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
You have not only to get it home, but, in order to do this, give it
them simply and naturally. If I were asked to put into one word what
I consider the greatest obstacle to the success of Divine Truth, even
when uttered by sincere and real people, I should say, _stiffness_.
It seems as if people, the moment they come to religion, assume a
different tone, a different look, and manner--short, become unnatural.
People sometimes come to me and say, "Oh! I would give the world to
be natural, but I have got into this way of talking to people. It
seems as though I cannot be natural. Can you help me?" I say, "Yes, I
can help you, by this advice--Determine, by the help of God, that you
will break the neck of this bondage. I will tell you how to begin.
Begin with your family. Break off right in the middle of conversation
on earthly matters, and begin to talk about their souls, or your own
experience, or drop down on your knees, and begin to pray." "Oh! but
it would be such a break." It should not be a break to talk to your
Father. If you are in the spirit of it there will be no break. This
will help you, more than anything else. Determine that you will
overcome this sanctimoniousness, which is the curse of a great deal
of the religion of this day. We want SANCTIFIED HUMANITY, not
sanctimoniousness. You want to talk to your friends in the same way
about religion, as you talk about earthly things. If a friend is in
difficulties, and he comes to you, you do not begin talking in a
circumlocutory manner about the general principles on which men can
secure prosperity, and the sad mistakes of those who have not secured
it; you come straight to the point, and, if you feel for him, you
take him by the button-hole, or put your hand in his, and say, "My
dear fellow, I am very sorry for you; is there any way in which I can
help you?" If you have a friend afflicted with a fatal malady, and
you see it, and he does not, you don't begin to descant on the power
of disease and the way people may secure health, but you say, "My
dear fellow, I am afraid this hacking cough is more serious than you
think, and that flush on your cheek is a bad sign. I am afraid you
are ill--let me counsel you to seek advice." That is the way people
talk about earthly things. Now, do exactly so about spiritual things.
If your friend is a spiritual bankrupt, tell him so. Tell him where
he is going, and that the reckoning day is coming, and that he will
be in God's prison-house very soon, and that, if the creditor once
gets hold of him, and shuts him up, he will never get out till he has
paid the uttermost farthing. If your friend has a spiritual disease,
tell him so, and deal just as straight and earnestly with him as you
would about his body. Tell him you are praying for him, and the very
concern that he reads in your eyes, will wake him up, and he will
begin to think it is time he was concerned about himself. Try to
attain this simple, easy, natural way of appealing to people about
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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