The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon

to injure and contaminate your character by connecting yourself with those who meet in such places, and lead you into sin. “Well,” one says, “but I can do it and yet I am not harmed.” I dare say you can, I could not. If the coals did not burn me, yet they would blacken me; and, therefore, I would have nothing to do with them. There are some professors, however, who are like the old lady’s coachman. She advertised for a coachman, and three waited on her. To one she said, “How near could you drive to danger?” “Madam,” he replied, “I could drive, I dare say, within six inches, and yet be safe.” “Then you will not suit me at all,” she said. She asked the next, “How near can you drive me to danger?” “I would drive within a hair’s breadth.” “Then you will not suit me.” The third was asked, “How near can you drive to danger?” “Madam,” he said, “that is a thing I never tried; for I always drive as far off from danger as I can.” She said, “Then you will suit me.” That is my advice to every professor of religion.

      11. I must make the very same remark with regard to the pastimes, the puerile pastimes and enjoyments of the rich, and of those who meet for purposes, not for sin, but of what they call recreation. Dancing — the ballroom — is there anything sinful there? I say, No! no more than there was in the trees that surrounded the image. But nevertheless, I will cut the trees down, because of their association with the images. I must have nothing to do with every amusement of such a kind in which I could not appear before my God while in the act. The Christian is to remember, that “in such an hour as he does not think the Son of Man comes.” Would he like his Master to come and find him in the society of the frivolous; engaged in the dizzy mazes of the dance? I do not think so. Perhaps one of the last places he would like to be found in would be there. Dancing! while hell is filling and sinners are perishing! What! are Christian men to be the saviours of the world, and yet waste their time so? Are there no poor to be relieved, no sick to be visited? Are there no dens of this great metropolis that need to be pried into by the servants of Christ? Are there no children to be taught, are there no aged men who need leading to Jesus; is there nothing to be done in this great vineyard — this great field of the Lord, so that a Christian could afford to waste his time so? Let the worldling do it if he likes; we have no right to talk to him about it. But amusements that are right for him are not right for us. Let him do as he pleases, but we are the servants of God. We protest that all we have and all we are is given up to Christ, and can that be consistent with the waste of time that is involved in the frivolous amusements in which so many are content to indulge? I do not condemn the thing itself, any more than I condemn the grove of trees. I condemn it for its associations with many things that are to be avoided by the Christian; jesting, lascivious and foolish talking, and many unholy thoughts, that must necessarily arise. Down with the trees altogether, because false gods have been worshipped there. You are a good deal too harsh, some will reply; well, I dare say I am, but I am not any more harsh than God’s Word. If I am, whatever is not according to God’s Word, reject; but you will not find me beginning to conform just yet, I assure you. While I know a thing to be true, I am not the man to stammer in speaking it. What I would not do myself I would not have others do who are Christian men, and who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

      12. Now, I must lift up the axe against another evil — books. There are many books that are to be so esteemed by the Christian man, that they must be cut down like the groves of trees, not because they are bad in themselves, note, but because false gods are worshipped there. Novel reading is the rage of the present day. I go to a railway bookstall, and I cannot see a book that I can read. I get one, and it is all trash. I search to find something that would be really valuable but I am told, “It would not sell here.” The fact is, nothing will sell except what is light, and frothy, and frivolous; so every traveller is compelled to consume such food as that, unless he carries something better with him. Do I, therefore, say, that the Christian man must condemn all reading of fiction and novels? No, I do not, but I do say, that the mass of popular books published under the name of Light Literature is to be avoided and cut down, for the simple reason that the moral of it is not that of piety and goodness; the tendency of the reading is not to bring the Christian towards heaven, but rather to retard and impede him in his good course. I lift up my axe against many a work that I cannot condemn, if I look at it abstractly in itself, but which must come down, because I remember how much of my own precious time I wasted in such vapid reading, and how many years in which I might have had fellowship with Christ have been cast away, while I have been foolishly indulging a vicious taste for the romantic and the frivolous. No, there are many things which are not wrong in themselves, but which nevertheless must be given up by the true Christian, because they have had, and do have association with things positively wrong. Just as these groves must be cut down — not because there can be a sin in trees, but because the trees have been associated with the worship of idols. You remember John Knox’s memorable saying, when he turned the Romanists out, he immediately went to pull down their chapels. He gathered the mob together, and began to destroy all their places of worship. Why should John Knox meddle with them? “I will pull the nests down,” he said, “then I shall be sure that the birds will never come back.” So I would do today. I would not only drive away the birds — the sin, the evil; but I would pull down the nest, so that there will be no temptation to you to come back again to the sin. “Come out from among them, and be separate, and do not touch the unclean thing, and I will be a father to you.” Come out from the world, you children of Christ. Have nothing to do with their enjoyments, nor with their devices. Follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Do not go fornicating after these iniquities, but drink waters out of your own cistern, and be always ravished with his love who is your Lord, your husband, your hope, your joy, your all.

      13. III. Moreover, they not only broke the images, and cut down the groves, but they THREW DOWN THE HIGH PLACES, AND THE ALTERS OUT OF ALL JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. This was, perhaps, the least necessary work, but it showed the thoroughness of their desire to serve the Lord. These altars were built for the service of the true God, but they were built against his express command. God had said that he would have only one altar, namely, at Jerusalem. These people, to avoid inconvenience and trouble, thought they would build altars, wherever they lived, and there celebrate their worship; I can conceive that they worshipped Jehovah with all their hearts, and that he might graciously accept even such worship as that through Christ Jesus, overlooking their ignorance and casting their sin behind his back! But now as their zeal was kindled, their consciences became scrupulous, so they resolved not only to avoid the things that are positively sinful but they would have nothing to do with anything that is not positively right. So they began to cast down the altars of God, because they were not built according to God’s law. This then is a third reformation, which ought to result from the ministry, and the assembling of the people together when we have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. There should be a casting down of everything in connection with the true worship, that is not according to the law of God and the word of God. As it was with the worship of Israel of old, so it is now with that of the Christian church. The pure becomes alloyed with the base, what is genuine with what is spurious, divine revelation with human tradition, and the inspired decrees of heaven with the inventions and devices of the children of men. Some fallacies are perpetuated from generation to generation, until the deep hue of antiquity tinges them over, makes them look venerable and speciously invites a reverence and regard to which they never had any legitimate claim. We have in this country, seven or eight different forms of the Christian religion. Some of these are at complete variance and contradiction with others. Some indeed, I truly think, are contradictory in themselves. We are all, I do trust, building on a sure foundation for eternity, if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and abide by the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, notwithstanding our many grievous discrepancies, which must involve error. Evangelical Christians are to be found in every sect and denomination, bearing the name of our one common Lord; yes, there are some who as yet have never taken upon them his name by public profession, who devoutly follow him in secret. But, note this, if the grace of God is once more restored to the church in all its fulness and the Spirit of God is poured out from on high, in all his sanctifying energy there will come such a shaking as has never been seen in our days. We want such a one as Martin Luther to rise from his tomb. If Martin Luther were now to visit our so called reformed churches, he would say with all his holy boldness “I was not half