19 OCTOBER (1873)
To Sabbath-school teachers and other soul-winners
‘Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.’ James 5:19–20
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:19–2:3
Modern thinkers treat revealed truth with entire indifference; though they may feel sorry that wilder spirits go too far in free thinking, and wish they would be more moderate, yet so large is their liberality that they are not sure enough of anything to be able to condemn the reverse of it as a deadly error. To them black and white are terms which may be applied to the same colour as you view it from different standpoints. Yes and no are equally true in their esteem. Their theology shifts like the Goodwin Sands, and they regard all firmness as bigotry. Errors and truths are equally comprehensible within the circle of their charity.
It was not in this way that the apostles regarded error. They did not prescribe large-hearted charity towards falsehood, or hold up the errorist as a man of deep thought, whose views were ‘refreshingly original’; far less did they utter some wicked nonsense about the probability of more faith living in honest doubts than in half the creeds. They did not believe in justification by doubting, but set about the conversion of the erring brother, treated him as a person who needed conversion, and viewed him as a man who, if he were not converted, would suffer the death of his soul and be covered with a multitude of sins. They were not such easy-going people as our cultured friends of the school of ‘modern thought’, who have learned that the deity of Christ may be denied, the work of the Holy Spirit ignored, the inspiration of Scripture rejected, the atonement disbelieved, and regeneration dispensed with, and yet the man who does all this may be as good a Christian as the most devout believer!
O God, deliver us from their deceitful infidelity, which, while it damages the erring man and often prevents his being reclaimed, does yet more mischief to our own hearts by teaching us that truth is unimportant.
FOR MEDITATION: ‘To utter error against the LORD’ (Isaiah 32:6) is foolish, sinful and punishable by God (Romans 1:24–27). We must carefully discern error (1 John 4:1–6), otherwise we may get led astray and destabilised by it (2 Peter 3:17).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 303.
To Sabbath-school teachers and other soul-winners
‘Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.’ James 5:19–20
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:19–2:3
Modern thinkers treat revealed truth with entire indifference; though they may feel sorry that wilder spirits go too far in free thinking, and wish they would be more moderate, yet so large is their liberality that they are not sure enough of anything to be able to condemn the reverse of it as a deadly error. To them black and white are terms which may be applied to the same colour as you view it from different standpoints. Yes and no are equally true in their esteem. Their theology shifts like the Goodwin Sands, and they regard all firmness as bigotry. Errors and truths are equally comprehensible within the circle of their charity.
It was not in this way that the apostles regarded error. They did not prescribe large-hearted charity towards falsehood, or hold up the errorist as a man of deep thought, whose views were ‘refreshingly original’; far less did they utter some wicked nonsense about the probability of more faith living in honest doubts than in half the creeds. They did not believe in justification by doubting, but set about the conversion of the erring brother, treated him as a person who needed conversion, and viewed him as a man who, if he were not converted, would suffer the death of his soul and be covered with a multitude of sins. They were not such easy-going people as our cultured friends of the school of ‘modern thought’, who have learned that the deity of Christ may be denied, the work of the Holy Spirit ignored, the inspiration of Scripture rejected, the atonement disbelieved, and regeneration dispensed with, and yet the man who does all this may be as good a Christian as the most devout believer!
O God, deliver us from their deceitful infidelity, which, while it damages the erring man and often prevents his being reclaimed, does yet more mischief to our own hearts by teaching us that truth is unimportant.
FOR MEDITATION: ‘To utter error against the LORD’ (Isaiah 32:6) is foolish, sinful and punishable by God (Romans 1:24–27). We must carefully discern error (1 John 4:1–6), otherwise we may get led astray and destabilised by it (2 Peter 3:17).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 303.
19 OCTOBER (1873)
To Sabbath-school teachers and other soul-winners
‘Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.’ James 5:19–20
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:19–2:3
Modern thinkers treat revealed truth with entire indifference; though they may feel sorry that wilder spirits go too far in free thinking, and wish they would be more moderate, yet so large is their liberality that they are not sure enough of anything to be able to condemn the reverse of it as a deadly error. To them black and white are terms which may be applied to the same colour as you view it from different standpoints. Yes and no are equally true in their esteem. Their theology shifts like the Goodwin Sands, and they regard all firmness as bigotry. Errors and truths are equally comprehensible within the circle of their charity.
It was not in this way that the apostles regarded error. They did not prescribe large-hearted charity towards falsehood, or hold up the errorist as a man of deep thought, whose views were ‘refreshingly original’; far less did they utter some wicked nonsense about the probability of more faith living in honest doubts than in half the creeds. They did not believe in justification by doubting, but set about the conversion of the erring brother, treated him as a person who needed conversion, and viewed him as a man who, if he were not converted, would suffer the death of his soul and be covered with a multitude of sins. They were not such easy-going people as our cultured friends of the school of ‘modern thought’, who have learned that the deity of Christ may be denied, the work of the Holy Spirit ignored, the inspiration of Scripture rejected, the atonement disbelieved, and regeneration dispensed with, and yet the man who does all this may be as good a Christian as the most devout believer!
O God, deliver us from their deceitful infidelity, which, while it damages the erring man and often prevents his being reclaimed, does yet more mischief to our own hearts by teaching us that truth is unimportant.
FOR MEDITATION: ‘To utter error against the LORD’ (Isaiah 32:6) is foolish, sinful and punishable by God (Romans 1:24–27). We must carefully discern error (1 John 4:1–6), otherwise we may get led astray and destabilised by it (2 Peter 3:17).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 303.
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