FORM OF RELIGION
Nor can the mere form of religion be relied on as conclusive testimony that
man is born of God. The religion of the Bible possesses a body and a soul;
it has an appearance and a reality; it is endued with a form and a power.
The body, the appearance, the form, is a very different thing from the soul,
the reality, and the power. Now a moment’s reflection will convince any man
that, while the power of religion cannot exist without the form, it is very
possible for the form to exist without the power. The Scriptures speak
expressly of those who having a form of godliness, deny the power thereof
(II Tim. 3:5).
They present very many painful instances of this character and criminate and
condemn them. The foolish virgins put on the form of religion. They took
their lamps and thus made a profession of religion before the world. They
had oil in their lamps also, though the event proved that it was not such as
would burn a great while. They went with the wise virgins; their profession
was not an idle profession; they frequented the worship of God and the
ordinances of the temple, and performed many of the duties which befitted
their standing in the visible church. And when the cry was heard, “Behold,
the Bridegroom comes!” they arose, trimmed their lamps, and went forth to
meet Him. But, bitter result! Their lamps had gone out, the door of the
Kingdom was shut! (Matt. 25:1-12).
There was a period when the great body of the Israelites possessed only the
form of religion. God says of them, “They seek me daily; they delight to
know your ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the
ordinances of their God; they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take
delight in approaching to God” (Isa. 58:2). They were also much engaged in
the more extraordinary duties of devotion “Wherefore have we fasted,” say
they, “and you see not?” (Isa. 58:3). And yet, God reproves and condemns all
this as the merest hypocrisy. Our Savior said of the Pharisees that they
outwardly appeared righteous unto men, but within were full of hypocrisy and
iniquity.
Would to God, my brethren, this evil were confined to other days! No doubt
there are those who are rigid in their observance of all the external duties
of piety; who read the Scriptures, pray in secret, in private, and public;
who profess to be on the Lord’s side; who give up their children to God in
baptism; who come to the sacramental table and engage habitually in the
public commemorations of the death and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus; who,
notwithstanding this, are at heart as ignorant of true religion as the
prayerless and profane. Nor is it difficult to account for this from
considerations which fall far short of the operation of grace on the heart.
Multitudes are formalists from the force of education. They have been
brought up in the regular performance of the external services of piety, and
are as much attached to them as the worshipers of dumb idols are to their
deities of wood and stone.
Multitudes are formalists from the force of example. They have no wish to be
singular in anything and consent to float along with the current though the
tide issues from the waters of the sanctuary. Multitudes are formalists from
the force of public opinion. A due regard to the institutions of piety is
too creditable a thing to secure the esteem and confidence of a virtuous
society without it. Multitudes are formalists from the influence of
erroneous teachers. There have been from the beginning and still are false
teachers who lie in wait to deceive; and there is reason to believe that
they are too frequently successful in their soul-destroying purpose. Those
who are deceived themselves take the most pains to deceive others and are
more likely to succeed in spreading their pernicious and false sentiments.
And there is no point of instruction on which the world is more willing to
place implicit confidence in its teachers, and more willing to be deceived,
than when it is taught that the form of religion supersedes the necessity of
the power. In the Church of England, in the Church of Scotland, in the
Church of Holland, and in very many of the churches of the United States,
the sentiment is taught that it is the duty of all men to put on the form of
religion though they may be entirely destitute of every holy exercise of
heart. Multitudes put on the form of godliness from the force of natural
conscience. When the mind is awake to the perception of its obligations,
there can be no semblance of compromise with the conscience short of
external godliness. Multitudes put on the form of godliness from the force
of fear. They cannot bear to abandon their hopes and yet they know they must
abandon them if once they are made to feel there is no religion in their
external services.
And there are not lacking those who substitute the shadow of the substance
from the love of error. It is a common and just maxim that men easily
believe that to be right which they wish to be right. That true religion
consists in mere external forms is a very agreeable sentiment to a wicked
heart, and it is not strange that multitudes should mistake error for truth,
and the way of death for the way of life. There are very many who, from some
of these causes or all of them combined, carry the form of godliness to
every possible extent and are nothing more than sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal. It is an easy thing to make clean the outside of the cup and the
platter-but to what purpose is it done? God cannot be mocked. To what
purpose is the multitude of such sacrifices? No, God cannot be mocked! Bring
no more vain oblations. Your corrupt heart corrupts all the fair forms of
your devotion, and you are still in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of
iniquity. Beware of an assurance that you are saved that will at last bite
like a serpent, and sting like an adder.