In these 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 that by no-means a small one, made up of those who have received a religious education, have 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 profane the Sabbath;
They do not neglect the ordinances of God’s house;
They do not live without a form of prayer;
They do not take the holy name of God in vain;
They are not drunkards ;
They are not swearers;
They do not neglect the poor and needy;
They do not run a round of gayety and folly;
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, heartfelt 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, 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 temples of the Holy Ghost;
They have not passed from death unto life;
They are not new creatures in Christ Jesus;
They have not been translated from the kingdom of darkness;
They are not born again, consequently cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Oh that such would now stop and examine their hearts and their hopes, and seek the Lord while He my be found, and call upon Him while He is near!
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald Feb. 21 1878