An ice house, instead of a hot house!
(John Angell James, "Earnestness in Personal Piety" 1847)
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It appears quite clear that great numbers
of Christian professors are very imperfectly
acquainted with the requirements of
"pure and undefiled religion," and need
to be led to re-study it in the pages
of Holy Scripture.
We have lost sight of the 'Divine Original',
and have confined our attention to
the 'imperfect transcripts' which we find
on every hand in our churches. We have
by tacit consent reduced the standard,
and fixed our eye and our aim upon an
inferior object. We are a law to each other--
instead of making the Word of GOD
the law to us all.
We tolerate a worldly-minded, diluted,
and weakened piety in others--
because we expect a similar toleration
for ourselves. We make excuses for them--
because we expect the like excuses for our
own conduct in return. We have abused,
shamefully abused, the fact that
"there is no perfection upon earth,"
and converted it into a license for any
measure and any number of imperfections!
Our highest notion of religion requires only . . .
abstinence from open immorality and
the more polluting worldly amusements,
an attendance upon an evangelical ministry,
and an approval of orthodox doctrine.
This, this, is the religion of multitudes!
There may be . . .
no habitual spirituality,
no heavenly-mindedness,
no life of faith,
no communion with GOD,
no struggling against sin, satan and the world,
no concern to grow in grace,
no supreme regard to eternity,
no studied and advancing fitness
for the eternal world,
no tenderness of conscience,
no careful discipline of our disposition,
no cultivation of love,
no making piety our chief business
and highest pleasure,
no separation in spirit from the world.
In short, there may be no impress
upon the whole mind, and heart,
and conscience and life--
of the character of the Christian
as delineated upon the page of Scripture.
We all need to be taken out of
"the religious world" as it is called,
and collected again around the Bible
to study what it is to be a Christian!
Let us endeavor to forget what the bulk
of professors are, and begin afresh
to learn what they ought to be.
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 attending church. They were more
intensely concerned and earnest before
they came into church fellowship.
Their piety seemed to come into an
ice house, instead of a hot house!
They grew better outside the church--
than in the church. 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!" But after
a while, the fatal influence came over them, and
their piety sank to the temperature around them!
"Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold
nor hot, I will vomit you out of MY mouth!"
Revelation 3:16
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You may want to read J.R. Miller's uplifting two page article with your family,
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