The Church Courting the World.
By Howard Crosby
THERE is no more mistaken notion than that the religion of the Mosaic covenant was a ritualistic religion. It had a ritual, certainly, brimful of Messianic symbol, but its whole core was spiritual. The love of God and of one's neighbor was the inward principle which formed its heart. To compare such a religion with the mere outward rites of paganism and Romanism, is to compare light with darkness. God is a holy God, and he will have his people holy; and if they substitute a ceremonial for holiness, his holy wrath will certainly fall upon them; and in this blow, not only those will fall who, like Eli's sons, commit gross wrongs, but those also, who, like Eli, through indulgence or apathy, fail to rebuke and resist the evil. Let us take this lesson to ourselves to-day. The church of God is to-day courting the world. Its members are trying to bring it down to the level of the ungodly. The ball, the theater, nude and lewd art, social luxuries with all their loose moralities, are making inroads into the sacred inclosure of the church, and as a satisfaction for all this worldliness, Christians are making a great deal of Lent, and Easter, and Good Friday, and church ornamentation. It is the old trick of Satan. The Jewish church struck on that rock. The Romish church was wrecked on the same. And the Protestant church is fast reaching the same doom.—Howard Crosby.