JSL-26-Chapter Nine:

Chapter Nine:
Spiritual Declension

If we were all the time making progress towards perfection, even though we were moving at no very rapid pace, our advancement would be notable and encouraging. But, unfortunately, with most of us there are periods of decline. We go backward, and lose ground. the Fervency of our zeal is abated. Like the Ephesians, we leave our first love. It is not meant that we abandon our religion; that we give up or hope of eternal life; that we lose all relish for spiritual enjoyments. The probability is that in the state of mind indicated we shall still regularly, or at any rate, frequently, attend upon the services of the Lord’s house, and even take part in them. We shall experience a degree of pleasure at any unusual successes in the Church, and shall be glad to read evidences of the prosperity of the “cause,” for we have not cut loose from it; we have not gone back into the world; we still claim to be, and I trust we are, Christians. At the same time there is a manifest abatement and cooling down of our spirituality. Little by little, other interests have taken possession of our hearts, and have come to engross most of our time and our thoughts. These other interests may all be legitimate objects of attention, and many of them even necessary. We must be diligent in business; it is right and proper for us to pursue our several callings — to cultivate the farm, to harvest the crop, to market the surplus, to provide comforts and even luxuries for the family; and in like manner the merchant must needs be wide awake, well-posted as to the state of the markets, and closely attentive to all the details of his business, whether of buying or selling or managing. Similar remarks might be made of every profession and avocation. They all make and properly make, large demands upon us—demands which it is right for us to honor, provided we can do so without sacrificing higher interests, and ignoring more important claims. But just here lies the danger. It is all well enough to be “diligent in business,” if one is able also, and at the same time, to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” I have known a few such persons—men whose religion seemed to be carried into their pursuits — who never forgot its claims, nor made them secondary, but who appeared to grow in grace, in humility, in generosity, in gratitude, in zeal for God and the cause of humanity — in proportion as the Lord prospered them in the worldly things. But I have known many more in whom the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, springing up like thorns in their spiritual gardens have choked the word, and they have become unfruitful. The times in which we live are fraught with special peril for this source. The spirit of contentment with such things as we have seems to have taken its flight from the world. Men are no longer satisfied with a modest and frugal living, the fruit of honest and daily toil; they desire to be rich, and not even this in any reasonable measure or degree, but immensely rich, far beyond any possible use that they can make of their wealth, or any comfort which they or their families can derive from it. It has become a passion with them, so engrossing and absorbing as to leave little, or no interest in their hearts for the true riches which God will give to those who are worthy to receive them. We should, therefore, be on our guard. “They that desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Some of the peculiar “sorrows” or evils growing out of this root are intimated in the seventeenth and eighteenth verses of this same chapter: “Charge them that are rich in this present world, that they be not high-minded, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.”

This, then, is on source of spiritual declension—the love of money for itself, for the gratification of the evil passions of pride and vanity and vulgar display which it may bring. We may fancy—I fear very many do fancy—that it is possible to serve God and mammon, but it is not!

I shall not undertake to mention all the various influences which tend to draw us away from “the chief concern of mortals here below,” but there is one other which seems to call for special notice. I allude to what we are wont in brief to call “Society,” with its round of pleasures, amusements and pastimes, its petty jealousies and rivalries, and its cold and uncharitable, not to say cruel, criticisms. It is the spirit that pervades and dominates this social circle, which constitutes the evil and danger of its influence. Really good society, even if it were not strictly religious in tone—if it were simply of exalted character—would be stimulating to the higher nature, and in many respects helpful to spiritual progress. But the low gossip of the newly enriched, their vulgar parade and display, their braggadocio and hollow pretension, their want of sympathy for all that is noble and good, not to say their skepticism of its existence—these are elements which enter largely into our modern social life. Now, of course, a matured Christian of fixed principles and fixed heart can mingle in even such society without serious detriment; but there are very many who come forth from the ordeal with distinct and unmistakable spiritual loss. They have caught something of the godless and pernicious spirit which they have been breathing. Their tone is lowered. There taste for pure and the good is blunted. A careful examination will reveal to them that they have gone backward and downward.

I need not mention partisan politics, which ever and anon becomes so dominant in its influence as to lead men away from all interest in the Church, and even sometimes away from truth and honor and God.

It is a trite observation and a true one that we can not stand still. If we are not moving forward we are going backward. It matters not what the cause may be. Indeed, without any assignable or recognized cause we may find ourselves becoming careless, and indifferent to the demands of the higher life. We have ceased to give constant and earnest heed to “the things that were heard,” and consequently, have “drifted” away from them (Hebrews 2:1). In the Old Testament this drifting is more than once called by the very suggestive word backsliding. It is not a running away; not positively and consciously forsaking and giving up, but it is slipping, sliding away.

Now with reference to this backsliding, or declension, or loss of ground, or spiritual coldness and indifference—call it what you may—I wish to say, first, that it is a dangerous condition. It is a movement in the wrong direction. The soul is relaxing its hold upon God, and consequently, upon the hope that rests on God. Second, it is a sinful condition, dishonoring to the Saviour, false to our own profession, destructive of our influence for good, and hazarding our eternal welfare. Third, it is pregnant with “many sorrows.” Either God will, in the necessary severity of fatherly love, chasten us back to repentance and the right way; or, worse still, we shall be left to reap the bitter fruits of our own folly, and to experience the remorse of wasted opportunities and a misspent life. But, finally, it is not a hopeless condition. Though we have lost ground, we may regain it. By hearty repentance and renewed consecration we may get back into the bosom of that Infinite Love which is ever open and warm to receive us. “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever” (Jeremiah 3:12).