We give below a startling description of the state of the churches and of the world, extracted from a discourse by Robert Atkins, preached in London, more than thirty years since:
But, my dear hearers, I must take my leave for the present of the rich churches, the churches that are possessed of goods, the churches that can reign without Christ, the churches that love not his appearing, the churches that scoffingly cry out, Where is the promise of his coming; the anti-Christian, apostate, Gentile churches, who are fitting themselves for the fire with which God will shortly plead with them. And I shall now direct your attention for a few moments, to the awful state of the world, which the divines of the day would have you believe is improving in manners, and in spirit, through its intercourse with the churches which I have just been characterizing as apostate. But where, oh! where, shall I begin? The heart sickens the moment the eye falls upon the mass of iniquitous abomination that lies before it. Take the Christian country in which we live, or it may be better for our purpose, the Christian city in which we dwell, (London) I ask is it an improvement upon heathenism, to see a court at the opera on Saturday night, and at the sacramental altar on Sunday morning? Are balls, concerts, theaters, and race-courses, places of preparation for the judgment-seat, and places of training for the mansions of the blessed, and for the eternal companionship of a holy God? Were there not a Bible in our land, could the iniquities of the heathen be more gloried than they are? And yet this is the capital of the world which is so wonderfully improved by the influence of Christian example. Take your Bible in your hand, and place your finger on that portion of it which says: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy,” and go through the streets and markets of this city; and if your heart does not sink within you, and if your spirit does not fail you, you have neither the heart nor the spirit of a Christian. On any Sabbath throughout the year, take your stand in Hyde Park, and see how daring and impiously the bulk of our nobility can insult the God of heaven. In front of every equipage, I can see in my mind’s eye, an angel of the Lord crying aloud, for God’s sake and for your own sake, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy;” and I can hear the infatuated worms reply, “Onward, onward, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?” Shall I speak to you of whoredom? There are eighty thousand public prostitutes within the precincts of this wicked city, and who can count the number of the secret ones?
Drunkenness, dishonesty, swearing and lying, and every kind and manner of abomination have uncontrolled license; and there is not a street, lane, or neighborhood, that has not a polluted moral atmosphere. This, my hearers, is but a slight etching of our Christian city, of our improving world, of the wicked harlot with which the Gentile churches have been shaking hands, nay, committing open whoredom, for fifteen hundred years.
Tell me not, by way of palliation, that the persecuting spirit of the world is gone. There is no Christ in the churches to persecute. And as to the individual Christian, there is too little of the image of Christ, and of the power of Christ there, to excite either the jealousy of Satan, or the malice of the world. Be assured, my dear hearers, whatever Christians of Satan’s making may say to the contrary, a God-despising, Christ-rejecting, Spirit-resisting world, doth not lack malice towards Christ and his followers. Let any minister of Christ fully take his Master’s ground; let him begin at the palace, and coming down through the members of the administration, the Houses of Parliament, the bishops’ stalls, and the chairs of justice; let him tell every man, plainly and honestly what he is, what he is doing, and where he is going, and you will soon see the arm of the law stretched out against him. And let the efforts of this faithful minister be zealously backed by a few equally bold and resolute denouncers of iniquity, let one fair stand be made for Christ and for God, and you will quickly behold the fires of Smithfield rekindled, or some other more civilized invention in active operation, to rid the land from troublesome, soul-alarming, and Satan-disturbing disciples of Christ.
But why should I keep my eye and yours so long fixed upon the world? Did not the first glance satisfy you all that it was ripe for destruction? It is true, God is a long-suffering and merciful God; but what can he do, that he has not already done? And after having done everything that was consistent with his own nature, and with man’s position as a probationer for eternity, for the church’s reformation, and the world’s salvation, it were directly libeling God to say he has not done so. And after having done all this in vain, as far as either the reformation of the one or the salvation of the other is concerned, a lengthening out of the day of mercy would, in my estimation, be most unmerciful. I see it to be just a crowding of hell with daily increasing victims, and a seven-fold heating of its flames, by hourly despised privileges. Because I love mercy and pity the sinner, my continual cry, is, Lord, come speedily to judgment! Because I feel for God’s insulted honor, I cry, Lord, come to judgment! And because I know the penalty of continuing to resist the Spirit, and to trample upon the blood of the Lamb, I must cry, Lord, come quickly to judgment. And I am as sure as that there is a merciful God in the heavens, that he is hastening on the day of the wicked’s destruction; and as soon as this, his purpose, can be accomplished, it will be accomplished.
Woe, woe, woe to the Bible-despising, gospel-hardened inhabitants of this land; for assuredly the fearful day of retribution, the terrible day of God’s reckoning, with this worse than heathenish people, is nigh at hand. Sinners of Great Britain, depend upon it, the last offer of mercy and salvation is being made to you—your last day of grace is hastening to its close. I look upon it, that you are placed as a nation in precisely the same situation as the Jews were, when Jesus Christ, weeping over Jerusalem, cried aloud, in the anguish of his soul, Oh! that thou, at least, that thou, hadst known the things that belong unto thy peace; but now—and the sentence is irrevocable—now they are forever hid from thine eyes. Notwithstanding the awful sentence, Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to begin the preaching of the gospel at Jerusalem—and why? simply because, though the national doom was fixed, individuals might, even at the last hour, be induced to accept a Saviour. Apostate churches of Christendom, the measure of your iniquity is full. Godless, Christless world, your destiny is fixed; your destruction is inevitable, but shall I not begin at Jerusalem? Oh! that in these last days God would give me energy of body and of mind, and the mighty power of his Spirit, to warn the individual sinner with effect; that some might yet escape for their lives, and take refuge from the coming calamity, in the hitherto despised, but still outstretched arms of their Saviour.
ADDRESS TO THE MINISTERS OF CHRIST.
Ministers of Christ, and ye men of God, who are scattered throughout the churches, suffer the word of exhortation. What have you to do with doctrinal squabbles, the secularizing policy, and the party interests of existing churches? If you be, indeed, men of God, spiritual men, you must long ago have been tired of their mud, and their filth, and their shallows. I entreat you, in God’s name, and for Christ’s sake put away your apathy, and awake from your slumbers. Come out from among them, lest ye become partakers of their plagues. The cry is raised, Behold the Bridegroom cometh! As you value your souls, disobey not the command; but go ye forth to meet him. ’Tis vain to imagine that by remaining where you are you may still be a leaven for good. The Churchman will remain a Churchman, the Independent an Independent, and the Methodist a mere Methodist, in spite of you; mother’s children are they all. They do not bear the image of the heavenly, and I am satisfied, as regards the great bulk of them, the Father never begot them. The little zeal that they have hath self for its spring, and party aggrandizement for its object; and either self-interest or self-exaltation constitutes the bond of this union. If ever they knew anything of God individually, I am afraid the most of them died in the weaning, when the sensible comfort, the milk that God hath provided for the babes in Christ, was withdrawn, because they had been long enough babes; they would not learn to feed upon the word; they would not take to the flesh and to the blood of Christ; and, consequently, that which was given them hath been taken away from them. The preaching gift and the praying gift—yea, and part of the decently living gift, may remain; and because they must have peace, and joy, Satan will take care that they are furnished with both. But as to the life of God, and the image of Christ, they are scarcely anywhere to be found. Men of God, can you make the members of your several churches sensible of their state? Can you convince them of their delusion by remaining among them? Never. Will such men unite with you in hastening on the coming of the Lord? Will they mourn with you over the apostasy of the churches? Will they weep with you, will they cry with you for all the abominations that are existing in the world? O, no. You will uniformly find them on the side of the scoffer, and they will tell you, We are doing well—we are increasing in goods, we are triumphing, we are reigning, and what care we for the promise of his coming? Men and brethren, from this moment come out from among them, and be ye like unto them who are waiting for the return of their Lord. Bear your testimony boldly and openly against them, and thus you may succeed in alarming some of them. You are injuring them, you are hindering the work of Christ, you are weakening one another’s hands, by continuing in your present position. Oh! may the spirit of Elijah, who must come, and of John the Baptist, be given unto you. Let your loins, like theirs, be girded about. Let your lights burn where they may be seen, and let your united cry awaken both the slumberer and the sleeper. “Prepare to meet thy God.”
I have a conviction on my mind that it is God’s purpose that yet once more the note of alarm shall be sounded throughout these realms, and that this last trumpet will, under God, either have the effect of hardening or saving the sinner. I clearly see that both processes have already commenced under my own ministry, and if you, my fellow-laborers, will only be faithful, and in your several spheres and stations stand out boldly for God, the harvest of this land will soon be ripe. I feel as if death or life was in every word; and every time I make the inquiry, Watchman, what of the night? the answer cometh, with increasing thrill to my soul, The morning cometh, and also the night. And, oh, may every soul now before me tremble at the voice of the Spirit, and take the prophetical warning in time, make haste—return—come! Ministers of Christ! Men of God! to your knees for oil, to your Bible for light. Away with every trapping of worldly policy. Strip your party-colored robes of Satan’s weaving. Take to your locusts and wild honey. Have done with the poisonous dishes of man’s providing. Strengthen your loins as with a girdle, with the promise of his coming, with the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and your Saviour, and let your voice be a united voice—the voice of one crying in the midst of this wilderness of apostasy, blasphemy, ignorance, pollution, and sin—“Prepare the way of the Lord.” Thus will you be “like unto men that wait for their Lord;” and take the promise for your comfort, “When he cometh and shall find you thus watching; verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make you sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve you.” Amen.