things held sacred by our forefathers--and all these changes and ruptures
in the order of a former generation are now used to beguile the flock of
Christ and sway them from the paths of truth and righteousness. But amid
all this din and uproar of conflicting voices, amid the wrangling tumult
and confusion of converging opinions, those who will may hear and