True Religion (and others)

True Religion (and others)

True religion is personal, experimental, practical. It is a thing of the heart - and not merely external religious forms.

True religion is a living principle in the soul - influencing the mind, alluring the affections, guiding the will, directing and enlightening the conscience.

True religion is a supreme - not a subordinate matter. It demands and obtains the throne of the soul. It guides the whole character - and requires the whole man and all his conduct to be in subordination.

True religion is not an occasional thing - but habitual. It takes up its abode in the heart - and not merely visits it at certain times and at particular seasons.

True religion is not a partial thing - but universal. It does not confine itself to certain times, places, and occasions - but forms an integral part of the character - and blends with everything we do.

True religion is noble and lofty - not an abject, servile, and groveling thing. It communes with God, with truth, with holiness, with heaven, with eternity, with infinity! 

True religion is a happy - and not a melancholy thing. It gives peace that passes understanding, and joy that is unspeakable, and full of glory!

True religion is a durable -and not a transient thing. It passes with us through life, lies down with us on the pillow of death, rises with us at the last day, and dwells in our souls in heaven as the very element of eternal life!

Such if true religion - the most sublime thing in the world - sent down to be our comforter on earth - and our guide to everlasting life through all this gloomy valley!

~John Angell James~
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"Who Can Show Us Any Good?"

Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" (Psalm 4:6)

Man is made for happiness, and is capable of it. But what is happiness - and how is it to be obtained? To possess and enjoy it, man must be furnished with some good - suited to his nature, adapted to his condition, and adequate to his capacity and desires.

The nature of the chief good has been, in every age, the interesting subject of most earnest philosophic inquiry. But how various and opposed, have been the conclusions at which the inquirers have arrived on this important subject. Man's ignorance of his own nature has different opinions on the subject.

Not perceiving what it is that has made him miserable - man cannot know what will make him happy! Unacquainted with, or rather overlooking, the disease - he cannot know the remedy. He feels an aching void within, an unsatisfied craving after something - but knows neither the nature, nor the source, of the food adapted to meet and satisfy his hunger.

The vagrant spirit of man is seen wandering from God - the fountain of bliss - roaming through this dry and thirsty land, "anxiously looking for happiness, but never finding it; until weary of the pursuit and disappointed in its hopes, it is ready to give up all in despair, and reconcile itself to misery, under the notion that happiness is but a fiction!

In this sad and hopeless mood, the victim of grief and despondency is met by the Bible, which takes him by the hand, and leads him to the fountain of living waters. Such is the design of Scripture - to show first of all what will not make man happy, and then what will.

Nothing on earth can satisfy the soul of man, as its supreme good. Science, literature, even civilization has added innumerable gratifications of appetite and taste. But still the heart of man confirms, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!"

What is the nature and the source of happiness?

What is to terminate the weary pursuits, to revive the languid hopes, to gratify the anxious desires, of destitute and sorrowing people, hungering and thirsting after bliss?

What human reason is thus proved to be too ignorant and too weak to decide, the Bible undertakes to settle; and explicitly, imperatively, and infallibly, determines for all and forever. Only Biblical Christianity suits the nature, meets the needs, alleviates the sorrows, satisfies the desires, of the human soul - and is its portion forever.

Only Christianity finds man depraved - and makes him holy; finds him little - and makes him great; finds him earthly - and raises him to heaven!

"You are my portion, O my God. Your favor is life, and your love is better than life. You are the center, the rest, the home of my heart!"

"Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life!" (John 4:13-14).

~John Angell James~