Christianity Without Bone, Or Muscle, Or Power.

Jelly-fish Christianity
(J.C. Ryle)

The consequences of this widespread 
dislike to distinct biblical doctrine are 
very serious. Whether we like it or not, 
it is an epidemic which is doing great 
harm, and especially among young people. 

It creates, fosters, and keeps up 
an immense amount of instability
 in religion. It produces what I 
must venture to call, if I may 
coin the phrase, a 'jelly-fish' 
Christianity in the land--
that is, a Christianity without 
bone, or muscle, or power. 

A jelly-fish, as everyone who has 
been much by the seaside knows, 
is a pretty and graceful object when 
it floats in the sea, contracting and 
expanding like a little delicate 
transparent umbrella. 

Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast 
on the shore, is a mere helpless 
lump, without capacity for movement, 
self-defense, or self-preservation. 

Alas! it is a vivid type of much 
of the religion of this day, of which 
the leading principle is, 'No dogma, 
no distinct beliefs, no doctrine.' 

We have hundreds of ministers 
who seem not to have a single 
bone in their body of divinity! 

They have no definite opinions; 
they are so afraid of 'extreme views,' 
that they have no views at all. 

We have thousands of sermons 
preached every year, which are 
without an edge or a point or a corner--
they are as smooth as marble 
balls, awakening no sinner, 
and edifying no saint!

We have legions of young men 
annually turned out from our universities, 
armed with a few scraps of second-
hand philosophy, who think it a mark 
of cleverness and intellect to have no 
decided opinions about anything in religion--
and to be utterly unable to make up their 
minds as to what is Christian truth. 

Their only creed, is a kind of 'nothingism.' 
They are sure and positive about nothing!

And last, and worst of all, we have 
myriads of respectable church-going 
people, who have no distinct and definite 
views about any point in theology. 

They cannot discern things that differ, 
any more than color-blind people can 
distinguish colors. They think . . .
  everybody is right--and nobody 
is wrong,  everything is true--
and nothing is false,  
all sermons are good--
and none are bad,  
every clergyman is sound--
and no clergyman unsound. 

They are 'tossed to and fro, like 
children, by every wind of doctrine;' 
often carried away by some new 
excitement and sensational 
movement; ever ready for 
new things, because they 
have no firm grasp on the old; 
and utterly unable to 'render a 
reason of the hope that is in them.' 

All this, and much more, is the result 
of that effeminate dread of distinct 
doctrine which has been so strongly 
developed, and has laid such hold 
on many pastors in these days. 

I turn from the picture I have 
exhibited with a sorrowful heart. 
I grant it is a gloomy one; but 
I am afraid it is only too accurate 
and true. Let us not deceive ourselves. 
Distinct and definitive doctrine is at 
a premium just now. Instability and 
unsettled notions are the natural result, 
and meet us in every direction. 

Cleverness and earnestness 
are the favorite idols of the age!

What a man says matters nothing--
however strange and heterogeneous 
are the opinions he expresses! 

If he is only brilliant and 'earnest'--
he cannot be wrong! 

Never was it so important for believers
to hold sound systematic views of truth, 
and for ministers to 'enunciate doctrine' 
very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.

    ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

GraceGems have published Timothy Shay Arthur's practical short story, 
"The Clerk's Marriage".