Negative Religion

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Mar 6, 1855

Negative Religion.

In these latter days of ease from persecution, a profession of religion may be made, and a decent outside may be preserved, without much cost. There is one class of professors, and they are by no means a small one, made up of those who have received a religious education, and been trained up to an outward conformity to the precepts of the Gospel, who abstain from the open follies and corruptions of the world, but remain quite satisfied with a NEGATIVE RELIGION.

They do not defraud their neighbor. They do not neglect the poor and needy. They do not run a round of gaiety and folly. They are not drunkards. They are not swearers. They do not bring up their children without some regard to religion. They do not cast off the fear of God.

BUT

They do not love him. They do not experience his love shed abroad in the heart. They do not enjoy vital, heart-felt religion. They do not give God their hearts. They do not delight themselves in Him. They do not esteem his word more than their necessary food. They do not love the habitation of his house, and the place where his honor dwelleth, though they attend it. They do not enjoy the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. They are not the temples of the Holy Ghost. They are not habitations of God through the Spirit. They have not passed from death unto life. Reader, are you a Negative Christian?