J B Waterbury
The lamentation of Demas, with which the last chapter concludes, implies a fault which is too common among professing Christians, especially those whose business and engagements lead them into frequent contact with the world. This obstruction to their piety, and of course to their true happiness,
15Collected Writings, vol 4, p 251.
16Westminster Assembly, p 145.
1The second of two chapters, originally entitled, “Constant contact with the world unfavourable to pious joy”, taken, with slight editing, from the little book, Who Are the Happy? The first of these chapters appeared in last month’s issue.
is great in proportion to the time consumed and the interest felt in earthly pleasures and connections.
We do not admit the impossibility of mingling with the world and still retaining our peace of mind, our Christian influence and our pious joy. Many might be named who keep the garment unspotted and the soul unclogged amid the cares of earth and under the pressure of its daily toil. It would be an argument against our religion if it disqualified its possessor for the performance of any duty, social, civil or political – if it did not in fact fit him to discharge these obligations better. It is in accordance with the spirit of Christianity to meet cheerfully every occasion which providence furnishes for promoting the general good. It is the duty of those who profess Christianity to shrink from no burden which may lawfully be borne and, if personally qualified, to retreat from no station in which they may serve their country without dishonouring their religion. Faith overcomes the world. This is the testimony of heaven. But this victory implies, not a retreat from the foe, but a conflict with him. We are to pray, not to be taken out of the world, but to be kept from the evil.
But while all this is true, it is nevertheless equally true that mingling constantly with the world is a perilous experiment, upon which few can venture without detriment to their religion. The danger arises from not fully understanding the tendency of worldly influences upon the soul, and also from not taking the proper precautions to counteract it. One of these precautions is to allot a sufficient portion of time for the daily, habitual improvement of the pious affections. If this were done, there would be comparatively little danger from the subtle foe.
The Christian is represented as a warrior clothed in armour which he is to use both for attack and for defence. Now he is to wear this armour continually. He must also examine it every day to see if it fits well and is properly polished, since not a day passes in which his enemy is not watching for an opportunity to shoot an arrow “between the joints of the harness”. But how can the soldier examine his armour if he is always on the field and never in his tent? By mingling constantly with his foes, he may be overpowered through weariness, and have his armour stripped from him before he is aware of it. But waiving figurative language, it must be confessed that many are very negligent in performing their closet duties, and allot a miserly amount of time to God and to the soul. They live too constantly in the world to allow them to live in it without great harm to their piety. To walk this dangerous path unharmed, the Christian must duly contemplate his exposedness, and so proportion his time between his business engagements and the claims of devotion, that the latter shall neutralise completely the injurious tendency of the former. There must
be daily retirement, and enough of it, or the soul will lose its joys, if not its piety, amid the bustling scenes of earth.
It is a fixed law of our nature, that whatever most constantly appeals to the thoughts acts powerfully upon the moral affections and thus impresses itself upon the soul. All experience testifies to this. Let the Christian then plunge into the agitated sea of earthly cares, and from day to day fix his thoughts upon the business, the plans, the politics, and the pleasures of the world – let him give his mind intensely and habitually to these things – and what will become of his religion? What judgement will men form of it? But suppose, in the mean time, that but a very small portion of each day is allotted to prayer and other devotional duties – or, what perhaps is possible, these duties are irregularly and superficially performed – where will his piety be shown. And who would suppose that it was the mainspring of the soul’s happiness? Is it not easy to see that, under such circumstances, the world must impress itself strongly on the mind, and proportionately efface the divine image of piety.
Let the Christian, on the other hand, consider well his exposedness, and so arrange his affairs that religion shall have its just claim in the apportionment of his time. Let him not be in the world except when duty and necessity call him there, and let him prepare, by God’s grace, for coming in conflict with it. It must be a habitual, daily preparation. Some professors of religion who could be named appear to act on the principle of putting off converse with their own hearts until old age or sickness compels them to do so, and they seem to understand our Lord to be calling them to an unremitting effort for worldly good, when He tells them to work “while it is day”. Alas, they will bitterly lament their course. The happy Christian gives a due proportion of his time daily to his God. He has his seasons of retirement and will not allow the intrusive world to rob him of them. He is thus prepared for the contact and collision of active life and is enabled to walk in the fiery furnace unscorched by its flame. His mind is habitually turned to God, and his religion, sanctifying his worldly business, makes it the occasion of a richer development of his heaven-born nature.
Gaius2 is called to bear as many and as oppressive worldly burdens as any man. But his religion does not suffer by this necessity. Indeed it is his piety which enables him so calmly to meet and to discharge the arduous duties of his station. Wherever you see him, his countenance is calm and he is always ready to speak of higher joys, even when the world goes prosperously with him. He is evidently a man of prayer. His earliest thoughts are given to God, and before the business of the day or the engagements of social life –
2Presumably a reference to 3 John.
clamorous as they are for his attention – have made their request, he is settling the higher claims of his soul and by earnest prayer is equipping it for its daily conflict.
Gaius is no recluse. He is not indifferent to the pleasures of life when they may be enjoyed without the sacrifice of principle, nor is he backward in giving his influence and his toil in everything that affects even the temporal good of his fellow men. But one look at the man will tell you that his highest qualification is that he is a Christian. His joys are evidently those of true piety. He keeps the private altar bright with the incense of devotion. By first making sure his walk with God, he is enabled to go forth into the world with the calm consciousness that He who has appointed to him its duties, and exposed him to its dangers, will assist him in the discharge of the one and will protect him from the other. It is needless to add that he is a happy man.