"He who is begotten of God keeps himself' (1 John 5:18). (continued)
majority of things, are the only guide of choice and action. He cannot say that the witness of eighteen centuries is so weak and worthless, that it deserves no attention. On the contrary, it is so strong that, if he cannot explain it away, he ought either to throw down the arms of his unbelief, or to avow that he is not open to reason. In a word, he is not willing to be convinced. He has shut his eyes, and is determined not to open them. Well might our Lord say, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets—they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead!" Well might He "marvel at unbelief" (Luke 16:31. Mark 6. 6).
I shall now CONCLUDE this paper, with two general remarks which I commend to the attention of all who read it.
1. For one thing, let me try to show the true causes of a vast amount of the unbelief of the present day.
That there is a good deal of unbelief in this age—it is vain to deny. The number of people who attend no place of worship, and seem to have no religion—is very considerable. A vague kind of scepticism or agnosticism is one of the commonest spiritual diseases in this generation. It meets us at every turn, and crops up in every company. Like the Egyptian plague of frogs, it makes its way into every family and home, and there seems no keeping it out. Among high and low, and rich and poor, in town and country, in universities and manufacturing towns, in castles and in cottages, you will continually find some form of unbelief. It is no longer a pestilence that walks in darkness, but a destruction which wastes at noon day. It is even considered clever and intellectual, and a mark of a thoughtful mind. Society seems leavened with it. He who avows his belief of everything contained in the Bible, must make up his mind in many companies— to be smiled at contemptuously, and thought an ignorant and weak man!
(a) Now there is no doubt that, as I have already said, the seat of unbelief in some people, is the HEAD. They refuse to accept anything which they cannot understand, or which seems above their reason. Inspiration, Miracles, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection, the Future State—all these mighty verities are viewed with cold indifference as disputable points, if not absolutely rejected. "Can we entirely explain them? Can we satisfy their reasoning faculties concerning them?" If not they must be excused if they stand in doubt. What they cannot fully understand, they tell us they cannot fully believe, and so they never exhibit any religion while they live, though, strangely enough, they like to be buried with religious forms when they die.
(b) But while I admit this, I am equally certain that with some, the real seat of unbelief is the HEART. They love the sins and habits of life, which the Bible condemns, and are determined not to give them up. They take refuge from an uneasy conscience—by trying to persuade themselves that the old Book is not true! The measure of their creed is their lusts! Whatever condemns their natural inclinations, they refuse to believe. The famous Lord Rochester, once a profligate and an infidel, but at last a true penitent, is recorded to have said to Bishop Burnet, as he drew near his end, "It is not reason, but a wicked life, which is the great argument against the Bible." A true and weighty saying! Many, I am persuaded, profess that they do not believe, because they know, if they did believe—they must give up their favorite sins!
(c) Last, but not least, with far the greater number of people the seat of unbelief is a lazy, indolent will. They dislike all kind of trouble. Why should they deny themselves, and take pains about Bible-reading and praying, and diligent watchfulness over thoughts, and words, and actions—when, after all, it is not quite certain that the Bible is true? This, I have little doubt, is the form of unbelief which prevails most frequently among young people. They are not agitated by intellectual difficulties. They are often not the slaves of any special lusts or passions, and live tolerably decent lives. But deep down in their hearts there is a disinclination to make up their minds, and to be decided about anything in religion. And so they drift down the stream of life like dead fish, and float helplessly on, and are tossed to and fro, hardly knowing what they believe. And while they would shrink from telling you they are not Christians, they are without any backbone in their Christianity.
Now, whether head, or heart, or will, be in fault—it is some comfort to remember that there is probably less of real, downright, reasoning unbelief than there appears to be. Thousands, we may be sure, do not in their heart of hearts, believe all that they say with their lips. Many a skeptical saying is nothing more than a borrowed article, picked up and retailed by him who says it, because it sounds clever—while, in reality, it is not the language of his inner man.
Sorrow, and sickness, and affliction, often bring out the strange fact that so-called sceptics are not sceptics at all, and that many talk scepticism merely from a desire to seem clever, and to win the fleeting applause of clever men. That there is an immense amount of unbelief in the present day I make no question; but that much of it is mere show and pretense is, to my mind—as clear as noonday. No man, I think, can do pastoral work, and come to close quarters with souls, visit the sick, and attend the dying, without coming to that conclusion.
The parting advice I offer to heart sceptics is simply this. Let me entreat you to deal honestly with your soul about secret sins. Are you sure there is not some bad habit, or lust, or passion, which, almost insensibly to yourself—you would like to indulge, if it were not for some remaining scruples? Are you quite sure that your doubts do not arise from a desire to get rid of restraint? You would like, if you could, to do something which the Bible forbids, and you are looking about for reasons for disregarding the Bible. Oh! if this is the case with any of my readers, awake to a sense of your danger! Break the chains which are gradually closing round you! Pluck out the right eye, if need be; but never be the servant of sin! I repeat that the