Mongrel Religion

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, October 2nd, 1881, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

So these nations feared the Lord and served their graven images, both
their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so
do they unto this day.''2 Kings 17:41.

SO DO THEY unto this day,' said the writer of the Book of Kings, who
has long since passed away unto his fathers. Were he alive now he might
say concerning the spiritual descendants of these Samaritans, So do
they unto this day.' This base union of fearing God and serving other
gods is by no means obsolete. Alas, it is too common everywhere, and to
be met with where you might least expect it. From generation to
generation there have been Mongrel Religionists, who have tried to
please both God and the devil, and have been on both sides, or on
either side, as their interest led them. Some of these wretched
blenders are always hovering around every congregation, and my hope is
that I may convince the consciences of some here present that they
themselves are guilty, and that of them it might be said, as of these
Assyrian immigrants, They feared the Lord, and served their own gods.'
My sermon will by no means be an essay upon an extinct race, but it may
be placed among the present-day papers,' for so do they unto this day.'
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, and to whomsoever the word
shall apply let its rebuke be taken home, and through the teaching of
the Holy Spirit may it produce decisive results.

I. I shall first call your attention to THE NATURE OF THIS Mongrel
Religion. It had its good and bad points, for it wore a double face.
These people were not infidels. Far from it: they feared the Lord.'
They did not deny the existence, or the power, or the rights of the
great God of Israel, whose name is Jehovah. They had not the pride of
Pharaoh who said, Who is Jehovah that I should obey his voice?' They
were not like those whom David calls fools,' who said in their hearts,
There is no God.' They had faith, though only enough to produce fear.
They knew that there was a God; they feared his wrath, and they tried
to appease it. So far they were hopeful persons, and under the
influence of a feeling which has often led up to better things. It was
better to dread God than to despise him; better slavishly to fear than
stupidly to forget. We would not have men so foolish as to doubt the
existence of God, nor so profane as to defy him. There was something
commendable about men of whom it could be said that they feared
Jehovah, even though that fear was a selfish and servile one, and was
by no means so efficacious upon them as it ought to have been, for it
did not cause them to put away their idols.

Another good point about these mixed religionists was that they were
willing to be taught. As soon as they found that they were not acting
rightly towards the God of the land, they sent a petition to their
supreme ruler, the king of Assyria, setting forth their spiritual
destitution. Church and State were fused in those days, and therefore
they applied to their king that he would help them in their religious
distress, and he acted to the best of his light; for he sent them one
or the priests of the old religion of the land. This man was a
Bethelite, one who worshipped God under the symbol of an ox, which the
Scripture calls a calf. He was a very slight improvement upon a
heathen; but we must be glad even of small progress. They were quite
willing to be taught the manner of the God of the land, and so they
installed this priest at Bethel, and gathered about him to know what
they should do. We have people around us unto this day who are glad to
hear the gospel, and sit with pleasure under our ministry, and if the
word be faith fully preached they commend the preacher and give a
gratified attention to the things that proceed out of his mouth; and
yet they are living in known sin. Albeit they do not practically turn
from sin and renounce the service of Satan, yet are they willing to bow
with the righteous, to sing their psalms and assent to their prayers,
and to accept their confession of faith. They are a teachable sort of
people, so far as mere hearing goes but there they stop.

Though these strangers feared Jehovah, and were willing to learn the
way of his worship, yet they stuck to their old gods. Ah,' said the
Babylonian, I listen respectfully to what you have to say of this God,
of the land; but Succoth-benoth for me; when I go home I shall offer
sacrifice to him.' The men of Cuthah said, Verily this is good doctrine
concerning the God of Israel; but the god of our fathers was Nergal,
and to him will we cleave'; and the Sepharvites, though they wished to
hear of the pure and holy Jehovah, and therefore learned from his law
the command, Thou shalt not kill,' yet still they passed their children
through the fire to Moloch, and did not cease from that most cruel of
all religious rites. Thus you see that this mingle-mangle religion left
the people practically where they were: whatever their fear might be,
their customs and practices remained the same. Have you never met with
persons of the same mongrel kind? If you have never done so, your class
of acquaintances must be superior to mine At this moment I shall not
speak at random, but aim at individual cases; for I know of persons who
come to this place of worship with great regularity, and yet they serve
their sins, and obey their own vicious passions. They take delight in
the services of this house, and yet they are much at home with the god
of this world. Some worship a deity quite as horrible as Moloch, whose
name in the olden time was Bacchus'the god or the wine-cup and the
beer-barrel. They pay their eager devotions at his shrine, and yet they
would be numbered with the people of God. They were drunk last night,
and yet they are here this morning: possibly they will keep sober
to-day; but they will not let many days pass before they will once more
stagger before their abominable idol. In all places of worship there
are people of this kind. Do not look round to see if there is a person
present dressed like a working man, for I have not the poor in my eye
at this time. Alas, this vice is to be met with in one rank as well as
another, and the person I mean looks quite respectable, and wears
broadcloth. Many worshippers of Bacchus do not drink so as to be found
drunk and incapable in the street. O no; they go upstairs to their beds
in their own houses, so that their condition is not observed; but still
they must know that they are verging upon intoxication, if not actually
gone. Woe unto such, who, while they pretend to be worshippers of
Jehovah, are also worshippers of the beastly god of drunkenness. Is
that too harsh a word? I beg the beasts' pardon for thus slandering
them. Alas, there are others who adore the goddess Venus, the queen of
lust and uncleanness. I say no more. It is a shame even to speak of
things which are done of them in secret. Too often the god is Mammon,
who is as degraded a deity as any of them. Such turn religion into a
means of gain, and would sell Jesus himself for silver. The sin of
Judas is one of which we may say, So do they unto this day.' Judas is
an apostle, he listens to the Master's words, he preaches at the
Master's command, and be works miracles in the Master's Dame; he also
keeps the bag and manages the finance for Christ's little company, and
he does it so carefully and economically that what he filches for
himself is not missed, and he remains in good repute. Judas professes
to serve Jesus, but all the while be is really serving himself, for
secretly he abstracts from the treasury somewhat for his own pocket. He
had the bag and kept that which was put therein.' There are such still
in the churches of God: they do not actually steal, but they follow
Jesus for what they can make or get out of him and his disciples. The
symbols of their worship are the loaf and the fish. Now, this is as
degrading a form of worship as the adoration of graven images. Gain is
the god of many in all congregations: they seek Jesus, not because they
care for his words, but because they eat of the loaves. They fear the
Lord, but they serve other gods.

Are there not to be found in the world men whose very calling is
contrary to the spirit of true godliness? I did know, and may I never
know again such an one, a man apparently most devout and gracious, who
was a deacon of a church, and passed round the communion cup; and yet
over the worst drinking dens in the town where he lived, where the
lowest harlots congregated, you would see the man's name, for he was
the brewer to whom the houses belonged'houses which had been purposely
adapted at his expense for purposes of vice and drunkenness. He took
the profits of a filthy traffic, and then served at the Lord's table. I
would judge no man, but some cases speak for themselves. God save the
man that can pander to the devil, and then bow down, before the Most
High. Persons are to be found, without a lantern and candle, who earn
their money by ministering at the altars of Belial, and then offer a
part of it to the Lord of hosts. Can they come from the place of
revelling to the chamber of communion? Will they bring the wages of sin
to the altar of God? He who makes money over the devil's back is a
hypocrite if he lays his cankered coin at the apostles' feet. Thy money
perish with thee.' How some men can rest in their impious pretensions
it is not for me to guess; but methinks if their consciences were
quickened, it would strike them as being a horrible thing in the land
that they should be fearing the Lord, and serving other gods. I knew
one who was always at the place of worship, prayer-meetings, and all,
and yet he had forsaken the wife of his youth, and was the companion of
gamblers, and drunkards, and the unclean. I know another of a much
milder type: be is a regular hearer, but he has no sense of true
religion. He is a steady, hard-working man, but he lives to hoard
money, and neither the poor nor the church of God ever get a penny from
him: bowels of compassion he has none. He is a stranger to private
prayer, and his Bible is never read; but he never misses a sermon. He
never lifts his thoughts above the bench at which he works, or the shop
in which he serves, his whole conversation is of the world, and the
gain thereof, and yet he has occupied a seat in the meeting-house from
his youth up, and has never thought of leaving it except at
quarter-days, when he is half a mind to give it up and save the few
shillings which it costs him. Oh, sad, sad, sad! I can understand the
man who honestly says, I am living for the world and have no time for
religion.' I can understand the man who cries, I love the world and
mean to have my fill of it.' I can understand the man who says, I shall
not pretend to pray or sing psalms, for I do not care about God or his
ways'; but how can I comprehend those who are faithful to the outward
part of religion, and profess to receive the truth, and yet have no
heart for the love of Jesus, no care for the service of God? Oh,
unhappy men, to come so near salvation in appearance, and to be so far
off in reality! How can I explain their conduct? Truly, I must leave
them among the mysteries of the moral world; for they fear the Lord and
serve their graven images unto this day.' So far have we spoken upon
the nature of this patched-up religion, this linsey-woolsey piety. May
we have none of it.

II. Let us now consider THE MANNER OF ITS GROWTH. However came such a
monstrous compound into this world?

Here is the history of it. These people came to live where the people
of God had lived. The Israelites were most unworthy worshippers of
Jehovah; but, still, they were known to others as his people, and their
land was Jehovah's land. If the Sepharvites had stopped at Sepharvaim
they would never have thought of fearing Jehovah; if the men of Babylon
had continued to live in Babylon they would have been perfectly
satisfied with Bel, or Succoth-benoth, or whatever the name of their
precious god might be: but when they were fetched out from their old
haunts, and brought into Canaan, they came under a different influence,
and a new order of things. God would not allow them to go the whole
length of idolatry in his land: though he had cast out his people, yet
still it was his land, and he would make these heathens know it, and
show some little decency in their new abode. Now, it sometimes happens
to utter worldlings that they are dropped into the midst of Christian
people, and they naturally feel that they must not be different from
everybody about them. A kind of fashion is set by the professors among
whom they dwell, and they fall into it. If they do not become gracious
people themselves they try to look a little like them. Everybody in the
village attends a place of worship, and the new comers do the same,
though they have no heart to it. They have not the courage of their
want of conviction, so they just drift with the current, and as it
happens to run in a religious direction they are as religious as the
rest. Or it may be they have a godly mother, and their father is a
believer, and so they adopt the traditions of the family. They would
like to be free to forsake the ways of piety, but they cannot be quite
so unkind to those whom they love, and so they yield to the influences
which surround them, and become in a measure fearers of God, out of
respect to their neighbors or their families. This is a poor reason for
being religious.

Something else happened to these Assyrian immigrants which had a
stronger influence still. At first they did not fear God, but the Lord
sent lions among them. Matthew Henry says, God can serve his own
purposes by which he pleaseth, little or big, lice or lions.' By the
smaller means he plagued the Egyptians, and by the greater these
invaders of his land. There is no creature so small or so great but God
can employ it in his service and defeat his enemies thereby. When these
lions had torn one and another, then the people trembled at the name of
the God of the land, and desired to know the manner in which he would
be worshipped. Affliction is a wild beast by which God teaches men who
act like beasts. This is the growth of mongrelists. First, they are
among godly people, and they must, therefore, go a little that way; and
next, they are afflicted, and they must now go further still. The man
has been ill, he has seen the brink of the grave; he has promised and
vowed to attend to good things, in the hope that God would relent and
permit him to live. Besides that, the man's extravagance has brought
him into difficulties and straits; he cannot go so far or so fast as he
formerly did, and hence he inclines to more staid and sober ways. He
dares not follow his bent, for he finds vice too expensive, too
disreputable, too dangerous. Many a man is driven by fear where he
could not be drawn by love. He does not love the Lamb, but he does fear
the lions. The rough voices of pain, poverty, shame, and death work a
kind of law'work upon certain consciences which are insensible to
spiritual arguments. They are forced, like the devils, to believe and
tremble. Apprehension does not in their case lead to conversion, but it
compels an outward respect for divine things. They argue that if the
ills they feel do not reform them they may expect worse. If God begins
with lions, what will come next? Therefore, they outwardly humble
themselves, and yield homage to the God they dread.

But notice, that the root of this religion is fear. There is no love on
the right side; that affection is in the opposite scale. Their hearts
go after their idols, but to Jehovah they yield nothing but dread. How
many there are whose religion consists in a fear of hell, a dread of
the consequences of their sin. If there were no hell they would drink
up sin as the ox, standing knee-deep in the stream, sucks in the water.
If sin were not followed with inconvenient consequences, they would
live in it as their element, as fishes swim in the sea. They are only
kept under by the hangman's whip or the jailer's keys. They dread God,
and this is but a gentler form of hating him. Ah, this is a poor
religion, a religion of bondage and terror. Thank God, dear friends, if
you have been delivered from it; but it is sure to be the
characteristic of a fusion of fearing God and serving other gods.

One reason why they dropped into this self-contradictory religion was
that they had a trimming teacher. The king of Assyria sent them a
priest: he could not have sent them a prophet, but that was what they
really wanted. He sent them a Bethelite, not a genuine servant of
Jehovah, but one who worshipped God by means of symbols; and this the
Lord had expressly forbidden. If this priest did not break the first
commandment by setting up other gods, yet he broke the second by making
an image to represent the true God. What saith the Lord? Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve
them.' This priest taught them the calf worship, but he winked at their
false deities. When he saw them each one bowing before his own idol, he
called it a natural mistake, and by no means spake indignantly to them.
If one of them worshipped Succoth-benoth, so long as he also brought an
offering to Jehovah, he was not so uncharitable as to condemn him. He
cried, Peace, peace,' for he was a large-hearted man, and belonged to
the Broad Church who believe in the good intentions of all men, and
manufacture excuses for all the religions of the age. I know of no
surer way of a people's perishing than by being led by one who does not
speak out straight, and honestly denounce evil. If the minister halts
between two opinions, do you wonder that the congregation is undecided?
If the preacher trims and twists to please all parties, can you expect
his people to be honest? If I wink at your inconsistencies will you not
soon be hardened in them? Like priest, like people. A cowardly preacher
suits hardened sinners. Those who are afraid to rebuke sin, or to probe
the conscience, will have much to answer for. May God save you from
being led into the ditch by a blind guide.

And yet is not a mingle-mangle of Christ and Belial the common religion
of the day? Is not worldly piety, or pious worldliness, the current
religion of England? They live among godly people, and God chastens
them, and they therefore fear him, but not enough to give their hearts
to him. They seek out a trimming teacher who is not too precise and
plain-spoken, and they settle down comfortably to a mongrel faith, half
truth, half error, and a mongrel worship half dead form, and half
orthodoxy. God have mercy upon men, and bring them out from the world;
for he will not have a compound of world and grace. Come ye out from
among them,' saith he, be ye separate: touch not the unclean thing.' If
God be God, serve him: if Baal be God, serve him.' There can be no
alliance between the two. Jehovah and Baal can never be friends. Ye
cannot serve God and Mammon.' No man can serve two masters.' All
attempts at compromise or comprehensiveness in matters of truth and
purity are founded on falsehood, and falsehood is all that can come of
them. May God save us from such hateful doublemindedness.

Thus have I described the nature and the growth of this cross-bred
religion.

III. Thirdly, let us estimate THE VALUE OF THIS RELIGION. What is it
worth? First, it must evidently be feeble on both sides, because the
man who serves Succoth-benoth cannot do it thoroughly if all the while
be fears Jehovah; and he who fears Jehovah cannot be sincere it be is
worshipping Moloch. The one sucks out the life of the other. Either one
or the other alone might breed an intense worshipper; but when there
are two deities, it is written, Their heart is divided, now shall they
be found wanting.' A man of the world who is out and out in his conduct
can make the best of his worldliness: what joy there is in it he gets,
what profit there is to be made out of it be obtains; but if he tries
to mix godliness with it he is pouring water on the fire, and hindering
himself. On the other hand, if a man goes in for godliness, he will
assuredly make something of it, by the blessing of God: if there be any
joy, if there be any holiness, if there be any power, the man who is
thorough-going wins it; but suppose he is pulled back by his love of
sin, then he may possess enough religion to make him miserable, and
enough of sin to prevent his salvation; but the two are opposed, and
between them he finds no rest. The man is lame on both feet, impotent
in both directions. He is like the salt which has lost its savor,
neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but to be trodden
under foot of men.

At first I should think that the mixture of the true with the false at
Samaria looked like an improvement. I should not wonder but what the
priests of Judah were rather glad to bear that the lions had come among
the strangers, and that the people wanted to know something about
Jehovah. It had a look in the right direction, and consequently the
Scripture says that they feared God; but yet this fear of God was so
hollow that, if you turn to the thirty-fourth verse, you will read,
They fear not the Lord.' Sometimes a verbal contradiction most
accurately states the truth. They feared the Lord only in a certain
sense; but, inasmuch as they also served other gods, it came to this
when summed up, that they did not fear God at all. The man who is
religious and also immoral, to put it in short, is irreligious. He who
makes a great fuss about godliness and yet acts in an ungodly way, when
all comes to all, is an ungodly man. The value of this mixture is less
than nothing. It is sin with a little varnish upon it. It is enmity to
God with a brilliant colouring of formality: it is standing out against
the Most High, and yet with a Judas kiss pretending to pay him homage.

These Samaritans in after years became the bitterest foes of God's
people. Read the Book of Nehemiah, and you will see that the most
bitter opponents of that godly man were those mongrels. Their fear of
God was such that they wanted to join with the Jews in building the
Temple, and when they found that the Jews would not have them, they
became their fiercest foes. No people do so much hurt as those who are
like Jack-o'-both-sides. The mixed multitude that came out of Egypt
with the Israelites, fell a-lusting. The mischief does not begin with
the people of God, but with those who are with them, but not of them.
The tares which you cannot root out grow with the wheat, and draw away
from it that which should have nourished it. As the clinging ivy will
eat out the life of a tree around which it climbs, so will these
impostors devour the church if they be left to their own devices. This
patchwork religion is of more value to the devil than to anyone else;
it is his favourite livery, and I pray you hate it, for it is a garment
spotted by the flesh. I believe, dear friends, that those people who
have a dread of God, which makes them appear religious, and who yet all
the while live in their sins, are most in danger of any people in the
world; for there is no getting at them to save them. You preach to
sinners, and they say, He does not mean us, for we are saints.' You
bring the thunders of the law to bear on the congregation, and they,
being inside the church, are not afraid of the tempest. They hide
behind their false profession. There is more likelihood of the
salvation of a downright outsider than of these pretenders. They hold
with the bare and run with the hounds, they fear the Lord and serve
other gods, and they will perish in their folly. Their ruin will be all
the more terrible because they sin in the light. They have so much
conscience that they know what is right and what is wrong, and they
deliberately choose to abide with the evil, even though at the same
time they do despite to their better selves. Surely they will be
banished to the deepest hell who seemed inclined to go towards heaven,
but who, nevertheless, presumptuously wrenched off bolts and bars to
force their way to destruction. O you religious worldlings, for you
there is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

How provoking this adulterated religion must be to God! It is even
provoking to God's minister to be pestered with men whose hypocrisies
weaken the force of his testimony. Here is a man who is known to be one
of my hearers, and yet at the same time he drinks, and speaks lewdly,
and acts wickedly. What have I to do with him? His tongue is never
still, and he tells everybody that he is a friend of mine, and my great
admirer, and then men lay his conduct at my door, and wonder what my
doctrine must be. I could almost say, Sir, be my enemy, for this will
harm me less than your friendship.' If this grieves his ministers, how
provoking must it be to God himself: these people are seen to worship
him, and when strangers come into the assembly they spy out these
hypocrites, and straightway charge the holy Jesus with all their
faults. See,' say they, there is old So-and-so. He is a great man among
them, and yet I saw him come out of the gin-palace more than three
sheets in the wind.' Thus the holy God is dishonored by these unholy
hypocrites. True religion suffers for their falsehood. One may fancy
the Lord Jesus saying, Come now, if you must needs serve the devil, do
it; but do not loiter around my gates and boast of being my servants.'
The holy God must often feel his indignation burn against unholy men
and women who intrude into his courts and dare to pass themselves off
under his name. I put this very plainly. Some of you do not know how
necessary it is to speak plainly in these days. If any of you perish
through hypocrisy it shall not be because I did not speak boldly about
it. May God the Holy Spirit of his great mercy apply the words where
they need to be applied, that those who are fearing God and serving
other gods may grieve over their inconsistency, and repent and turn in
very deed and truth to the Most High.

IV. I pass briefly to another important point, which is this,'THE
CONTINUANCE OF THIS EVIL: for the text says, As did their fathers, so
do they, unto this day.' I believe in the final perseverance of the
saints: I am almost obliged to believe in the final perseverance of
hypocrites; for, really, when a man once screws himself up to play the
double, and both to fear God and serve other gods, he is very apt to
stick there. It takes a great deal of effort to bring yourself to that
degree of wickedness; you must use a great deal of damping of
conscience and quenching of the Spirit before you can reach that
shameless point, and having once gained that position you are apt to
keep it all your life long. So do they unto this day.'

Look, friends. It seems unlikely that a man would willingly continue in
such a ridiculous position even for an hour. I call it ridiculous, for
it is unreasonable and outrageous to be serving God and Satan at the
same time. It is inconsistent and self-contradictory, and yet, though
it be so, it is a sad fact that it is a deep pit and the abhorred of
the Lord fall therein, seldom to be lifted out of it. Often by the
grace of God we see the confirmed sinner plucked like a brand from the
burning; but, oh, how seldom do we see the hollow-hearted Pharisee
brought out of his delusions. On the anvil of a false profession Satan
hammers out the most hardened of hard hearts.

One reason why it can be said of most men''so do they unto this day,'
is because it yields them a sort of comfort; at any rate it keeps off
the lions. Why,' say they, it must be the right thing to do, for now we
are quiet.' While they lived in sin without a pretense of religion,
when the minister preached the word powerfully, they went home
trembling; now they do not care what he preaches about: the lions roar
no longer, not so much as a cub shows itself. Though they do drink a
little, though they do use strong language now and then, though they
are really unconverted, yet since they have taken a pew at the church,
or the chapel, they feel wonderfully easy in their minds. This peace
they think to be worth a Jew's eye. It is so soothing and pacifying to
the conscience to feel that you mix up with the best of the saints, and
are highly esteemed by them. So they wrap it up, and go down to hell
with a lie in their right hand.

The worst of it is that not only men themselves do this, but their
children and their children's children do the same: As their fathers
did, so do they unto this day.' In an out-and-out godly family it is a
great joy to see the children springing up to fear God; but these
double people, these borderers, see no such desirable succession.
Frequently there is an open decline from apparent religion: the sons do
not care to go where the old man went at all; nor need we wonder, since
it did him so little good. He made all unhappy at home, and none are
eager to imitate him. In other cases, where there was kindness at home,
the children are apt to try the same plan as their fathers, and mingle
a little religion with a great deal of worldliness. They are just as
keen and sharp as their worldly sire, and they see on which side their
bread is buttered, and therefore they keep up the reputation of
religion. A little gilt and paint go a long way, and so they lay it on.
They fly the flag of Christ, at any rate, even though the vessel does
not belong to his dominion, and is not bound for the port of glory. As
vessels sometimes run a blockade under a false flag, so do they reap
many advantages from sailing under Christian colors. This detestable
iniquity will not die out: it multiplies itself, scattering its own
seed on all sides, and so from generation to generation it lives on;
whole nations fear the Lord and serve other gods.

The greatest curse, perhaps, that ever visited the world came upon it
in this way. Certain vain-glorious preachers desired to convert the
world at a stroke, and to make converts without the work of the Spirit.
They saw the people worshipping their gods, and they thought that if
they could call these by the names of saints and martyrs the people
would not mind the change, and so they would be converted. The idea was
to Christianize heathenism. They virtually said to idolaters, Now, good
people, you may keep on with your worship, and yet you can be
Christians at the same time. This image of the Queen of heaven at your
door need not be moved. Light the lamp still; only call the image our
Lady,' and the Blessed Virgin.' Here is another image; don't pull it
down, but change its name from Jupiter to Peter.' Thus with a mere
change of names they perpetuated idolatry: they set up their altars in
the groves, and upon every high hill, and the people were converted
without knowing it'converted to a baser heathenism than their own. They
wanted priests, and, lo, there they were, robed like those who served
at the altars of Jove. The people saw the same altars and sniffed the
same incense, kept the same holy days and observed the same carnivals
as aforetime, and called everything by Christian names. Hence came what
is now called the Roman Catholic religion, which is simply fearing God
and serving other gods. Every village has its own peculiar saint, and
often its own particular black or white image of the Virgin, with
miracles and wonders to sanctify the shrine. This evil wrought so
universally that Christianity seemed in danger of extinction from the
prevalence of idolatry, and it would have utterly expired had it not
been of God, and had he not therefore once more put forth his hand and
raised up reformers, who cried out, There is but one God, and one
Mediator between God and man.' Brave voices called the church back to
her allegiance and to the parity of her faith. As for any of you who
are trying to link good and evil, truth and falsehood together, beware
of the monstrous birth which will come of such an alliance: it will
bring on you a curse from the Most High.

V. I shall now close by saying a few words byway of CURE OF THIS
DREADFUL EVIL OF MONGRELISM; this fearing the Lord, and serving other
gods. Suppose men were thus fall of duplicity in politics, what would
be thought of them? If a war should rage between two nations, what
would be thought of the man who professed to serve the Queen, and all
the while was playing his cards to win favor with the Queen's enemies.
What would he be? A liberal-minded person? A gentleman of broad
sympathies? Perhaps so. But also he would be a traitor, and when he was
found out he would be shot. He who in any way tries to serve God and
his enemies, is a traitor to God: that is what it comes to. In ordinary
politics, if there be two parties, and a man comes forward and says, I
am on your side,' and all the while he is doing his best to help the
opposition, everybody says that he is a mean fellow. And what meanness
it is to say, I am for Christ,' and yet practically to be for his
enemies; to cry up holiness, and yet to live in sin; to preach up faith
in Christ, and yet to trust in your own merits. This wretched shuffling
indicates a meanness of soul from which may God in infinite mercy
deliver us. Suppose a man in business said, Oh, yes, I will be an
honest man, but I will at the same time practice a trick or two; I will
be as straight as a line, but yet I will be crooked too.' Why, he would
very soon be known by only one name, and that name a dishonorable one.
A merchant cannot be honest and dishonest, a woman cannot be both
chaste and unchaste, pure and impure, at the same time; and a man
cannot be truly with God and yet with the world; the amalgamation is
impossible. Everybody sees through such sham godliness.

Ah, my dear friends, suppose that God were to treat us after the like
double fashion; suppose he smiled to-day and cursed to-morrow suppose
be said, You fear me, and so I will give you comfort to-day but
inasmuch as you worship other gods, when it comes to the last I will
send you to your own gods; you shall go down to hell.' You want one
course of conduct from God, mercy, tenderness, gentleness, forgiveness;
but if you play fast and loose with him, what is this but mocking him?
Shall a man mock God? O thou great Father of our spirits, if we poor
prodigals return to thee, shall we come driving all the swine in front
of us, and bringing all the harlots and citizens of the far country at
our heels, and introduce ourselves to thee by saying, Father, we have
sinned, and have come home to be forgiven and to go on sinning'? It
were infernal,'I can say no less. Yet some attempt it. Shall any of us
come to the blessed Christ upon the cross, and look up to his dear
wounds, and say to him, Redeemer, we come to thee; thou shalt be our
Savior, thou shalt deliver us from the wrath to come; but, behold, when
we have washed our robes we will defile them again in the filth of the
world. Wash us, and we will go back, like the sow, to wallow in the
mire. Forgive us, and we will use the immunity which thy mercy grants
us, as a further incentive to rebellion'? I can imagine such language
as that being used by Satan; but methinks few of you have descended so
low as to talk thus. Yet is not that exactly what the man says who
professes to be a Christian, and yet wilfully lives in sin?

Lastly, what shall I say of the Holy Spirit? If he does not dwell in
our hearts we are lost; there is no hope for us unless he rules within
us. And shall we dare to say

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,

With all thy quickening powers,'

meanwhile I will live in filthiness and selfishness. Come, Holy Spirit,
come and dwell with me, and I will hate my brother, I will boil with
angry temper, and will be black with malice, so as to make my home
miserable. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, come dwell within my soul,
and I will carry thee to the theater, and the ball-room, and the house
of evil name.

I hate to utter such language even for the sake of exposing it; but
what must God think of men who do not say so, but who act so; who, like
Balaam, live in sin and yet cry, Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my last end be like his.' I dare not preach from that very
popular text, for it is the mean, selfish wish of a man who even at the
last would save his own skin. The old sneak! He wanted to live and
serve the devil, and then cry off at the last. Surely he might have
said, I have been a prophet of Satan, and have sold my soul to him; let
me die as I have lived.' I would wish to live in such a way as I would
wish to die. If I would not like to die as I am, then I ought not to
live as I am. If I am in a condition in which I dare not meet my God,
may God in mercy fetch me out of the condition at once. Let me be
right, and let there be no mistake about it; but do not let me try to
be both right and wrong, washed and filthy, white and black, a child of
God and a child of Satan. God has separated heaven and hell by a gulf
that never can be passed, and he has divided the two characters which
shall people those two places by an equally wide gulf. This division
can be passed by his grace, but none can inhabit the intermediate
space. None can hang between spiritual death and spiritual life, so as
to be partly in one and partly in the other. Decide, then, decide. Be
one thing or the other. How long halt ye between two opinions?' Again I
say with Elias, upon Carmel, If the Lord be God, follow him: but if
Baal, then follow him.' But do not mix the worship of the two, for thus
you will provoke God, and cause his anger to burn like fire against
you. May God bless this word, for his name's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'2 Kings 17:24-41; Psalm 62.

HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK''63, 655, 809.
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Wholehearted Religion