WORLDLINESS IN THE CHURCH

If asked to point out the specific and prevailing sin of the church in the present day, I cannot hesitate to reply, a prevailing’ worldliness of mind, heart and conduct. She is fearfully secularized in the spirit and temper of her members. The love of the world is become the master passion, before which other and holier affections have grown dim and weak. It is not only in the way of doing business that this worldly spirit is seen, but in the general habits and tastes of professing Christians. Their style of living, their entertainments, their associations, their amusements, their conversation, evince a conformity to the world, a minding of earthly things, a disposition to adapt themselves to the world around, and an apparent desire to seek their happiness from objects of sense, rather than from those of faith, which prove the extent to which a secular spirit is bringing down the spirit of piety.

It is to be feared that we are corrupting each other, leading each other to be satisfied with a conventional piety. Many have been actually the worse for church membership. They were more intensely anxious and earnest before they came into fellowship than they were afterwards. Their religion, in joining the communion of saints as they professed to be, seemed to come into an ice-house, instead of a hot-house. They grew better in their former state than in their new one. At first they were surprised and shocked to see the lukewarmness, the irregularities, the worldliness, the inconsistencies, of many older professors, and exclaimed with grief and disappointment, “Is this the church of Christ?” After a while a fatal influence came over them, and their piety sank to the temperature around them.

(From Eternal Truth)

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen