After describing the various shams of society, the lecture concludes thus: I am now to pass to a more serious theme. There is the Christian sham, and of this there are more counterfeits than of any other. I am to point only to a few. The labelled — the prattling — the bustling — the buckram — and the plastic.
The labelled
The labelled counterfeit bears the name, and has naught else besides. “We are all Christians in this land,” say some. They simply mean that we are not heathens who have never read a Bible nor heard the gospel. This, in the estimation of not a few, suffices; as if to stick a label bearing the name of an elaborate piece of furniture upon the gnarled old tree would transform it at once into that whose name it bears. The name and no more! Of what avail is this? It does add to responsibility, but it cannot change character, secure availing privilege, nor adjust your relation to God, nor brighten your prospect for eternity. They have printed the name “Invincible” on one of our ships of war, but she may be the very first to sink under the fire of the foe.
The prattling
The prattling counterfeit thinks that religion is of no use except as a thing to speak about. All he desiderates is something for his tongue to do in parrot prattle about Scripture themes. He is just like a man who has filled his mouth with fluid which he will not swallow, and whose cheek you cannot touch without his spurring in your face. So this man, never caring to have down in his heart the transforming power of things Divine, has lapped as much knowledge as makes him a fluent talker about things which he has never truly believed and felt. Of all repulsive things, there is nothing I shrink more from than a religious talk with one who is careful to be pious only in his words.
The bustling
The bustling counterfeit is active. You can scarcely give him too much to do. With his confidence in himself unbroken, and unthinking of what the spirit and aim of Christian service should be, he is ready to lay his hand to any work, however high. He can rush to it from the midst of worldly business. He has equal readiness for either kind of work. Not because he brings the spiritual motive to the secular business, but because he is not afraid to bring the secular spirit to the Christian work. How much these will do if they can only be observed, and if they themselves and others think that they are doing well!
The buckram
The buckram counterfeit thinks that a certain routine of service will earn for him a right to be reckoned as a Christian. Men by being in a certain spot, in a certain association, following certain rules, muttering certain words, and posturing in certain attitudes, becoming Christians! Surely the men who think so are in the very idiocy of spiritual folly. And yet of all they are the most bigoted. None so right as they — none right at all but they! By costly clothing do they expect to cure their sick; by daubing the leper with paint do they expect to remove his uncleanness; by polishing the bark of the dead old tree do they expect to make it living, green, and fruitful? No. But they do what is a thousandfold more serious and disastrous — they expect by mere bodily service to save a soul which only Divine blood could redeem and only Divine power can renew.
The plastic
The plastic counterfeit seems to be so far right in his views, and he seems somewhat earnest and devout as well. But oh how yielding! There is no backbone of firm purpose in him. He is a molluscous creature. He bends to the influence of the hour, whatever it may be. Christians think they have him as a brother when he is with them, and worldlings think him theirs when he is their companion. A little moistening flattery can make this man of plaster yield to the impress of any hand that attempts to mould him. An impulsive, fitful being, he is frivolous and earnest by turns. “Unstable as water, he cannot prevail.”
But amidst multiform deceptions let us not be so unsettled as to think that there is nothing genuine and that none are true. There is a word, to be believed, which cannot fail; there is an arm, on which to lean, that cannot weary; there is friendship, in which to trust, that cannot change; there is a hope, too, which cannot be disappointed; there is a life which cannot die; and there is a benefit which cannot end. Towards these let our intensest desires be moving us. In faith let us lay hold of Him in whose Person Divine glory is blended with the beauty of a perfect man, who holds a Divine commission for the saving of the lost, who hath in His blood Divine merit availing as a ransom for the guilty, in whom there is a fulness of Divine grace intended for the unworthy poor, and who wields Divine power which can save to the uttermost. Let us cleave to Him, for He is both the truth and the life. Let us serve Him with a true heart which can never repent of having chosen Him as Master. And from the paths of truth, in which He guides His followers, let us in desire and hope lift up our eyes to the heaven which only those who love the truth go into, to find all around them true, and pure, and blessed, while from the Great White Throne shines a light, discovering the presence of the true God as the fountain of a blessedness which shall never end. The righteous nation which keepeth the truth shall enter thither, and there shall all the saints find a true home for ever. Then, and not till then, shall all deceptions disappear. Truth alone shall enter through these everlasting gates. Against all who believe and love a lie shall they be for ever closed. And the grand reality of purity and bliss within them shall be the full growth of that germ of truth which regenerating power produced, and is the ripened fruit of that word of truth taken into his heart by him who believed the Gospel and received the Christ of God. Oh let us have done with all tinsel that glitters but to deceive! All that hides the real let us at once shake off. Let us cherish no lie in our heart, and let us wear no disguise in our profession. Let us be anxious to be true, and then only can we aim at the great, the pure, the blessed. And let us be true at once. Let us be true to ourselves without delay in accepting the description of us given by Him who cannot lie, and the position assigned to us by Him who cannot err. Let us be true to Him in according to Him the office which, as Saviour, He claims, and the place of authority which, as Master, He demands. Thus, and thus alone, shall we have our eternal interests secured by the steadfastness of eternal truth, and have before our eye a prospect with brightness in which there is no deception, and on which no cloud can ever rest, and with peace whose blissfulness is perfect, and whose calm no trouble can disturb for ever.