Are We Christians or Are We Worldlings?
by Horatius Bonnard.
Self-Denial Christianity.
Woe to those who are at ease in
Zion.
Amos 6.1. What do we say to
our self-indulgence, our sloth, our love of
ease, our avoidance of hardship, our luxury, our
pampering of the body, our costly feasts, our
silken couches, our brilliant furniture, our gay attire,
our braided hair, our jewelled fingers, our idle
mirth, our voluptuous music, our jovial tables loaded
with every variety of rich viands.
Are We Christians or Are We Worldlings?
Where is the self-denial of the New
Testament days?
Where is the separation from a self-pleasing
luxurious world?
Where is the cross, the true badge of
discipleship to be seen, except in useless religious
ornaments for the body, or worse than useless
decorations for the sanctuary?
Woe to those who are at ease in
Zion.
Is not this the description of multitudes who
name the name of Christ?
They may not always be living in debauchery,
lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry, but
even where these are absent, there is high
living, luxury of the table or the wardrobe,
in conformity to this present evil world.
At ease in Zion, yes, there is the
from hard service, from spending and being spent,
from toil and burden-bearing and conflict, from
self-sacrifice and noble adventure for the Master's
sake.
There is conformity to the world instead of
conformity to Christ.
There is a laying down instead of a
taking up of the cross, or there is
a lining of the cross with velvet, lest
it should gall our shoulders as we carry
it, or there is an adorning of the
cross, that it may suit the taste and
the manners of our refined and intellectual age.
Anything but the bare, rugged, and simple cross.
We think we can make the straight gate
wider, and the narrow way broader, so as
to be able to walk more comfortably to
the heavenly kingdom.
We try to prove that modern enlightenment has
so elevated the race, that there is no
longer the battle, or the burden, or the
discipline, or has so refined the world and
its pleasures, that we may safely drink the
poisoned cup, and give ourselves up to the
inebriation of the siren song.
At ease in Zion, even when the walls
of our city are besieged, and the citadel
is being stormed, instead of grasping our weapons,
we lie down upon our couches.
Instead of the armour, we put on the
silken robe.
We are cowards when we should be brave.
We are faint-hearted when we should be
bold.
We are lukewarm when we should be fervent.
We are cold when we should be full
of zeal.
We compromise, and shuffle, and apologise, when we
should lift up our voice like a trumpet.
We pare down truth, or palliate error, or
extenuate sin, in order to placate the world,
or suit the spirit of the age, or
unify the church.
Learn self-denying Christianity, not the form or
name, but the living thing.
Let us renounce the lazy, luxurious, self-pleasing,
fashionable religion of the present day.
A self-indulgent religion has nothing in common
with the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ,
or with that cross of ours, which He
has commanded us to take up and carry
after Him, renouncing ease and denying self.
Our time, our gifts, our money, our strength,
are all to be laid upon the altar.
Woe to those who are at ease in
Zion!
Amos 6.1