Horatius Bonar emphasizes the necessity of genuine faith and the righteousness of God in true religion, contrasting it with the superficiality of contemporary religious practices. He argues that without a deep, personal relationship with God, religion becomes hollow and ineffective, leaving individuals unfulfilled despite outward appearances of piety. Bonar highlights that true spiritual health comes from understanding one's relationship with God, which empowers believers to face challenges and perform great deeds in the church. He asserts that faith is the foundation of the Christian life, from justification to victory, culminating in the ultimate reward of righteousness through Christ. The sermon calls for a return to the authentic, transformative power of faith in God.

Religion is fashionable in our age. But is it that which sprang up, after centuries of darkness, among our fathers in Europe? Is it that of apostles and prophets? Is it the calm yet thorough religion which did such great deeds in other days? Has it gone deep into the conscience? Has it filled the heart? Has it pervaded the man? Or has it left the conscience unpacified, the heart unfilled, the man unchanged, save with some external appliances of religiousness, which leaves him hollow as before? There is at this moment many an aching spirit, bitterly conscious of this hollowness. The doctrine, the profession, the good report of others, the bustle of work, will not fill the soul. God Himself must be there, with His covering righteousness, His cleansing blood, His quickening Spirit. Without this, religion is but a shell: holy services are dull and irksome. Joy in God, which is the soul and essence of worship, is unknown. Sacraments, prayer-meetings, religious services, labours of charity, will not make up for the living God. Men with their feet firmly set on Luther’s rock, “the righteousness of God,” filled with the Spirit, and pervaded with the peace of God, do the great things in the church; others do the little. The men of robust spiritual health are they who, like Luther, have made sure of their filial relationship to God. They shrink from no battle, nor succumb to any toil. The men who go to work with an unascertained relationship give way in the warfare, and faint under the labour: their life is not perhaps a failure or defeat; but it is not a victory, it is not a triumph… …By faith we choose affliction with the people of God, and despise Egypt’s treasures. By faith we keep our passover; pass through the Red Sea; overthrow Jerichos; subdue kingdoms; work righteousness; stop the mouth of lions; quench the violence of fire; turn to flight the armies of the aliens, and refuse deliverance in the day of trial, that we may obtain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35). It is “believing” from first to last. We begin, we go on, we end in faith. The faith that justifies is the faith that overcomes (1 John 5:4). By faith we obtain the “good report” both with God and man. By faith we receive forgiveness; by faith we live; by faith we work, and endure, and suffer; by faith we win the crown,—a crown of righteousness, which shall be ours in the day of the appearing of Him who is OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. -Taken from The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar, 1873.