A FOE TO GODLINESS by Arthur T. Pierson

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 27, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 20.

A FOE TO GODLINESS.

By Arthur T. Pierson

We are more and more persuaded that secularism is the worst foe of holiness, not so much for the sin it openly brings in as for the God it actually leaves out. The worldly spirit is negatively atheistic. Its plans, its culture, its pursuits, its pleasures, its ambitions, its philosophy—are all godless. It is full of the idols which Francis Bacon quaintly classified as those of the den, the tribe, and the market-place. Worldliness is so much the more seductive and ensnaring because it presents so little that is grossly and repulsively sinful. And yet it remains true that sensuality and carnality do not more surely leave flesh-spots on the white garment, than does conformity to the world leave world-spots upon it. "All that is in the world, the [objects of the] lust of the flesh, [of] the lust of the eyes, and [of] the pride of life, are not of the Father." The spirit of the age is against God.

And here, in conclusion, we call attention to a great risk of deception. We often imagine the world to be getting Christianized, when it is only the Christianity that is getting secularized. There are two ways to bring things to a common level: you may level up that which is low, or level down that which is high. Satan's master device it is to get us to level down our piety, rather than level up our secularism. And so we foolishly imagine that the world is becoming Christian when it is only the Christian getting worldly. We reduce all to a common plane by removing all those sublime and lofty heights of holy living which by their very altitude preach separation unto God. . . .

We have no consciously critical or falsely "pessimistic" spirit. But after watching for a quarter of a century and more the tendencies of our times, we feel more and more that the drift, even in the church, is away from God, toward a worldly conformity that destroys all distinctiveness in discipleship. The touch and taint of worldliness is upon our garments, upon our altars, upon our churches, upon our worship, upon our amusements, upon even our charities. Much of the Lord's work is done in the energy of the flesh, not in the energy of the Spirit.

We shall never save the world by conformity to it—we shall only sacrifice and imperil ourselves. We must not cultivate the spirit of the age, but thrill the age by the spirit of the ages to come. The law of a carnal commandment is to be displaced by the power of an endless life.—Rev. A. T. Pierson, in The Truth.