We live in desperate times – in moral and in other concerns.  Things are also collapsing in on themselves spiritually in terms of widespread decline in what the professing Church believes and the standards by which it lives.  But William Guthrie shows that our problem is not just living in a time of destruction, but self-destruction.  We may be concerned about moral deterioration in society but also need to see ourselves as personally implicated.  Where can we find hope? It is only in that God is able to help those who have destroyed themselves.  As Guthrie puts it: ‘the Church of God in her lowest condition may warrantably look and wait for help from God’.