Monday, May 2, 2011

The modern spirit



The modern spirit mutters, “We are all right, every one of us.” He who says “yes” is right, and he who says “no” is also right. You hear a man talk with mawkish sentimentality which he calls Christian charity. “Well, I am of opinion that if a man is a Mahometan,* or a Catholic, or a Mormonite, or a dissenter, if he is sincere, he is all right.” They do not quite include devil worshippers, Thugs and cannibals yet, but if things go on they will accept them into the happy family of the Broad Church.

Such is the talk and cant of this present age, but I bear my witness that there is no truth in it, and I call upon every child of God to protest against it, and, like Moses, to declare that he can have no complicity with such a confederacy. There is truth somewhere, let us find it; the lie is not of the truth, let us abhor it. There is a God, let us follow him, and it cannot be that false gods are gods too. Surely truth is of some value to the sons of men, surely there must be something worth holding, something worth contending for, and something worth dying for; but it does not appear now-a-days as if men thought so. May we have a respect for God’s true church in the world which abides by the apostolic word and doctrine.

* - that is, a Muslim

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Moses' Decision," delivered July 28, 1872. Image by Nic McPhee under Creative Commons License.

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