Earnest Christianity

James Caughey

1st. My first reply is to “A moral but restless hearer.”

What can I say to you more appropriate and emphatic than that decision of your Lord and mine? John 3: 3. — “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be BORN AGAIN he cannot see the kingdom of God.” What a fearful exception is this against “a moral man”! Exceptions in law, you are aware, have tremendous results often. It is to deny what an opposite party has alleged as valid, in point of legal pleading or law. “A bill of exceptions” in law will set aside evidence for the present, perhaps finally; it has even caused a reverse of judgment, with great loss. Do you understand me? He who expects heaven by virtue of his morality, and not from any gracious change wrought in his nature, is met in the Gospel court by our Lord himself, who there files this bill of exception, — “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, EXCEPT a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom.” This stands good in the highest court of the universe. Now, woe be to him who, in face of such an exception, persists in carrying his case to the court of eternity! He shall be cast, most surely; ay, not simply lose his case, but himself his soul; not only be cast in his suit, but “cast into prison,” — Matt. 5. 25, 26; “cast into hell,” — like 12: 5; “cast into the fire, — Matt. 3: 18; “cast into outer darkness,” — Matt. 22: 13, — “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” These phrases, everybody knows, were used by our Lord himself showing the result of being cast in that high court.

Are any more Scriptures needed? Will you, or will you not, depend upon his word? Can you persist with your plea? Nay, nay! You must not! There is a more excellent way, — repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; pardon, a change of heart, a new birth unto righteousness, a new creature in Christ, a pure and perfect morality as the fruit of the same, the happy soul sitting at the feet of Jesus, and singing her sweet little song:

“Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

“Bold shall I stand in thy great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame

“The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,
Who from the Father’s bosom came,
Who died for me, even me, to atone,
Now for my Lord and God I own.
“Lord, I believe thy precious blood,
Which at the mercy-seat of God
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, even for my soul, was shed.”

Hear me, Thou restless one! If thou art not in love with error, if thou wouldst rather be right than wrong, rather be in safety than in peril, rest not until the above stamas are representatives of your happy experience!
2nd. To “A Serious Inquirer” a few words. — You have heard my reply to the moralist. You have marked the decision of our Lord, — John 3: 3 You have there the true notion of what it is to become a Christian; the one only royal birth, which gives you the only valid title to the inheritance above. It is the second birth; a new birth unto righteousness; a change within, of the heart, of all the affections; the making the tree good, that the fruit may be good; a passing from death unto life, — from death within to life within the soul, — righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Eternal death is your peril, till this change occurs in your nature.

I wonder not that you, also, are “restless and uneasy; “ an exposure to this peril is the great cause of all the disquietude that afflicts our world. You are diseased besides, and you have been applying a wrong remedy. It has made you worse, instead of better. Self-righteousness is no herb. It is a weed that grows in nature’s garden. It has no business there. There is no healing virtue in a weed. This weed is not only useless and troublesome, but poisonous. He who seeks medicine in it might as well look for a cure in common arsenic. How many are poisoned by mistake, — a weed for an herb, a poisonous root for a nutritious one, such as we heard of the other day, killing one or two in a family, and sickening others cruelly! St. Paul mourns over those who are going about in search of such a weed. — Rom. 10: 3, Ignorant of the true root, — “God’s righteousness,” God’s method of saving sinners through faith in Christ, — they go about to plant the false root of “their own righteousness” in the garden of their souls, as a plea for salvation, as a method to cure their corrupt nature. But “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” — Rom. 10: 4. O then, be not one of those over whom Paul mourns. If you go about any business, you wish to do it in a night manner; pray carry this out in soul matters. Haste yourself. Trifle not with life. Death may be near your door. Let soul affairs be settled!

A young man once asked one of the father’s when was the best time to repent. “O, as to that, the day before your death will do!” “But,” rejoined the inquirer, “Sure I may die to-morrow,” “ In that case,’’ replied the father “the safest way is to repent to-day!” I would urge the same on you; repent, believe, and be saved to-day, this hour, — why not now?

Gregory, an ancient writer, compares LIFE to a mariner in a ship in full sail. A simple but great truth that. It is equally true, also, we are sailing either for the port of heaven or the port of hell. Nor is there anything below of greater importance than to be certified of the port for which we are bound. You have not ascertained that yet, you say; then that is the cause of your uneasiness. If a captain is traversing the sea without a reckoning, it is ten to one he is sailing in a wrong direction. How stands your reckoning? Had you ever a correct one, think you? Have you ever known by experience the meaning of Rom. 3: 10? — “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God,” — or “the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto us.” Are you not risking your soul where you would not risk property? — I mean on an uncertain or defective TITLE-DEED? Do you serve the Lord with gladness? How can you, if you know not which way you are steering? How could a sea-captain be glad under such circumstances? Would his crew serve with gladness? Suppose he has lost his reckoning, or suspects he never had a correct one. You are now out on the high seas of life, — his case exactly illustrates yours.

Let me tell you, never have you seen a better time than this to ascertain your Spiritual latitude. Besides, we are now in the “trade-wind’s” for heaven. Hear me, all of you! A finer breeze for the harbor of glory none of you may ever enjoy again. This is the day of salvation. Huddersfield is now receiving a call from heaven, a Divine visitation. Never had a people a fairer gale for heaven. What they know not now they shall know hereafter. The “trade-winds” for hell will be along by and by. Those who neglect the one are about sure to be taken and carried away by the other.

3rd. Let “One truly grieved” hearken! — “Disrespect for the aged”? Not so! I dare not! God has commanded, “honor the face of the old man. “ Did I not quote Solomon on the occasion, — “The beauty of old men is the gray head”? And again, “The HOARY HEAD is a crown of glory, if found in the way of righteousness”? Was that showing disrespect to the aged? Let gray heads in this audience judge between us. True, I did say, and perhaps the rub was there, “If found in the way of righteousness,” — mark that! — “the hoary head, &c., if found in the way of righteousness,” — otherwise a dumb animal grown gray in his master’s service is more worthy of honor, at least in some respects, than he who has grown gray in the service of the devil. This was harsh, I admit; but, after pondering the matter, I cannot conscientiously unsay it.

O, it is a sad sight to beheld one “upon whose head time has showered its snows” giving evidence that sin has, and still is, showering its follies! It is difficult to meet a sadder sight, both as regards his fearful destiny and the pernicious example he is giving to the youth around, This may account for the fact that amid a population of thousands we behold, comparatively, so few gray heads. Men who are likely to grow gray in sin, he who rides on the pale horse with hell following after, cuts down, usually, and buries them out of sight — Rev. 6 3. Here and there we behold exceptions, as if left to illustrate the forbearance and long-suffering of God, — like the aged trees scattered over the American landscape, remnants of the primitive forest, few and far between, spared by the storm, the lightning, the axe, to wither at last, and die, — dead at roots, dead in trunk, dead at top, — they fall at length, and in piecemeal are given to the flames. The application, I confess, had something of the terrible in it, nor could I be so simple as to suppose such sentiments could be very palatable to those concerned.

But how sublimely glorious to behold “the hoary head in the way of righteousness,” standing almost on “the stepping-stones between two worlds,” close to that dread outlet to regions invisible, yet

“Bold to take up, firm to sustain,
The consecrated cross,”

firm in cheerful trust and holy hope; lending all his residue of strength and influence to God and goodness; standing in ways of goodness, “in all the monumental pomp of age,” fresh in the strength and majesty of mind and beauty of the heart! O, but I do sometimes wonder if earth has a lovelier sight than this! Such are the glory of Christ, and the honor of the church, the joy of good men and the delight of angels, whose company they are so soon to join! Such aged Christians are the joy of my eyes, and the delight of my heart. I live too fast to hope for it; but should God spare me, I should like to become such an one, that I might tell it to generations coming that the “living waters” mentioned by the prophet are as sweet, as pure, as refreshing, in the winter of old age, as in life’s gay morning, or as in manhood’s summer! — Zech. 14: 3.

But to return: that I did ‘‘bear down hard’’ upon such as put off religion till they are fit for no other work, and hardly fit for that, I confess. Where Christ is so slighted and affronted, it is wrong to be silent. The old sinner who said he felt it would be an imposition upon God to offer himself to the service of the Saviour at so late an hour realized my meaning That he was not rejected, shows that God does not reject repentance at the eleventh hour, although he has given it no special promise, — at least, no promise of the grace of repentance at such a time. Several such have lately found mercy, — “brands plucked out of the fire,” indeed; they have been spared and saved, while nearly all the generation to which they belonged are dead and buried. Let no aged sinner present despair, therefore. But, so few saved of such, and so few such above ground to be saved, is surely a matter of alarm to the unconverted aged among us, and a powerful argument against procrastination in all you who are younger.

The aged persons who have been saved had a hard struggle. Well might one say: “Old age is no good age to repent. When the fingers are hard and stiff not easy to learn to play on an instrument; when the heart is grown hard in wickedness, it is but ill tuning the penitential string. Poison long in the stomach is hard to get out. It is bad to adjourn salvation, for that gives Satan a plea for right of possession; anyhow, it is hard to dispossess him. Sunset is no good time to begin a day’s work, and what is done is done to great disadvantage, and seldom well done; there is a lazy weariness about it, and dimness of light in doing it. But in matters of religion it is all this, and madness into the bargain. ‘The night cometh, when no man can work,’ the Scripture says, I think. Will God accept this late repentance? — that is the question? He once asked for the first fruits, but was refused; will he now accept the gleanings? Cain was rejected, and why? I suppose he presented no sin-offering, like Abel, but it appears that what he did bring for an offering he was long about, — ‘in process of time,’ the margin of my old, neglected Bible has it, ‘at the end of days; ’ alas! That was enough to cast him! Put it off as long as he could — to the end of the season, may be, and then brought gleanings, or some dried-up, worthless rubbish, like what the poor old sinner brings, — good for nothing else! It is a wonder any old sinners get saved; but they do, and, therefore, there is hope. Dry, marrowless bones! What an offering for God s altar! Hard work it is! An old sinner, like an old tree, is hard to be uprooted. No wonder that young folks get religion so fast and so easy! These young sinners, like young trees, are easy of transplantation. He is an unwise captain who would be in dry-dock till Hull is leaky and rigging rotten, despising fair winds, high tides and good chances, and then and thus set sail in bad weather, — that is the old sinner’s history. It was impressed upon my mind that, just as Peter slept between two soldiers in prison, bound with two chains, so an old sinner sleeps between Death and the devil, bound with two chains — evil habits and unbelief. I mean no disrespect to Peter; but if an angel of God were in mercy to come down and enter this prison, he would rescue the old sinner from a more terrible doom than that he helped Peter away from. “Let us give God the praise, if young sinners have been saved, old ones have not been left to perish in their sins. More of the aged are coming. We shall have some of them to-night. Let the young, the middle-aged and the aged hear the command of the Holy Ghost “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.” — Eccles 9: 10.

A few hearers had their answers last night before the text. Let some others listen for theirs to-night.

1st. Let “A Protesting Hearer” hearken. — I like the word protest; it is the good old root from which came our good old title of Protestant. But our forefathers protested against error and darkness; your protest bears against truth and light. How is this? Are you unable to bear the sight of your own principles? Must they be shrouded in “a dim religious light,” to render them at all bearable to yourself? The light in which you have lately seen them has been somewhat too vivid for your faith or the weak eyes of your conscience. You blame the vividness of the medium through which you have viewed your principles. What has that to do with them? It is like a telescope — it shows them as they are, adds nothing fictitious. Why blame the light? I climbed the Apennines, once, with a friend, in the darkness of the night; morning dawned, and flushed with light those scenes of savage grandeur. Did the light create that scenery, or show it only? It was there in all its savage aspects before we or morning visited it. But we were thankful for the light, as by it we were enabled to avoid perils on every hand. You have sense enough to apply this to the light which has lately shined upon the objects of your faith, rendering them so terrifying to your consciences.

Come, come, sir, pray try to look your principles in the face. If they are anything, they are everything; if true, they are tremendously true. If they are worthy of my attention, they are worthy of thine — of the attention of all present in this assembly. Learn to look them in the face now, or by and by they will look you in the face, on the death-bed, and frighten you, as if so many devils were glaring upon you.

Perhaps you are not accustomed to see your Protestant principles in so strong a light. Besides, a vivid light is painful to weak eyes. It is apt to make such like the Swedish poet’s “blear-eyed man,” who was always the first to bawl out against strong light; he became, at last, so nervous that the smallest ray made his eyes smart and rendered him exceedingly troublesome to those who could bear a good light. Upon one occasion he protested so loud as to excite another, who became nervous too, till their noisy protests awoke one Mr. Dullness out of a comfortable nap, and so abruptly that he leaped clear from his seat, protesting that there must be something outrageously wrong with the lights, or such gentlemen would not be so offended; while the shrewd poet pointed his quill at him thus:

“The senseless swine can do no less
Than blush to be discovered making
The only drone amongst the waking.”

Protest away, then, as loud as you please; ay, till they hear you at “head-quarters,” up in London yonder! If no other good effect be produced than to awake Mr. Dullness and family here in Huddersfield, that will be some thing; for, certainly, I deprecate indifference more than persecution.

2nd. A few hints to another — There is such a thing as a Spiritual apoplexy — to be sick, and, yet insensible of it. You remember my pause after reading Rev. 3: 17, the other night? “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and KNOWEST NOT that thou wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” What! ‘‘wretched, and miserable, and pore, and blind, and naked,” and not know it! — this is a spiritual apoplexy, indeed! There are a great many folks in that state in and around this town. They have lost both their sense and motion in religion; the functions of the conscience seem as much suspended as the functions of the brain in the apoplexed. Thank God, some hundreds have recovered both sense and motion lately, and they begin to see and feel their wretchedness. Many have got quite cured. The same Jesus who cured the ancient demoniacs is doing the same for modern apoplectics. That you pray against sin is well; so did Augustine; and yet he tells us that even then his heart said, “Not yet, Lord! Not yet!” has your heart been so naughty? If so, what becomes of sincerity? If not, why do you remain unpardoned? Why yet unsaved from sin? This is coming up with you at once, regardless of your circumlocution! Man! “Know thyself” a motto once written over the door of a heathen temple; I would write it over the door of your dwelling, or that of your understanding.

There must be a screw loose some where in the upper works, or your will, the master-wheel, has got badly warped by the heat of this revival. Its eccentricities may be but the putting forth of new depravities.

Perhaps you are troubled with ‘‘the plague of the heart — I Kings 3: 38 Devils may be saying of you, as David’s foes of him, “An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he Heth, he shall rise up no more.” — Ps. 41: 3. And, besides, as of old, there may be “the leprosy of the land,” — Lev. 13: 42, 44. A troublesome and loathsome thing was this plague of the head, and is so still.

I have thrown out these hints to assist you in self-examination. Much evil may be done by a physician, if he prescribe without knowing the seat of the disease. Ascertain, if you can, the seat of your malady, whether in your head or heart — error in the mind, vice in the heart — two forts belonging to the same enemy, and they hold correspondence with each other, the outworks may be found in the life. My figures do not hang together very well, but you understand me. It is necessary to subdue the outworks before the principal fortresses are taken. The Holy Spirit, however, often attacks the heart and the head first; these subdued, the outer works are silenced, as a matter of course. You discover something of this in my preaching, I suppose.
Error poisons; sin stabs the soul; the world surfeits; pride, vanity and doubting, give the VERTIGO, — a Spiritual giddiness or dizziness, a wavering inconstancy, which result finally in a Spiritual palsy, which, like its namesake in the body, becomes a hopeless malady. The poor soul of man is a diseased thing, and needs the great Physician’s skill. The prophet asked, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” — Jer. 3: 22. This is all I have to say to such an one at present, only trusting for some miracle this night in your perfect cure.

3rd. Another case — “One thoroughly disgusted — I should think something had produced nausea, else you would not have exposed such stuff as this. Your Spiritual stomach must be greatly out of order. Scepticism, like the liquors of the present day, is notorious for deranging the organs of Spiritual digestion. I shall offer you an antidote in my sermon, therefore you are dismissed for the present.

4th To another: “A doubter!” — the lamp of your reason, to say the least, must burn but dimly when you reason thus. It may, how-ever, be convenient for you to carry a dark lantern; but is it safe? Is it honorable? Is it free from suspicion? It is dangerous to have the eyes of your understanding darkened. — Eph. 4: 18. In matters of natural sight this needs no argument; but people are not willing to be convinced there is peril in travelling Spiritually blindfolded to eternity. One would think this also needs no argument; but it does. It is the theme of most Sabbath sermons. It is borne with, because the minister must be allowed to talk about something; and so long as he will keep his distance, and not use too harsh means to remove the bandage, he is praised for his eloquence or ingenuity. But if the sword of truth cut into the bandage, or if the sparks of truth fall upon it and burn, or if, by any unusual boisterousness, he shake it and loosen the fastenings, so that daylight flashes through the eyes of the understanding upon the conscience, then woe be unto him! He is a troubler of Israel, and the carnal mind is indignant!

Ministers, not a few, recoil from the deed, fearing the penalty, and so deal with a gentle hand and soothing words, — hoping such will consent by and by, or remove it of themselves. Thus Satan has his way. He leads the captives onward to the pit, and meets with but trifling interception. Thus multitudes never lose the bandage till the flames of hell burn it off. What is to be done? Must things continue so? Is there no help? By the grace of God assisting, there is. The thing must be done by somebody. The bandages may be removed from the eyes of thousands. The thing can be done. Where there is a will there is a way. Let none meddle unless he has counted the cost. If he has, then let him unfalteringly proceed, at all hazards. We think we have counted the cost, — wishing nothing, desiring nothing, expecting nothing but souls for our hire, with some hard thrusts and knocks from persecution, which we can bear with a pleasant face, if sinners are converted. I doubt you hardly understand these principles; or, if you do, may have the art, as in other things, of doubting them away.

Some are necessitated to wear a veil over there understanding, and so thick, withal, they cannot distinguish truth from error, friend from foe, light from darkness. If you are an illustration of the old proverb, “None so blind as those who will not see,” you are more to be pitied than laughed at.

5th. Let another hearken. — There is one present who reminds me of the saying of a shrewd man, — “Many a one can remember a story who has forgotten his creed.” The memory of some resembles a sieve, — excellent for catching bran, but lets the flour quite escape. My preaching would not be human if it bad not some bran for such sieves.

The doctrine may be divine, while the verbiage and illustrations are decidedly and significantly human. Pretending, as I do, not to any higher sort of inspiration than what any other God-sent minister may claim, exemption from such frailties should hardly be expected. The coming sermon will afford something for your sieve, I have no doubt, — that is, if you can find time to sift. One of your brethren came for that purpose The other night, but the material came so fast it overwhelmed and buried him, sieve and all, till his sobs and groans for help told the whereabouts of the poor sifter. He sits over yonder, happy in God; if you happen to be at the love-feast, you may hear all about it.

All you say regarding these repenting sinners may be true enough, but hear me, — If they have sinned fervently should they not repent for fervently? If they were destroying themselves heartily is it surprising they seek to save themselves heartily? They are only achieving what you should be doing, — “working out their own salvation. “If it be “with fear and trembling,” that is scriptural. — Phil. 2: 12, 18. And it is God that is working in them to will and to do, if you will consult the passage. If there is a noise, it is not as loud as that which awakened all Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Besides, it is a noise for something worth making a noise about. That is a fact which anybody not an idiot will admit, — secretly, at least. If you die without it, you will noise it louder in hell than these upon earth; ay, more vociferously, certainly more hopelessly; loud as the “rich man” there, when one drop of water to cool the tongue will be denied you, though you cry loud enough to be heard the other side of the impassable gulf. — Luke 16. I shall, providence permitting, answer other questions tomorrow night, — enough for tonight.

Now for my text: I Kings 18: 21, “And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”

Having taken this text before, and related the history to which it belongs, you will excuse me from a repetition of it. I have one proposition, which you will please keep in memory. That opinions about religion, which may determine a man’s course of conduct regarding it, are of far more importance than men generally imagine.

There are several sorts of opinions which ruin men’s souls; let us notice a few of them.

I. UNINVESTIGATED opinions, — opinions adopted as principles of action, without a proper search into their truth or falsehood; espoused without sufficient care and scrutiny.

II. SECOND-HAND opinions, — opinions received from somebody else, — a wicked neighbor, a moral, unconverted neighbor, a skeptical neighbor, a fault-finding, flaw-spying neighbor, a backsliden neighbor, or from the devil himself. All these advance opinions characteristic of each. Many of you have been receiving their opinions into your souls, and acting upon them, You would not wear a second-hand coat upon your bodies, but you will a second-hand opinion on your souls. This is inconsistent. It is thinking more of your body, which is the inferior part of you, than your souls. You would not discredit the outer man in the eyes of your fellow men, but you scruple not to discredit your soul in the eyes of God and angels, — ay, and in the eyes of those who love God and know something. He makes himself contemptuous who follows the opinions of others, without thinking for himself. If you will tell me, procrastinating sinner, what company you keep, I will tell you what opinions you are following.

III. SECOND-RATE opinions — Not the best, — mingled with truth and error, therefore unwholesome for the soul, to the family, and detrimental to the progress of the church. Some good in them, may be, but not enough to comfort and bless the soul; like a tight pair of shoes, or insufficiency of cloth to make the coat, it is made, but too tight for comfort; the material may be good, but too little of it. The prophets illustration is good, — “for the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it” — Isa. 28: 20. Uncomfortable, rather, for a weary body and a cold night, — decidedly so in religions matters. Some good in such second-rate opinions, possibly, but not enough to save the soul; like some second-rate ships, so pronounced, with materials for a swarm of leaks in straining weather, — a coffin for the passengers before they are half across the seas.

IV. BIGOTED opinions, — Sustained by blind attachment; cannot tell why, perhaps; unreasonably blind, and obstinate as both; defiant of reason, argument, Scripture, and ill-natured withal. Such opinions have been the curse of the world. Edmund Burke, your celebrated statesman and orator, was heard to say that the loss of life by wars, since the days of Moses up till 1790, could not be less than five hundred and thirty-five millions of lives; adding that a great part of these were destroyed in religious wars, on mere points of opinion and forms of worship.

V. DOUBLE-MINDED opinions, — Such as divide the mind, halve it, weaken it; as one mournfully explained, “Half of the mind hangs one way, the other half another, consequently easily moved either way with the least breath of temptation. “Just so, — half God-ward, half devil-ward; half for the Bible, half for scepticism; half for religion, half for the world; half heavenward, half hell-ward; about as safe a position as had that bewildered man, poising over the airy brink of Shakespeare’s cliff, subject to the least whiff of wind or motion to be precipitated into the abyss below.

In this class of opinions we find unsettledness, indifference, neutrality and dissembling, most frequently entrenched during a revival; wavering, indeterminate, irresolute, is what we find in unsettledness, — big words these, which is not my manner; but we will mince them by and by. What do we find in indifference? Want of preference, wish or aversion. What is NEUTRALITY? It partakes largely of indifference; it takes neither side in a contest, it has no anxiety nor interest which shall be victorious, — a state of mind which seldom lasts long in a revival, for truth will force a man to take one side or the other decidedly.

What do we find in DlSSEMBLING? Hypocrisy, it is to play the hypocrite by concealing your real dispositions and sentiments. It is to act a double part.

It is to act a double part, to temporize between two parties, to conciliate both if possible. Like Ayat, the Jew, who took bribes from both parties, and did justice to neither, or, like the priest of Hercules, who played with one hand for the god, and with the other for himself.

The prophet’s invective was in this direction. It was at this Elijah slashed with the sword of truth upon Mt. Carmel — “How long halt ye between the opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. “He would be the death of indifference, neutrality, and dissembling, showing that they could not avoid being at deadly feud with God himself or Jezebel.

When travelling in Holland, some the since, I was conversing with a gentleman on the necessity of decision of character in a Christian. He quoted those words of our Lord, “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad,” — Matt. 12 30, — and then added, “The doctrine of this text is, “neutrality in religion is not admitted. These are Christ’s words and from him there can be no appeal. Christ and Satan divide the world, and we must belong to one or the other,” One of Switzerland’s choice divines commented on the same passage thus ‘‘This is the Gospel in all it’s intolerance; for its intolerance consists in considering every man an enemy who is not a friend.’’ “There is no underground road to heaven,” said another. There is no tunneled road to the skies; there is no night passage to glory; you cannot go masked to Paradise; nor can you ride into the “New Jerusalem in the chariot of neutrality. Religion is light, and you cannot hide it. If you have it, it will cause you to do something by which you will be exposed and known. If a man has it he will show it; it is like light in a dark lantern, it will sparkle through some crevice; if no light be there, it may well be dark. If a man has religion, he will show it! If he show it not, he has it not; if there is nothing of it seen, there is nothing of it within. Visibility is the unchanging feature of Christianity, who ever she is, among friends or toes. It is upon this principle we have a visible religion, a visible church, a visible membership.

Hear me, all ye who are halting between two opinions. It was this principle which once filled the world with martyrdom, and reddened the earth with the blood of the saints.

The Romans and Greeks once declared war against each other. Hostilities commenced. Readers of history, do you remember the debate in the senate of a certain nation, at that time, whether they should join the Romans against the Greeks, or remain neutral? The debate was intensely exciting; opinions differed greatly. Neutrality had voices in its favor, as the most likely way to retain their friends and make no enemies. Others contended that this middle course was the un-safest of all, for by it they would procure no friends, nor would it lessen the number of their enemies. Aristenus wound up the debate saying he had weighed the opinions on both sides; argued that in neutrality there was no safety, and for this reason, — the Romans had peremptorily demanded their aid against the Greeks; therefore they must of necessity enter into the confederacy and strict league with the Romans, or be at deadly feud, middle course there was none!

See, then, the importance, O sinner, of opinions. As sure as the Romans demanded the aid of that nation against the Greeks, so sure he demands thy aid against the infernal confederacy of devils and sinners against his government. This is a Bible fact more certain than the historical incident. He demands your alliance, on pain of his displeasure on body and soul, in this world and the next. Middle course there is none. “Come out from among them, and be separate,” is his CHALLENGE. The Lord can give us the victory without you; but that will not excuse you. I was reading to day, in Judges 4 and 5, how that Jabin, King of Canaan, sent up a great army, with nine hundred chariots of iron, commanded by Sisera. The Lord made Israel victorious on the field. Soon after, the voice of an angel of the Lord was heard, crying, “Curse ye MEROZ, curse ye bitterly the INHABITANTS thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Now, there was a time, doubtless, when the matter of taking the Lord’s side against Jabin or remaining neutral, was a matter of debate in the halls of MEROZ; opinions were in contest, nil they were all of one opinion — to leave the Lord to fight his own battle, they would do nothing against him, nor for him and hoped to be irresponsible and unblamable. Was there no importance attached to such an opinion? Did it not bring a curse? A bitter curse? Perhaps more bitter than if they had joined with the enemy in actual hostilities against the Lord. Upon what principle? Because they had light enough to restrain them from such a course; but they sinned against light in not taking the Lord’s side, against that doomed nation. Hear this and understand, all ye who have light enough to halt between two opinions, — whether you will take the Lord’s side heartily, sincerely, scriptural, against a world in arms against him, or remain neutral. I tell you now, and forewarn you, that if you persist in neutrality you will surely perish! That ground will as surely sink under you, as that did beneath Korah, Dathan and Abiram, when they went down quick into the pit, they with all that appertained to them, because they had provoked the Lord. — Numb. 16 - 30.

Away, then, with DOUBLE MINDED opinions, and all that appertain to them — indifference, neutrality and dissembling! Turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart. Repent of these sins against God, for, alas! You have been woefully guilty, of late, with regard to them. Repent of all your sins, forsake them, confess them, supplicate mercy, on account of them, plead the atonement for them, believe and trust in the blood of the Lamb, that all may be forgiven; otherwise you will be of no use on the Lord’s side, no more than Achan among the Israelites, — Joshua 7, — or Judas among the disciples, or Ananias and Sapphira among the first Christians, — Acts 5, — rather as helps to the great enemy.

Hearken to another class of opinions.

VI. EMOTIONAL OPINIONS. — Such as spring from the feelings, or passions, opinions begotten by likes or dislikes, affection, or aversion, or prejudice, worldly hopes or worldly fear, without the ordinary process of understanding, regardless of the decision of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures, selfish opinions these, and unsafe as they are selfish!

I have but touched upon some great principles; but have not had time to carry them out or illustrate them properly. You will hear from the text again. But you have heard the elements of much of my coming preaching,’ — and are they not elements of power? Taken loosely and separately as tonight, they may not move you much, but the mind of God is in them nevertheless, they are in harmony with his word; and when combined and concentred they make a thing of power, to be felt in this world or in eternity; as gunpowder is composed of saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal, simple materials when separate, but when mixed and granulated, — that is, formed into grains, — it has an explosive force which defies opposition.

Myself and young Mr. Hudson, son of one of your Wesleyan ministers, were caught in a thunder-storm, some the since, on the shores of the Bay of Naples. The thunder, and lightning, and wind, and rain, were terrible in the extreme. It happened at the twilight hour, and we were exposed to its fury; but the scene was most sublime, the flashes lighting up the finest scenery in the world, revealing fitfully the grave of buried Herculaneum, and Vesuvius, with its robe of green, it heart of fire, and its banner of smoke, and, in another direction, Virgil’s tomb. The heavens were filled with sheets of fire, and the thunders rolled as if they would “shake down the props and pillars of the sky,” and the wind blew, reminding one of that which rent the mountains round Elijah, and the rain came down like a second deluge, and the waves were dashed in heaps along the winding shore. Superstition might have fancied the Spirit of Virgil out amid this war of elements, analyzing, as in days of yet; when he investigated, thereabouts perhaps, the constituent elements of a thunderbolt, thus:

“Three rays of writhen rain, of fire three more,
Of winging southern winds and cloudy store
As many parts, the dreadful mixture frame,
And fears are added, and avenging flame!”

A THUNDERBOLT is a thing of power, however, whatever becomes of the poetic philosophy of Virgil; and so is the truth of the living God, and so are the principles this night passed in array before you. Calculate sooner the might of a thunderbolt from heaven than that of right or wrong opinions in their effects upon your eternal destinies!

The BIBLE declares that “Upon the WICKED he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup.” — Ps. 11: 6. A terrible “portion” that, and bitter! But, alas! Listen to me, and don’t leave! Compounded in full accordance with the degree in which those evil opinions may have influenced you, in your lifetimes! A terrible “tempest” that! Compared with which, all the storms of earth were but as infant breathings! A scorching “fire” that in comparison of which all the fires of earth were but as painted fires! A wasting “rain” that deluging the soul with eternal sorrows. Horrible “snares” those! Which shall entangle the soul in sudden and unexpected evils forever and ever! I say unexpected, for those who indulge in the evil opinions we have reprobated little suspect into what troubles they will finally involve them! There are storms coming — pulpit storms — under my humble ministry. I wish to prepare you for them, with bolts of truth effective as those which the thunder carries on its wings, — but death to sin only, evil opinions, and a wicked life! You will bear them, then, and not be angry, nor out of patience. Consider their design. Better bear the storms of truth here, and be saved, than bear the beatings of that eternal storm hereafter, and be damned, and lost eternally.

O ye sinners of Huddersfield! Flee from the wrath to come! My heart is enlarged toward you; my soul is moved for you; my groans disturb the night for you; my cheeks are wet for you, heaven has no rest on your account; our cries awake the echoes of heaven for you, your case fixes the attention of the skies; the power of God is now descending upon us! Jesus died for you; his precious blood flowed for you; he intercedes for you; his intercessions have been for years as a wall of fire between you and the fire that shall never be quenched. O, ye prisoners of wrath! Nay, O, ye prisoners of hope! Look unto Jesus! Turn and look upon him now! Jesus, thou Son of God, look thou upon them, and break every heart of stone! Look with that look that broke the heart of unfaithful Peter! Look as thou once did through the cloud upon the Egyptians in the morning watch and struck off their chariot wheels, so that they dragged heavily, — so that these sinners, which are inclined even now to fly, are flying from this dreadful place, may drag heavily! Look at them, O thou Son of God, and they shall fall into repentance before thine eyes! ‘T is done! Behold, they are weeping bitterly’ the people are moved as the trees of the wood! Now is thy time, Jesus save them now! ‘O sinner, fly not the arms of pursuing love, which almost reach thee now! — fall, fall into those arms! Look yes, look at his wounds for thee; look and believe and be saved forever! Or wilt thou then but listen, look, turn away, and perish forever!