Are we Christians or are we worldlings? Taken from the writings of Horatius
Bonar in his work Self-Denial Christianity. Woe to those who are at ease
in Zion. Amos chapter 6 verse 1. What do we say to? Our self-indulgence. Our spiritual 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 expensive
jewellery. 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 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 shrinking from hard service, from spending and being spent,
from toil and burden-bearing and conflict, from self-sacrifice
and noble service for the Master's sake. There is conformity to
the world instead of conformity to Christ. There is a laying
down of the cross 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 that 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 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 armor, 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
make excuses 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 soothe 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 abilities, our
money, our strength are all to be laid upon the altar. Woe to those who are at ease
in Zion! you