Convenience in Religion.
By C. A. OSGOOD
The religion that prevails at the present time is a very easy thing. It costs but little or nothing of self-denial, and it is worth nothing. Professed Christians, as well as others, are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” Whatever of duty is inconvenient, is almost always neglected. Not a few become satisfied that certain unpopular doctrines are in accordance with divine truth, but they will not avow their convictions, “lest they should be put out of the synagogue,” or otherwise suffer reproach for their attachment to the truth. Many are convinced that some of their doings are contrary to the requirements of God, and that he requires them to perform some duties which they neglect; yet it is inconvenient for them to break off from their sins and obey the Lord, and so they remain as they were. Numbers admit that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and yet continue every week to trample under foot God’s sacred day. And why? Because it is not convenient to keep it. Say some, “If we lived where most of the people kept it, we would do so too.” Others say, “If my family kept it, I would; but now it would be so inconvenient to keep it all alone.” Oh, how little do mankind realize their individual obligation to God; that every one must give an account of himself to God! True religion has always been costly to its possessors. God demands the heart undivided, the whole life. Said Jesus, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.” Before the first advent of the Lord Jesus, what an almost infinite number of lambs and other animals were offered in sacrifice to God; and how many faithful souls suffered intensely for their love and adherence to the truth and the right! “Some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” These had no idea that they might sin against God and neglect duty, in order to escape inconvenience. The three Hebrew children at Babylon, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, had such a regard to the law of65God that they refused to bow down and worship the golden image which the king had set up, and thus violate the second commandment, though they stood alone among the assembled multitude, and though they were to be cast into the burning furnace, if they did not obey the king. Oh, that we might see such faith, and firmness, and zeal, for God’s law now! The early disciples of Jesus suffered much for obeying the truth. Convenience, when it would hinder them from obeying the truth, they laid aside. They “counted not their lives dear unto them,” that they might fulfill the will of God. And the host of sufferers under the Pagan and Papal persecutions were glorious examples of suffering for the truth’s sake. They chose death rather than to deny the truth. And “Shall we be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas.”
It was not convenient for the Saviour to be “despised and rejected of men,” to be “wounded for our transgressions,” and “bruised for our iniquities.” It was not convenient for him to be condemned as a criminal, to wear the crown of thorns, to hear the mocking of his foes, to have the spikes driven through his tender hands and feet, and endure the unutterable agonies of the cross; yea, and the load of man’s guilt too. And shall those who profess to be his followers, purchased with his blood, refuse to obey because it is inconvenient to do so? Oh, how ungrateful! How we delight to make sacrifices for our friends whom we love; and shall we be unwilling to forego our own convenience for his sake “who loved us and gave himself for us?” Rather, let us “count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ, knowing that if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him; but if we deny him, he also will deny us.”