Practical Religion Part 23

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 G.o.d loves, and the heart which He has solemnly declared He will not despise. Such praise is worth more than the praise of man!

G.o.d will proclaim His approval of heart-religion before the a.s.sembled 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 unG.o.dly. _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 G.o.d 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 G.o.dly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (Acts xiv. 22; 2 Tim. iii. 12.) But if the world hates you, G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.dliness 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. G.o.d 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 G.o.d, _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 G.o.d'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 cla.s.ses 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d." (1 Cor. ii. 12.)

"Christ gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from this present evil world." (Gal. i. 4.)

"In time past ye walked according to the course of this world." (Eph.

ii. 2.)

"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." (2 Tim. iv.

10.)

(_b_) Let us hear what St. James says:--