How to Make Religion Our Business (2)¹

A Sermon by Thomas Watson

Luke 2:49. Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?

Application 2: Trial. Let us deal impartially with our own souls, and put ourselves on a strict trial before the Lord as to whether we make religion our business. And for our better progress herein, I shall lay down ten signs and characteristics of a man that makes religion his business. By these, as by a gospel touchstone, we may try ourselves.

1. He does not place his religion only in externals. “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly” (Rom 2:28). Religion is not only outward forms and shadows; this is to give God leaves instead of fruit. It is often seen that the pomp of worship destroys the purity, as paint on glass hinders the light; it is no untruth to say that formality may damn as well as profaneness. A superstitious Pharisee may as well be in hell as a drunken glutton. A Christian’s main work is with his heart. He that makes religion his business gives God what is inward; he worships Him “in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:24). In distilling, the spirits are strongest. The good Christian distils out the spirits for God. Aaron must offer the fat upon the altar: “He shall offer . . . an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat that covereth the inwards. . . . All the fat is the Lord’s” (Lev 3:3,16). If Aaron had offered the skin instead of the fat, it would not have been accepted. External devotion alone is offering the skin; and they that give God only the skin of duty shall carry away only the shell of comfort.

2. He avoids everything that may be a hindrance to him in his work. A wicked man does not care whether the matter of religion goes forward or backward; he stands in the way of temptation. As if sin did not come fast enough, he draws it as “with a cart rope” (Is 5:18). But he who makes religion his business flees from temptation; and while he is running the heavenly race, he lays aside every weight of sin which does so easily beset him (Heb 12:1). A man may as well miss heaven by loitering in the way as by losing the way. “The king’s business required haste” (1 Sam 21:8); so the business of religion requires haste. Therefore the good Christian is careful not to be taken off the work, and so be found late in it.

3. He takes care to preserve his conscience from dishonour; he had rather offend all the world than offend his conscience. “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience” (2 Tim 1:3). Much religion lies in conscience. Faith is a precious jewel, but conscience is the cabinet where

¹Taken, with editing, from The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, vol 1. Watson (c1620-1686) was a noted Puritan minister. In the first part of this sermon, after explaining what it is to make religion our business, Watson spoke on a first point of application: Information.

this jewel must be kept: “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience” (1 Tim 3:9). Love is a beautiful flower, but this flower grows most in the garden of a pure conscience: “charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience” (1 Tim 1:5). So sacred a thing is conscience that, without this, all religion drops in pieces. He who makes religion his business labours to get conscience regulated by Scripture; having done this, he keeps his conscience as his eye, so that no dust of sin falls into it.

1. His secular actions are under the influence of religion.

(1.) His eating and drinking. He holds the golden bridle of temperance; he eats sparingly. “The godly man does not feed to please his bodily appetite,” Chrysostom² says, “but so that he may be more fit for the cheerful discharge of spiritual services, by the strength he receives from what is created.” He does not make his food fuel for lust, but a help to duty. Gluttons dig their own grave with their teeth; they feed without fear. Sinners do not fear that their table will become a snare (Jude 13); they do not fear the process of justice; while the wine is in the cup, they do not fear the handwriting on the wall. But the godly man, being regulated by religion, puts a knife to his throat, that he may cut the throat of intemperance (Prov 23:20).

(2.) His recreation. The strings of the viol must sometimes be slackened, lest they break; God affords His people generous delights; Scripture allows the use of the bow (1 Sam 1:18). But we are apt to offend most in lawful things; more are killed with wine than with poison. Religion has a moderating influence on the soul. The man influenced by religion dares not make play an occupation; it is oil to make him more alive in God’s service, not a sea to engulf him. He who is devoted to religion puts bounds to the Olympian sports; he knows where to stop; he sets up a boundary pillar on which he writes, “No farther than this”.

(3.) His buying and selling. The wicked often get a livelihood by lying; sometimes they debase commodities: they “sell the refuse of the wheat” (Am 8:6). They would pick out the best grains of corn and then sell the rest. Sometimes they falsify their weights: “He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand” (Hos 12:7). But he who makes religion his business is regulated by it in the shop: he is just in his dealings; he dares not hold the book of God in one hand and false weights in the other; he is faithful to his neighbour, and makes as much reckoning of the Ten Commandments as of his creed.

(4.) His marrying. He labours to graft upon a religious stock; he is not so ambitious of parentage as of piety; nor is his care so much to espouse dowry as virtue: in a word, he seeks for “a meet help”, one that may help him up the hill to heaven; this is marrying “in the Lord”. That marriage indeed is

²A noted Church father of the late fourth century, particularly renowned for his eloquence.

“honourable” (Heb 13:4) when the husband is joined to one who is the “temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor 6:19). Here is the man that makes religion his business: in all his civil transactions he is influenced by religion; religion is the universal ingredient.

1. He is good in his calling and relationships. Grace in one’s relationships with others much graces religion. I shall suspect his goodness who does not conform to this standard. Some will pray and speak well, yet it appears they never made religion their business, but took it up more for ostentation than as an occupation, because they are defective in relative duties: they are bad husbands, bad children etc. If someone should draw a picture and leave out the eye, it would take much from the beauty of the picture; to fail in a relation stains the honour of one’s profession. He who makes religion his business is like a star shining in its proper place, where God has set him.

2. He cares about his company. He dares not bind a cord of friendship with sinners: “I have not sat with vain persons” (Ps 26:4). Diamonds and rubbish will not bind together. It is dangerous to mingle with the wicked, lest their breath prove infectious; sin is very catching. They “were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them” (Ps 106:35,36). If you mingle bright and rusty armour together, the rusty will not be made bright, but the bright will be made rusty. He who makes religion his business does not like to be near those whose nearness sets him further off from God and whose embraces, like those of the spider, are to suck out the precious life. The godly man engrafts himself into the “communion of saints” and thus, as a graft, he partakes of the sap and virtue of their grace. He who makes it his business to get to heaven associates only with those who may make him better, or whom he may make better.

3. He keeps a spiritual watch always around him.

(1.) He watches his eye. I made a covenant with mine eyes (Job 31:1). When Dinah was gadding about, she was defiled (Gen 34:1,2). When the eye is gadding about, by impure glances, the heart is defiled.

(2.) He watches his thoughts, lest they should turn to froth: “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” (Jer 4:14). What a world of sin is minted in the fancy! A child of God sets a spy over his thoughts, he summons them in and captivates them “to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).

(3.) He watches his passions. Passion is like gunpowder, which the devil sets on fire and blows up the soul. Jonah in a passion quarrels with the Almighty (Jnh 4:1,9). He who is devoted to religion watches his passions lest, when the tide rises, reason should be carried down the stream and be drowned in it.

(4.) He watches his duties. “Watch and pray” (Mt 26:41). First, he watches

in prayer. The heart is liable to be remiss; if it is not dead in sin, it will be dead in prayer. A Christian watches lest he should abate his fervour in duty; he knows that if the strings of his spiritual viol slacken, he cannot “make melody in his heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16). Second, he watches after prayer. As a man is most careful of himself when he comes out of a hot bath, the pores being then most open to cold; so a Christian is most careful when he comes from an ordinance, lest his heart should decoy him into sin. Therefore, when he has prayed, he sets a watch. He deals with his heart as the Jews dealt with Christ’s sepulchre; they “made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch” (Mt 27:66). A good Christian, having been at the Word and sacrament (that sealing ordinance), after the sealing he sets a watch.

(5.) He watches his temptations. Temptation is the scout which the devil sends out to discover our forces; it is the train he lays to blow up our grace. Satan ever lies at the catch; he has his “depths” (Rev 2:24), his “methods” (Eph 6:11), his “devices” (2 Cor 2:11). He is continually fishing for our souls; and if Satan is angling, we need to be watching. He who makes religion his business is full of holy watchfulness. He acts as a sentinel and, with the prophet, stands upon his watchtower (Hab 2:1-2). Solomon says of a virtuous woman: “Her candle goeth not out by night” (Prov 31:18). The good Christian keeps his watch-candle always burning.

1. Every day he makes up his accounts to see how things go in his soul (Lam 3:40). Solomon says, “Know the state of thy flocks” (Prov 27:23). A man who makes religion his work is careful to know the state of his soul; before the Lord brings him to a trial, he brings himself to a trial; he had rather use the mirror of the Word to see his own heart than put on the broad spectacles of censure to see another person’s fault. He acts as a critic on himself, he searches for sin in his heart that he has not repented of; and, having found it out, he labours by his tears, as by the waters of jealousy, to make the thigh of sin to rot (Num 5:21). He searches whether or not he has grace, and he tests whether it is genuine or spurious. He is as much afraid of painted holiness as he is of going to a painted heaven. He traverses things in his soul and will never leave till that question, whether he is in the faith, is answered (2 Cor 13:5). Here is the man making religion his business: he is loath to be a spiritual bankrupt; therefore he still calls himself to account; and wherein he comes short, he gets Christ to be his Surety.

2. He will be religious, whatever it may cost him. He is a resolved man: “I have sworn, that I will keep Thy righteous judgements” (Ps 119:106). There are some who will be rich (1 Tim 6:9) and there are some who will be godly (2 Tim 3:12). He that makes religion his business will not, as Luther says,

be put off with other things; he can lack health, riches and friends, but he cannot lack Christ or grace. He will be godly; let the times be what they will, they shall not take him off the work of religion. He will follow Christ upon the water; the floods of persecution cannot drown his zeal. He does not say, “There is a lion in the way”; he will wrestle with difficulties and march in the face of death. The Christians of the primitive Church cried out to the persecutor: “Hew us in pieces, burn us; we will never worship your idols”. These were in good earnest for heaven.

There is a great deal of difference between those who go to sea for pleasure and those mariners who are to go on a voyage to the East Indies. The first, upon the least storm, retreat back to shore; but they who have embarked for a voyage hold on their course, even though the sea is rough and stormy, and will venture their lives in hope of a golden harvest in the Indies. Hypocrites seem religious when things are calm, but they will not sail in a storm. Those only who make religion their business will hold out on their voyage to heaven in the midst of tempests and death-threatening dangers.

1. He lives every day as his last day. He prays in the morning as if he were to die at night; he lives as if he were to be called at once before God. He walks “soberly, righteously, and godly” (Titus 2:12); he girds his loins, trims his lamp, sets his house in order, that when death comes for him, he may have nothing to do but to die. Behold here the man who makes religion his business.

Application 3. Exhortation. Let me persuade all you whose consciences may smite you for former neglect, to set upon the work now, to make religion your business. Bestir yourselves in this as in a matter of life and death.

Question. But how must we make religion our business?

Answer. That you may be serious in this work, I shall lay down several rules for your help and direction herein:

Rule 1. Follow this maxim: religion is the end of your creation. God never sent men into the world only to eat and drink and put on fine clothes, but the end of their creation is to honour Him: “That God in all things may be glorified” (1 Pet 4:11). If only the body is looked after, this is to trim the scabbard instead of the blade: it is to invert the very end of our being and frustrate it.

Rule 2. Get a change of heart wrought in you. Breathe after a principle of holiness. He cannot make religion his business who has no religion. Can the body move without a principle of life? Christian, get your heart made spiritual by grace. An earthly heart will no more trade in heaven than a mill-stone will ascend, or a serpent fly in the air. The heart must be divinely touched with the Spirit, as the needle with the loadstone, before it can cleave to God

and follow him fully (Num 14:24). Never expect the practice to be holy till first there is a holy principle.

Rule 3. Set yourselves always under the eye of God. The master’s eye makes the servant work; God’s eye will enliven our devotion. “I have set the Lord always before me” (Ps 16:8). If we leave off work, or loiter in our work, God sees it. He has a window which opens into our breasts; “this eye of God that never sleeps”, as Chrysostom calls it, would make us active in the sphere of duty. If indeed God’s eye were at any time off us, we might slacken our pace in religion, but He is ever looking on. If we “take the wings of the morning”, we cannot fly from His presence (Ps 139:9) and He who is now the Spectator will be the Judge. How this consideration of God’s omniscience would keep us from being truants in religion! How it would infuse a spirit of activity and gallantry into us, making us go forward with all our might in the race to heaven!

Rule 4. Think often of the shortness of time. This life is but “a vapour” (Jas 4:14), “a shadow” (1 Chron 29:15); it is “as nothing” (Ps 39:5). We are wheeling apace out of the world, and no work can be done for our souls in the grave: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device . . . in the grave, whither thou goest” (Eccl 9:10). Now is the time of life; now is the day of grace; you do not know how soon these two suns may set. The shorter our life, the swifter should be our pace.

Rule 5. Get an understanding heart. Weigh things seriously in the balance of reason and judgement. Think of the infinite importance of this business; our eternal misery or happiness depends on it. Other things are but for convenience, this is of necessity. If this work is not done, we are undone; if we do not do the work which believers are doing, we must do the work which devils are doing; and if God give us a serious heart to lay ourselves out in the business of religion, our income will be greater than our expense. Religion is a good trade, if it is well followed; it will repay the cost: “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9). God will shortly take us from the workhouse to the throne and will set upon our head a fresh garland made of the flowers of paradise.

Rule 6. Implore the help of God’s Spirit. All we can do is but lost labour, unless the Spirit excites and accelerates. Beg a gale from heaven. “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden . . .” (Song 4:16). If the Spirit joins with our chariot, then we will move to heaven swiftly, as “a roe upon the mountains” (Song 2:17) or as “the chariots of Amminadib” (Song 6:12).

Now, having laid down these rules, let me in conclusion press all Christians to this great duty of making religion their business; I use just two weighty motives:

1. The sweetness that is in religion. All her paths are pleasantness (Prov 3:17). The way of religion is strewn with roses, in regard of that inward peace which God gives: “In keeping of [Thy precepts] there is great reward” (Ps 19:11). This is such a labour as has delight in it. As while the mother tends her child, and sometimes beyond her strength too, yet she finds a secret delight in it; so while a Christian is serving God, there is that inward contentment and delight infused, and he meets with such transfigurations of soul that he thinks himself half in heaven. It was Christ’s “meat and drink” to do His Father’s will (Jn 4:34). Religion was Paul’s recreation (Rom 7:22); even if I do not speak of wages, what God gives us in this life is enough to make us in love with His service.

2. Millions of people have gone wrong for eternity, because they did not make religion their business. They have done something in religion, but not to purpose; they have begun, but have made too many pauses. They have been lukewarm and neutral in the business; they have served God as if they served Him not; they have sinned fervently, but prayed faintly. Religion has been a thing only by the by; they have served God by fits and starts but have not made religion their business; therefore they are ruined to all eternity. If you could see a wicked man’s tombstone in hell, you might read this inscription on it: Here lies one in the flames of hell, for not making religion his business. How many ships have suffered shipwreck, notwithstanding all their glorious names of The Hope, The Safeguard, The Triumph! And how many souls, notwithstanding their glorious title of saintship, have suffered shipwreck in hell for ever, because they have not made religion their business.

Zimbabwe Update¹

Rev I D MacDonald

Our brethren in Zimbabwe can join with the too frequent complaint of the Church at home in Scotland, “Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” Yet it is fresh cause for gratitude to the glorious King of Zion that the Lord’s people are being refreshed in their souls from time to time by the preaching of the Word and that poor sinners here and there are being gathered into the Kingdom.

It is often at communion seasons that these blessings are found, both at home in Scotland and overseas. At the September Ingwenya Communion, a good number gathered, with visitors from Mbuma, Bulawayo and Insiza. The habit of visiting neighbouring communion seasons has long been instru-

¹Written on behalf of the Jewish and Foreign Mission Committee.

mental in forming bonds of Christian fellowship among the Lord’s people, and it will be a sad day if a lack of spiritual appetite for the hearing of the Word brings this custom to an end. On this occasion Rev S Khumalo and Rev M Mloyi had the privilege of preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to those who gathered, including some who did not normally attend the church.

Rev M Mloyi preached on Thursday morning from a most suitable portion of the Word, “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth” (Jer 31:18-19). At the second service Rev S Khumalo preached on that precious account of Manasseh’s repentance unto life in 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.

On the Friday the congregation were led into the vital duty of self-examination with the help of a sermon from Rev M Mloyi on John 10:27,28: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand”. At the Fellowship meeting the elder Mr P Moyo gave out a question which concentrated the minds of the brethren on the crucial matter of a saving interest in Christ. The verse given was 1 John 5:12: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. Elders from Nyathi, Cameron and Insiza joined the brethren, providing another opportunity on this sinful earth to fulfil the Psalmist’s exhortation, “Among the people gathered let them exalt His name; / among assembled elders spread His most renowned fame” (Ps 107:32, metrical).

On the Saturday Rev S Khumalo preached from Jeremiah 50:34: “Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name: He shall thoroughly plead their cause, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon”. The first head brought out the comfort of the Lord’s people from the truth that their Redeemer is strong. Then the great commitment of this glorious and divine Redeemer to His people was brought out in His promise to plead their cause thoroughly. Finally, there was the rest which He was to bring them to. One new member was accepted, while another young lady came to the Session seeking her own baptism and was also accepted.

On the Sabbath, the action sermon was preached by Rev M Mloyi on Isaiah 53:10, a text which brings out the covenant obligations of the Father and the Son in the great work of redemption: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an

offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand”. At the second service, Rev S Khumalo spoke on Acts 27:31, “Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved”.

The absence of Rev A B MacLean due to his ongoing illness and treatment in Scotland was sorely felt, and there was much prayer for his speedy recovery. In this they join with the Church at large in earnest desire that Mr MacLean will be sustained by the Lord in his time of trouble and that his health and usefulness will be restored in due time – “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). His sister Miss Norma MacLean is greatly missed in her capacity as assistant head of John Tallach High School as she continues her compassionate leave at home in Beauly.

Elsewhere on the Mission, the Shona translation of the Bible is ongoing and is due to finish next year. Mr Trycot Mwedzi, part of the translation team, has been accepted as a divinity student and is due to begin his divinity course next year, God willing.

Overall, there is growing pressure on the Mission’s finances as the Zimbabwe economy faces a shortage of cash in US Dollars. Prices are rising steeply and the fear of aggressive inflation looms again. At the same time, our kind Mbuma Sending friends in the Netherlands, who finance our Mission in Zimbabwe, are finding that their donor contributions are declining. This is putting increasing pressure on the budget which they make available to us each year to spend on the running of the Mission. We remember that the Lord of hosts has said, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine” (Hag 2:8). Nevertheless prudence is required and cost management is becoming an increasing priority for the Mission. It is encouraging to note that recently the Zimbabwe congregations have increased their contributions to the Sustentation Fund for their ministers’ salaries, although the total contribution is still only around 20% of the total.

The practical support and prayers of our people are greatly appreciated by our friends in Zimbabwe and, more importantly, are not forgotten by the Most High, “for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Heb 6:10).

A godly life is the infallible evidence of conversion. When our fruit is unto holiness, we know that the end shall be everlasting life.

That repose of the soul on the bosom of the Redeemer which is found in believing is a foretaste as well as a pledge of the rest which remains to the people of God hereafter.

W S Plumer