day in which there is literally nothing to attract the natural man. They
meet in miserable dirty chapels, so-called, or in wretched upper-rooms
and cellars. They sing unmusically. They hear feeble prayers, and more
feeble sermons. And yet the Holy Ghost is often in the midst of them!
Sinners are often converted in them, and the kingdom of God prospers far
more than in any Roman Catholic Cathedral, or than in many gorgeous
Protestant Churches. How is this? How can it be explained? The cause is
simply this, that in these humble assemblies heart-religion is taught
and held. Heart-work is aimed at. Heart-work is honoured. And the
consequence is that God is pleased and grants His blessing.
I leave this part of my subject here. I ask men to weigh well the things
that I have been saying. I believe that they will bear examination, and
are all true. Resolve this day, whatever Church you belong to, to be a
Christian in _heart_. Whether Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Baptist or
Independent, be not content with a mere form of godliness, without the
power. Settle it down firmly in your mind that formal religion is not
saving religion, and that heart-religion is the only religion that leads
to heaven.
I only give one word of caution. Do not suppose, because formal religion
will not save, that forms of religion are of no use at all. Beware of
any such senseless extreme. The misuse of a thing is no argument
against the right use of it. The blind idolatry of forms which prevails
in some quarters is no reason why you should throw all forms aside. The
ark, when made an idol of by Israel and put in the place of God, was
unable to save them from the Philistines. And yet the same ark, when
irreverently and profanely handled, brought death on Uzza; and when
honoured and reverenced, brought a blessing on the house of Obed-edom.
The words of Bishop Hall are strong, but true: "He that hath but a form
is a hypocrite; but he that hath not a form is an Atheist." (_Hall's
Sermons_, No. 28.) Forms cannot save us, but they are not therefore to
be despised. A lantern is not a man's home, and yet it is a help to a
man if he travels towards his home in a dark night. Use the forms of
Christianity diligently, and you will find them a blessing. Only
remember, in all your use of forms, the great principle, that the first
thing in religion is the state of the heart.
III. I come now to the last thing which I proposed to consider. I said
_that true religion must never expect to be popular. It will not have
the praise of man, but of God._
I dare not turn away from this part of my subject, however painful it
may be. Anxious as I am to commend heart-religion to every one who reads
this paper, I will not try to conceal what heart-religion entails. I
will not gain a recruit for my Master's army under false pretences. I
will not promise anything which the Scripture does not warrant. The
words of St. Paul are clear and unmistakable. Heart-religion is a
religion "whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom. ii. 29.)
God's truth and Scriptural Christianity are never really popular. They
never have been. They never will be as long as the world stands. No one
can calmly consider what human nature is, as described in the Bible,
and reasonably expect anything else. As long as man is what man is, the
majority of mankind will always like a religion of form far better than
a religion of heart.
Formal religion just suits an unenlightened conscience. Some religion a
man will have. Atheism and downright infidelity, as a general rule, are
never very popular. But a man must have a religion which does not
require much,--trouble his heart much,--interfere with his sins much.
Formal Christianity satisfies him. It seems the very thing that he
wants.
Formal religion gratifies the secret self-righteousness of man. We are
all of us more or less Pharisees. We all naturally cling to the idea
that the way to be saved is to do so many things, and go through so many
religious observances, and that at last we shall get to heaven.
Formalism meets us here. It seems to show us a way by which we can make
our own peace with God.
Formal religion pleases the natural indolence of man. It attaches an
excessive importance to that which is the easiest part of
Christianity,--the shell and the form. Man likes this. He hates trouble
in religion. He wants something which will not meddle with his
conscience and inner life. Only leave conscience alone, and, like Herod,
he will "do many things." Formalism seems to open a wider gate, and a
more easy way to heaven. (Mark vi. 20.)
Facts speak louder than assertions. Facts are stubborn things. Look over
the history of religion in every age of the world, and observe what has
always been popular. Look at the history of Israel from the beginning of
Exodus to the end of the Acts of the Apostles, and see what has always
found favour. Formalism was one main sin against which the Old Testament
prophets were continually protesting. Formalism was the great plague
which had overspread the Jews, when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the
world.--Look at the history of the Church of Christ after the days of
the apostles. How soon formalism ate out the life and vitality of the
primitive Christians!--Look at the middle ages, as they are called.
Formalism so completely covered the face of Christendom that the Gospel
lay as one dead.--Look, lastly, at the history of Protestant Churches in
the three last centuries. How few are the places where religion is a
living thing! How many are the countries where Protestantism is nothing
more than a form! There is no getting over these things. They speak with
a voice of thunder. They all show that formal religion is a popular
thing. It has the praise of man.
But why should we look at facts in history? Why should we not look at
facts under our own eyes, and by our own doors? Can any one deny that a
mere outward religion, a religion of downright formality, is the
religion which is popular in England at the present day? It is not for
nothing that St. John says of certain false teachers, "They are of the
world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth
them." (1 John iv. 5.) Only say your prayers,--and go to church with
tolerable regularity,--and receive the sacrament occasionally,--and
the vast majority of Englishmen will set you down as an excellent
Christian.--"What more would you have?" they say: "If this is not
Christianity, what is?"--To require more of anyone is thought bigotry,
illiberality, fanaticism, and enthusiasm! To insinuate a doubt whether
such a man as this will go to heaven is called the height of
uncharitableness! When these things are so it is vain to deny that
formal religion is popular. It is popular. It always was popular. It
always will be popular till Christ comes again. It always has had and
always will have "the praise of man."
Turn now to the religion of the heart, and you will hear a very
different report. As a general rule it has never had the good word of
mankind. It has entailed on its professors laughter, mockery, ridicule,
scorn, contempt, enmity, hatred, slander, persecution, imprisonment, and
even death. Its lovers have been faithful and ardent,--but they have
always been few. It has never had, comparatively, "the praise of man."
Heart-religion is too _humbling_ to be popular. It leaves natural man no
room to boast. It tells him that he is a guilty, lost, hell-deserving
sinner, and that he must flee to Christ for salvation. It tells him that
he is dead, and must be made alive again, and born of the Spirit. The
pride of man rebels against such tidings as these. He hates to be told
that his case is so bad.
Heart-religion is too _holy_ to be popular. It will not leave natural
man alone. It interferes with his worldliness and his sins. It requires
of him things that he loathes and abominates,--conversion, faith,
repentance, spiritual-mindedness, Bible-reading, prayer. It bids him
give up many things that he loves and clings to, and cannot make up his
mind to lay aside. It would be strange indeed if he liked it. It crosses
his path as a kill-joy and a mar-plot, and it is absurd to expect that
he will be pleased.
Was heart-religion popular in Old Testament times? We find David
complaining: "They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the
song of the drunkards." (Psalm lxix. 12.) We find the prophets
persecuted and ill-treated because they preached against sin, and
required men to give their hearts to God. Elijah, Micaiah, Jeremiah,
Amos, are all cases in point. To formalism and ceremonialism the Jews
never seem to have made objection. What they did dislike was serving God
with their hearts.
Was heart-religion popular in New Testament times? The whole history of
our Lord Jesus Christ's ministry and the lives of His apostles are a
sufficient answer. The scribes and Pharisees would have willingly
received a Messiah who encouraged formalism, and a Gospel which exalted
ceremonialism. But they could not tolerate a religion of which the first
principles were humiliation and sanctification of heart.
Has heart-religion even been popular in the professing Church of Christ
during the last eighteen centuries? Never hardly, except in the early
centuries when the primitive Church had not left her first love. Soon,
very soon, the men who protested against formalism and sacramentalism
were fiercely denounced as "troublers of Israel." Long before the
Reformation, things came to this pass, that anyone who cried up
heart-holiness and cried down formality was treated as a common enemy.
He was either silenced, excommunicated, imprisoned, or put to death like
John Huss.--In the time of the Reformation itself, the work of Luther
and his companions was carried on under an incessant storm of calumny
and slander. And what was the cause? It was because they protested
against formalism, ceremonialism, monkery, and priestcraft, and taught
the necessity of heart-religion.
Has heart-religion ever been popular in our own land in days gone by?
Never, excepting for a little season. It was not popular in the days of
Queen Mary, when Latimer and his brother-martyrs were burned.--It was
not popular in the days of the Stuarts, when to be a Puritan was worse
for a man than to get drunk or swear.--It was not popular in the middle
of last century, when Wesley and Whitfield were shut out of the
established Church. The cause of our martyred Reformers, of the early
Puritans, and of the Methodists, was essentially one and the same. They
were all hated because they preached the uselessness of formalism, and
the impossibility of salvation without repentance, faith, regeneration,
spiritual-mindedness, and holiness of heart.
Is heart-religion popular in England at this very day? I answer
sorrowfully that I do not believe it is. Look at the followers of it
among the laity. They are always comparatively few in number. They
stand alone in their respective congregations and parishes. They have to
put up with many hard things, hard words, hard imputations, hard
treatment, laughter, ridicule, slander, and petty persecution. This is
not popularity!--Look at the teachers of heart-religion in the pulpit.
They are loved and liked, no doubt, by the few hearers who agree with
them. They are sometimes admired for their talents and eloquence by the
many who do not agree with them. They are even called "popular
preachers," because of the crowds who listen to their preaching. But
none know so well as the faithful teachers of heart-religion that few
really like them. Few really help them. Few sympathize with them. Few
stand by them in any time of need. They find, like their Divine Master,
that they must work almost alone. I write these things with sorrow, but
I believe they are true. Real heart-religion at this day, no less than
in days gone by, has not "the praise of man."
But after all it signifies little what man thinks, and what man praises.
He that judgeth us is the Lord. Man will not judge us at the last day.
Man will not sit on the great white throne, examine our religion, and
pronounce our eternal sentence. Those only whom God commends will be
commended at the bar of Christ. Here lies the value and glory of
heart-religion. It may not have the praise of man, but it has "the
praise of God."
God approves and honours heart-religion in the life that now is. He
looks down from heaven, and reads the hearts of all the children of men.
Wherever He sees heart-repentance for sin,--heart-faith in
Christ,--heart-holiness of life,--heart-love to His Son, His law, His
will, and His Word,--wherever God sees these things He is well pleased.
He writes a book of remembrance for that man, however poor and unlearned
he may be. He gives His angels special charge over Him. He maintains in
him the work of grace, and gives Him daily supplies of peace, hope, and
strength. He regards him as a member of His own dear Son, as one who is
witnessing for the truth, as His Son did. Weak as the man's heart may
seem to himself, it is the living sacrifice which God loves, and the
heart which He has solemnly declared He will not despise. Such praise is
worth more than the praise of man!
God will proclaim His approval of heart-religion before the assembled
world at the last day. He will command His angels to gather together His
saints, from every part of the globe, into one glorious company. He will
raise the dead and change the living, and place them at the right hand
of His beloved Son's throne. Then all that have served Christ with the
heart shall hear Him say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:--you were
faithful over few things, and I will make you rulers over many things;
enter into the joy of your Lord.--Ye confessed Me before men, and I will
confess you before my Father and His holy angels.--Ye are they who
continued with Me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom as
my Father hath appointed unto Me." (Matt. xxv. 21--34; Luke xii. 8;
xxii. 28, 29.) These words will be addressed to none but those who have
given Christ their hearts! They will not be addressed to the formalist,
the hypocrite, the wicked, and the ungodly. _They_ will, indeed, stand
by and see the fruits of heart-religion, but they will not eat of them.
We shall never know the full value of heart-religion until the last day.
Then, and only then, we shall fully understand how much better it is to
have the praise of God than the praise of man.
If you take up heart-religion I cannot promise you the praise of man.
Pardon, peace, hope, guidance, comfort, consolation, grace according to
your need, strength according to your day, joy which the world can
neither give nor take away,--all this I can boldly promise to the man
who comes to Christ, and serves Him with his heart. But I cannot promise
him that his religion will be popular with man. I would rather warn him
to expect mockery and ridicule, slander and unkindness, opposition and
persecution. There is a cross belonging to heart-religion, and we must
be content to carry it. "Through much tribulation we must enter the
kingdom."--"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution." (Acts xiv. 22; 2 Tim. iii. 12.) But if the world hates
you, God will love you. If the world forsakes you, Christ has promised
that He will never forsake and never fail. Whatever you may lose by
heart-religion, be sure that the praise of God will make up for all.
And now I close this paper with three plain words of application. I want
it to strike and stick to the conscience of every one into whose hands
it falls. May God make it a blessing to many a soul both in time and
eternity!
(1) In the first place, Is your religion a matter of form and not of
heart? Answer this question honestly, and as in the sight of God. If it
is, _consider solemnly the immense danger in which you stand_.
You have got nothing to comfort your soul in the day of trial, nothing
to give you hope on your death-bed, nothing to save you at the last day.
Formal religion never took any man to heaven. Like base metal, it will
not stand the fire. Continuing in your present state you are in imminent
peril of being lost for ever.
I earnestly beseech you this day to know your danger, to open your eyes
and repent. Churchman or Dissenter, High Church or Low Church, if you
have only a name to live, and a form of godliness without the power,
awake and repent. Awake, above all, if you are an Evangelical formalist.
"There is no devil," said the quaint old Puritans, "like a white
devil." There is no formalism so dangerous as Evangelical formalism.
I can only warn you. I do so with all affection. God alone can apply the
warning to your soul. Oh, that you would see the folly as well as the
danger of a heartless Christianity! It was sound advice which a dying
man, in Suffolk, once gave to his son: "Son," he said, "whatever
religion you have, never be content with wearing a cloak."
(2) In the second place, if your heart condemns you, and you wish to
know what to do, _consider seriously the only course that you can safely
take_.
Apply to the Lord Jesus Christ without delay, and spread before Him the
state of your soul. Confess before Him your formality in time past, and
ask Him to forgive it. Seek from Him the promised grace of the Holy
Ghost, and entreat Him to quicken and renew your inward man.
The Lord Jesus is appointed and commissioned to be the Physician of
man's soul. There is no case too hard for Him. There is no condition of
soul that He cannot cure. There is no devil He cannot cast out. Seared
and hardened as the heart of a formalist may be, there is balm in Gilead
which can heal him, and a Physician who is mighty to save. Go and call
on the Lord Jesus Christ this very day. "Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." (Luke
xi. 9.)
(3) In the last place, if your heart condemns you not, and you have real
well-grounded confidence towards God, _consider seriously the many
responsibilities of your position_.
Praise Him daily who hath called you out of darkness into light, and
made you to differ. Praise Him daily, and ask Him never to forsake the
work of His own hands.
Watch with a jealous watchfulness every part of your inward man.
Formality is ever ready to come in upon us, like the Egyptian plague of
frogs, which went even into the king's chamber. Watch, and be on your
guard.--Watch over your Bible-reading,--your praying,--your temper and
your tongue,--your family life and your Sunday religion. There is
nothing so good and spiritual that we may not fall into formal habits
about it. There is none so spiritual but that he may have a heavy fall.
Watch, therefore, and be on your guard.
Look forward, finally, and hope for the coming of the Lord. Your best
things are yet to come. The second coming of Christ will soon be here.
The time of temptation will soon be past and gone. The judgment and
reward of the saints shall soon make amends for all. Rest in the hope of
that day. Work, watch, and look forward.--One thing, at any rate, that
day will make abundantly clear. It will show that there was never an
hour in our lives in which we gave our hearts too thoroughly to Christ.
XII
THE WORLD
"_Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord._" 2 Cor. vi. 17.
The text which heads this page touches a subject of vast importance in
religion. That subject is the great duty of separation from the world.
This is the point which St. Paul had in view when he wrote to the
Corinthians, "Come out,--be separate."
The subject is one which demands the best attention of all who profess
and call themselves Christians. In every age of the Church separation
from the world has always been one of the grand evidences of a work of
grace in the heart. He that has been really born of the Spirit, and made
a new creature in Christ Jesus, has always endeavoured to "come out from
the world," and live a separate life. They who have only had the name of
Christian, without the reality, have always refused to "come out and be
separate" from the world.
The subject perhaps was never more important than it is at the present
day. There is a widely-spread desire to make things pleasant in
religion,--to saw off the corners and edges of the cross, and to avoid,
as far as possible, self-denial. On every side we hear professing
Christians declaring loudly that we must not be "narrow and exclusive,"
and that there is no harm in many things which the holiest saints of old
thought bad for their souls. That we may go anywhere, and do anything,
and spend our time in anything, and read anything, and keep any company,
and plunge into anything, and all the while may be very good
Christians,--this, this is the maxim of thousands. In a day like this I
think it good to raise a warning voice, and invite attention to the
teaching of God's Word. It is written in that Word, "Come out, and be
separate."
There are four points which I shall try to show my readers, in examining
this mighty subject.
I. First, I shall try to show _that the world is a source of great
danger to the soul_.
II. Secondly, I shall try to show _what is not meant by separation
from the world_.
III. Thirdly, I shall try to show in _what real separation from the
world consists_.
IV. Fourthly, I shall try _to show the secret of victory over the
world_.
* * * * *
And now, before I go a single step further, let me warn every reader of
this paper that he will never understand this subject unless he first
understands what a true Christian is. If you are one of those unhappy
people who think everybody is a Christian who goes to a place of
worship, no matter how he lives, or what he believes, I fear you will
care little about separation from the world. But if you read your Bible,
and are in earnest about your soul, you will know that there are two
classes of Christians,--converted and unconverted. You will know that
what the Jews were among the nations under the Old Testament, this the
true Christian is meant to be under the New. You will understand what I
mean when I say that true Christians are meant, in like manner, to be a
"peculiar people" under the Gospel, and that there must be a difference
between believers and unbelievers. To you, therefore, I make a special
appeal this day. While many avoid the subject of separation from the
world, and many positively hate it, and many are puzzled by it, give me
your attention while I try to show you "the thing as it is."
I. First of all, let me show that _the world is a source of great danger
to the soul_.
By "the world," be it remembered, I do not mean the material world on
the face of which we are living and moving. He that pretends to say that
anything which God has created in the heavens above, or the earth
beneath, is in itself harmful to man's soul, says that which is
unreasonable and absurd. On the contrary, the sun, moon, and stars,--the
mountains, the valleys, and the plains,--the seas, lakes, and
rivers,--the animal and vegetable creation,--all are in themselves "very
good." (Gen. i. 31.) All are full of lessons of God's wisdom and power,
and all proclaim daily, "The hand that made us is Divine." The idea that
"matter" is in itself sinful and corrupt is a foolish heresy.
When I speak of "the world" in this paper, I mean those people who think
only, or chiefly, of this world's things, and neglect the world to
come,--the people who are always thinking more of earth than of heaven,
more of time than of eternity, more of the body than of the soul, more
of pleasing man than of pleasing God. It is of them and their ways,
habits, customs, opinions, practices, tastes, aims, spirit, and tone,
that I am speaking when I speak of "the world." This is the world from
which St. Paul tells us to "Come out and be separate."
Now that "the world," in this sense, is an enemy to the soul, the
well-known Church Catechism teaches us at its very beginning. It tells
us that there are three things which a baptized Christian is bound to
renounce and give up, and three enemies which he ought to fight with and
resist. These three are the flesh, the devil, and "the world." All three
are terrible foes, and all three must be overcome if we would be saved.
But, whatever men please to think about the Catechism, we shall do well
to turn to the testimony of Holy Scripture. If the texts I am about to
quote do not prove that the world is a source of danger to the soul,
there is no meaning in words.
(_a_) Let us hear what St. Paul says:--
"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind." (Rom. xii. 2.)
"We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is
of God." (1 Cor. ii. 12.)