Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

PROTESTANTISM ENDANGERED.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

EVERY true christian, whatever may be the doctrinal peculiarities of his creed, or the distinctive epithet and ecclesiastical polity of the church to which he belongs, is, nevertheless, a SOLDIER of Jesus Christ. And whether, in the all-wise allotments of Divine Providence, he be placed in the honourable and exposed position of a sentinel or watchman on the walls of Zion, or appointed to a more humble station in the general ranks of the army of the living God-he is bound, at all times, to be all eye, all ear, both as to the movements of the enemy, as well as in reference to the commands and interests of the Captain of salvation, under whose banners he is called to endure hardships as a soldier of Jesus Christ, and to fight the good fight of faith. Accordingly, sleepless jealousy to preserve unsullied all that pertains to the divine honour, and an ever present sensitive tenderness and zeal for every thing that regards the vital interests of scriptural truth-the

A

2

APATHY DENOUNCED.

purity, New-Testament simplicity, spirituality, and efficiency of christian worship, and the growing triumphs of the cause of genuine religion in the various sections of the Church of God, are amongst the distinguishing features which should ever characterize all the true disciples of Jesus Christ. And of whatever name, denomination, or community such may be, those who feel this holy jealousy for the divine honour, and who act faithfully and fearlessly for the cause of God and truth, thus prove themselves to be the true soldiers of Jesus Christ, and the genuine members of that One Universal Church, which the Saviour redeemed by his atoning sacrifice, when on Calvary's cross he willingly shed his precious blood as a ransom for many.

Therefore, the man who can look with apathetical indifference, and without having, like St. Paul," his spirit stirred within him," on such a scene as that pourtrayed by Isaiah, (chap. x., v. 14) when he said, "Truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter; yea, truth faileth,"such a man, let him occupy whatever station he may in the outward sections of the visible church, or let him make whatever professions he please, as to his orthodoxy, love of truth, and christian zeal, we unhesitatingly aver, that unless he continually feel and properly exemplify

LUKEWARMNESS PREVALENT.

3

holy and indignant sorrow when "truth is fallen in the streets," he is not a truly consistent christian; he is not acting the part of a good soldier of Jesus Christ, because he is not valiant for the truth. Yet, that there are multitudes of such lukewarm professors cannot be denied, and that the words of the prophet Jeremiah (see chap. ix. v. 3) are not mere unfulfilled prediction, but painful, actual description, the abounding heresies of the present day and the "signs of the times" fully verify; for to many ministers of religion and baptized protestants, it is to be feared that these words are awfully, because justly applicable, where Jeremiah says, "They bend their tongues like their bows for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord."

In reference to the continued purity and progress of true protestant principles, the day in which we live is truly portentous. The enemy, under the disguise of truth, has come in like a flood! "If we seriously contemplate the age in which we are destined to exist, there is enough to excite more than ordinary solicitude, and to arrest the attention of every considerate member of civil society; whether regarding himself as an integral portion of the body politic, or as sustaining a holier character, he identifies himself

« AnteriorContinuar »