Taken from Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts and
Themes, Vol. IV, The
Lesser Epistles, by Horatius Bonar, 1870.
Is the Christianity of our day of the lofty kind of which apostolic men have
left us so bright an example? Is it not feeble, indolent, self-indulgent,
second-rate? Is there in it anything of the presentation of ‘living sacrifices’
to God, which is our acceptable and reasonable service? Are we not seeking our
own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s? Are we not feasting when the
world is starving? Are we not at ease in
O easy, luxurious, comfortable Christian! While you are lolling on your
couch the sinner is going down to woe! While you are soothing your conscience
with the opiates of religious routine; or pampering the flesh; or killing time
in mirth and music, at the concert, or oratorio, or social party; or idling
days in sport; or talking politics; or drinking in the applause of public
opinion; or sunning yourself in the blaze of the ballroom; or absorbed in the
latest novel; or engrossed with the unmeaningness of the card table;—men are
dying, the present scene is passing, the eternal world is hastening on, and the
Judge is at the door!
Rouse thyself from thy indulgence, and work! Do it with thy might. Spend and
be spent. Give thy money to the Master; give thy strength and thy life to Him. For He is at hand. He may be nearer than thou thinkest. And
how shouldst thou like to be caught by Him lounging on thy soft couch, or
feasting at thy well-spread table, when thou shouldst have been working for
Him, or fighting His battles,—visiting His brethren, soothing His sorrowing
children, ministering to His poor disciples, grudging no weariness or hardship
for a Master like Him?