ignorant of his devices." I
believe a departure from the form of sound words mainly accounts for
the many errors in doctrine and practice which exist among professing
Christians to-day. A departure from the form of our Lord's great
commission has not only perverted the ordinance of baptism by applying
it to infants; but it has destroyed the ordinance itself by setting
aside trine immersion, which it so plainly teaches.

And what shall we say of the ordinance of feet-washing! When a parent
or teacher wishes to impart to his child or pupil a clear
understanding of some duty or obligation, he usually feels relieved of
all further responsibility when he has given the necessary instruction
to his child or pupil in words which he knows can be understood. But
in the institution of the ordinance of feet-washing our Lord did not
depend upon oral instruction to impart a clear knowledge of his will;
but he went through the performance himself, and at the close he said:
"I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to
you." Are not these sound words? What are sound words, and what is
their form? I answer that sound words are words which have no doubtful
meaning; and the form of sound words is such a use of them as clearly
expresses and conveys to the mind of the reader or hearer just what
the writer or speaker wants him to know. But do the so-called churches
hold fast these words? No, they do not. They let them go as things out
of date, or unnecessary at the present advanced stage of enlightened
thought. But "if the light that is in them be darkness, how great is
that darkness!"

I can say of the Lord's Supper, which Jude calls a feast of charity,
or love feast, which is the same, and which the Lord instituted in
connection with feet-washing, just what I have said of this ordinance.
It is let go. These, with many other omissions and errors, have crept
into the so-called Christian faith and practice, by letting go the
form of sound words. Still more. The injunctions to nonconformity to
the world in dress and other things are all let go instead of being
held fast, and loose reins are given to all manner of worldly forms
and fashions. Professing Christians even defraud one another through
covetousness, which is idolatry, going to law one with another. They
also do not hesitate to bear arms in war, which is the greatest of all
earthly evils.

Brethren and friends, I do not speak in this way from any feeling of
ill