Godliness : being reports of a series of addresses delivered at James's Hall, London, W. during 1881Booth, Catherine Mumford
Religion
Godliness : being reports of a series of addresses delivered at James's Hall, London, W. during 1881
Booth, Catherine Mumford
Salvation Army -- Sermons; Sermons, English
Now, my friends, try yourselves--which Charity _have you got?_
Do you rejoice in the extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ by any
lawful means, or are you more concerned _about the color of a man's
coat than the state of his heart?_ Would you rather the poor
drunkard were left to rot and seethe in his misery, than that a man
should put on a blue jacket with an S.[Footnote: Badge of the
Salvation Army.] on his collar, and go and fetch him out? Would you
rather have men damned conventionally, than saved unconventionally?
If you would, you are a Pharisee at heart--I care not what you call
yourselves. Go home and read for your instruction Matt, xxiii. 23-28.
Further, how bitterly this false Charity often comes out in
individual cases. We will just take an illustration. We will suppose
here is a family of decent, respectable, professedly Christian
people, who have been to church or chapel most of their lives. Or
here is a Church, we will suppose, of the same character--nothing
particular has happened; they fear the Lord, and go comfortably
along, and are just where they were ten or fifteen years ago, making
up for _deaths_ and _removals_. We will suppose that a member of that
family or that church, as the case may be, gets converted. He reads a
book, goes to a special meeting, or some providential utterance is the
means of sending the light of God's Spirit upon his soul, and he is
quickened and woke up to see the miserable, half-dead, guilty condition
in which he is; he is praying and groaning, and feeling after God; he
gets the sense of his transgressions and unfaithfulness being taken
away, and the joy of God's salvation restored to his soul. Now, in a
moment, almost immediately, as in the case of Peter, as soon as the
internal work is done, comes the external path opened up. The Spirit of
God lays before him some new work, something strikes him which has been
long forgotten, or which never seems to have been recognised in his
family or church. He sees what a grand thing that would be for the
conversion of souls, and the extension of the kingdom of Jesus
Christ, and he feels it beginning to burn like a fire in his bones to
enter this path of usefulness. He prays much over it, and he waits
until he is fully satisfied that it is not a vain impulse, but that
it is of the Spirit of God. Full of love, and faith, and zeal, he
goes to tell his minister, or some Christian friend; he expects that
they will sympathise with his feelings, and enter into his project;
but, alas! alas! they begin by raising objections--they start
difficulties:--"Well, but you see that would be a little out of our
order: that is not exactly our way of doing things. I am afraid the
deacons would object, or I am afraid something would happen;" and if
he has the misfortune to be young (anybody would think it was a sin
to be young), they will "crush" him out; they put the extinguisher
on, and say, "Wait, my brother, until you have more experience," or,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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