{"id":51345,"date":"2017-08-18T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/\/us\/?p=51345"},"modified":"2017-08-23T15:37:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T20:37:28","slug":"romance-christian-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/us\/resources\/articles\/2017\/romance-christian-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"The Romance of the Christian Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

One sometimes meets Christians who use scriptural words and thoughts\u00a0with no more feeling than if they were licking stamps. They seem to belong to a religious world whose citizens live always north of the Arctic circle of emotion. Their spiritual affections are buried beneath yards of ice and snow.<\/p>\n

When they venture to talk about the things of God they use good\u00a0words and express sound ideas, but they are evidently in complete control of their own emotions at all times. In such company the doctrines of God\u2019s Word have the fascination of an ice-crystal or a snow-flake. The truths of Scripture look beautiful but feel icy cold. One senses that it would be an impertinence\u00a0to breathe a sigh in their presence or to utter a stifled sob. To shed a tear\u00a0would be unpardonable.<\/p>\n

No doubt emotion can be overdone in religion as in all else. Not everything\u00a0we say on biblical subjects need be said in a gush of tears or punctuated\u00a0with a solemn Amen. We concede readily that some spoil our appetite for\u00a0holy emotions by their working too hard at them. We remember hearing of\u00a0a preacher whose every sentence almost was greeted by an Amen from someone\u00a0in the gallery. It was perhaps tolerable, if only just.<\/p>\n

But the voice in the\u00a0gallery gave itself away at one point in the service by shouting Amen when\u00a0the number of the next hymn was announced. The ardour was artificial. It\u00a0was scarcely more significant as an expression of religious feeling than a\u00a0twitch of the face or a nervous habit of coughing. For false emotions of this\u00a0or any other kind we make no appeal here. But we do put in a plea for more\u00a0expressions of genuine emotion both in the pulpit and out of it.<\/p>\n

Dare one venture to state that it is scriptural and sound for a Christian to\u00a0give vent at times to profound religious feelings? Admittedly, allowance must\u00a0be made for temperament and for the differences between national characters. The \u2018stiff upper lip\u2019 is part of some nations\u2019 philosophy of life. Other\u00a0countries have no such tradition.<\/p>\n

No one doubts that maudlin sentimentality is a weakness. We are right to dislike and distrust it. But great natures are\u00a0capable of great feeling and no subjects under the sun should rouse us to\u00a0great feeling like the subjects of which our Christian faith speaks: the being\u00a0and attributes of God, the eternal decree, the covenant of grace, the person\u00a0and work of Christ, the judgment to come and the life everlasting. To think\u00a0and speak of these transcendental themes in a matter-of-fact way is to betray\u00a0a fearful meanness of spirit and smallness of soul. All subjects of divinity\u00a0oblige us to awe and reverence by the very majesty of their content.<\/p>\n

It is not difficult to show from Scripture that outward expressions of emotion\u00a0are proper and right at times. Saintly men whose calling in life involved\u00a0them in great responsibility and self-control are occasionally represented in\u00a0the Bible as overcome with profound feelings, either of sorrow or of joy.\u00a0No-one who has read the story of Joseph\u2019s self-disclosure to his brothers\u00a0could ever forget the power which this passage possesses:<\/p>\n

Then Joseph could\u00a0not refrain himself before all them that stood by him . . . And he wept aloud,\u00a0and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard . . . And he fell upon his\u00a0brother Benjamin\u2019s neck, and wept . . . Moreover he kissed all his brethren,\u00a0and wept upon them. , (Gen. 45:1, 2, 14, 15)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing in this lavish outpouring of emotions has any connection with\u00a0emotionalism. It is a scene of holy and spontaneous affection, the springs of\u00a0which are both earthly and heavenly: love of his own family so long parted\u00a0from him; delight at seeing Benjamin, pleasure at hearing that his father is\u00a0still alive; inability to do other than forgive their past conduct towards him;\u00a0realisation that his brothers were better men than they once were and, above\u00a0all else, a sublime realisation that God had fulfilled his earlier dreams by\u00a0giving him pre-eminence over his brothers. Never do our feelings rise so high\u00a0as when we come to some such great crisis or climax in life. When God\u2019s\u00a0hand of providence becomes visible we must have a sense of destiny which\u00a0stirs us to the depths. If we are not so stirred we must be either little men or\u00a0men of stone.<\/p>\n

David\u2019s emotional experience must be safe for us to learn from, not least because he was a \u2018man after God\u2019s own heart\u2019. The various inflections in David\u2019s\u00a0feelings are worthy of more study than they have received. His affections\u00a0were as capable of variation as the melodies which he played on his welltuned\u00a0harp. To our information in the Books of Samuel must be added all\u00a0that we learn out of the Book of Psalms. The emotional life of this holy man\u00a0was played out on an instrument of ten strings, now soaring to the heights\u00a0and now plunging to the depths. We may select one incident out of many to illustrate this emotional side of the Psalmist: \u2018O my son Absalom, my son,\u00a0my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my\u00a0son!\u2019 (2 Sam. 18:33).<\/p>\n

Again, as with Joseph above, we must see here spontaneous and profound\u00a0feeling. David is more violent than Joseph. This is partly, perhaps, because he\u00a0was a man of war, but partly too because the occasion of his emotions was\u00a0much darker. He saw the sin of Absalom, his beloved son, as the immediate\u00a0cause of death. But David perceived the finger of God to be pointing also at\u00a0his own prior sin with Bathsheba. It was one of those moments in life which\u00a0possess a high sense both of drama and destiny. The \u2018sword would never\u00a0depart from David\u2019s house\u2019 (2 Sam. 12:10). God was pursuing his quarrel\u00a0with David and the recent dramatic death of Absalom was a poignant\u00a0reminder to the king that every syllable of God\u2019s Word is as right and just as\u00a0it is inescapable. The tears which flowed down the face of that noblest of\u00a0men were salted by thoughts of self-reproach more than by anything else. It\u00a0is those who love God greatly who smite most violently on their own breast\u00a0when they see what their past folly has brought on other men\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul is the greatest example we possess, apart of course from\u00a0Christ, of a man in whom strength of intellect and strength of feeling are matched. He is the living proof, if proof is needed, that logic and emotion\u00a0are not mutually inconsistent. No man ever lived who was more perfectly the clear-headed theologian and the calm biblical scholar while at the same time\u00a0the passionate lover of Christ and souls. Where truth and souls were at stake\u00a0Paul was immovably firm. On Elymas the sorcerer he can pronounce a fearful\u00a0woe as we read in Acts 13:10-11.<\/p>\n

It is the same holy indignation which constrains him to warn the Galatians\u00a0twice over: \u2018Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other\u00a0gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed\u2019 (Gal. 1: 8-9). This is emotion, a sanctified jealousy for sound doctrine, mingled with\u00a0indignation at the audacity of the false teachers who were ready to invent\u00a0\u2018another gospel\u2019 (Gal. 1:6). The church of Christ could do with a baptism of\u00a0this holy jealousy for God\u2019s truth at this present hour.\u00a0Let it not be thought for one moment that Paul was a \u2018hard man\u2019. With\u00a0young converts he was as tender as a nurse-maid with her children (1 Thess.2:7). Even as he warned them away from error he wept, shedding tears\u00a0of sorrow for those who are spiritually blind: \u2018I tell you, even weeping, that\u00a0they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.\u2019 (Phil. 3:18). He speaks of\u00a0\u2018serving the Lord with many tears\u2019 (Acts 20:19), of \u2018warning every one night\u00a0and day with tears\u2019 (Acts 20:31) and of writing to believers \u2018with many tears\u2019\u00a0(2 Cor. 2:4).<\/p>\n

Paul sighed as he prayed for the conversion of the Jews (Rom. 9:1-2) and\u00a0\u2018travailed in birth\u2019 till \u2018Christ was formed\u2019 in his converts (Gal. 4:19). His\u00a0own great heart beat in fullest sympathy for the saints, whatsoever their feelings\u00a0were (2 Cor. 11:28-29). He yearned for the spiritual good of every\u00a0particular believer \u2018in the bowels of Christ\u2019 (Phil. 1:8). \u2018The love of Christ\u00a0constrained\u2019 him in all his labours. The world was his parish. Holy desires for God\u2019s glory and man\u2019s good poured out of his soul with immense energy. It\u00a0is hard to say whether passion for truth or passion for the lost is the stronger\u00a0emotion in his life. No doubt they were both mighty in him.<\/p>\n

In the examples we have taken of holy men in whom emotion and feeling\u00a0were strong, we have confined ourselves to men of like passions with ourselves.\u00a0It would not, however, be difficult to show in the life of our blessed\u00a0Lord himself that emotion and feeling were an integral part of his experience\u00a0on earth\u2014albeit in his case the emotions were sinless. Our Redeemer knew\u00a0emotion in its complete spectrum from darkest gloom and sorrow to ecstatic\u00a0joy and rejoicing. His sympathetic compassion draw tears from him at a\u00a0graveside (John 11) and over poor, blinded Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). Our\u00a0human miseries were his daily concern whilst here below. Nothing that\u00a0touched mankind was an irrelevance to him. If his more frequent emotions\u00a0were of sorrow because of man\u2019s piteous plight, he was no stranger to times\u00a0of joy also (Luke 10:21). All this he voluntarily undertook for us, for his eye\u00a0was on the prize of all these sufferings\u2014the purchase of a church to be his bride. This was the \u2018joy set before him\u2019 for which he \u2018endured the cross and\u00a0despised the shame\u2019 (Heb. 12:2).<\/p>\n

To our mind the evidence is compelling. Emotion is a proper part of\u00a0the Christian\u2019s life. It is not to be stifled but educated. We are not to teach\u00a0ourselves how to suppress our feelings but how to express them unto edification,\u00a0both our own and others\u2019. To that end we would offer the following\u00a0suggestions.<\/p>\n

1. The Christian would do well to make it his habit never, if possible, to speak or think of God without deep reverence and affection<\/em>. At least, he\u00a0should refer to God feelingly when his \u00a0circumstances permit him to do so.\u00a0Let him set before his mind the greatness of his debt to God both for his\u00a0birth and for his new birth, for his election from Adam\u2019s fallen mass and his\u00a0redemption by Christ. He should set aside time regularly to meditate on the\u00a0truths most fitted to excite and enthrall his soul. What moves one man may\u00a0not move another. Let each Christian dwell frequently on those texts, doctrines\u00a0and experiences which much excite and enliven his own heart and set\u00a0in motion the wheels of elevated feeling.<\/p>\n

2. Then, we would suggest that the Christian should avoid all excess of\u00a0laughter, or at least, such laughter as is associated with trivial amusement and\u00a0worldly humour<\/em>. There is laughter which flows from pure spiritual joy. It is\u00a0probable that we cannot have too much of that. But it is not common. The\u00a0habit of laughing at the slightest opportunity is not only unedifying to others,\u00a0but also it is harmful to the cultivation of the profounder emotions of the\u00a0soul: awe, fear of God, sense of the nearness of Christ\u2019s Spirit, gravity and\u00a0nobility of character. It ill befits the princes of a great King to laugh over\u00a0trifles. They are likely, if they do so, to appear to others to have forgotten\u00a0their station in life and their high standing.<\/p>\n

3. We believe that it is good for the soul to develop the habit of expecting\u00a0to feel great emotion from time to time in the use of the means of grace,\u00a0especially under preaching, in secret prayer and at the Lord\u2019s Table.<\/em> The habit\u00a0we refer to is to expect that God will periodically fill our hearts with wonderful\u00a0melting and heavenly comfort. We believe that those who do not\u00a0expect such \u00a0experiences are not likely to have them. But this is much to their\u00a0loss. Christ is able to fill the heart to overflowing by his felt presence and\u00a0grace. The great saints of the past have had frequent experience of such gracious visitations and we are to seek to grow up into Christ as they did till we\u00a0have similar spiritual exercises.<\/p>\n

4. In conclusion, we should not seek God for the sake of gracious\u00a0experiences but rather seek God for his own sake.<\/em> A child who loves his mother does not love her company for ulterior motives but for love\u2019s sake\u00a0alone. So the Christian delights in God for no other reason than that he\u00a0is God, most delightful to contemplate and most worthy of our highest\u00a0affection and obedience.<\/p>\n

There cannot be any serious doubt that the romance has gone out of the\u00a0Christian life for too many believers. We have forgotten for too long that\u00a0every doctrine of Scripture should have its corresponding echo in the soul. Truths of theology are not bare philosophical speculations but powerful\u00a0influences. \u2018The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life\u2019\u00a0(John 6:63). A large part of the Christian\u2019s joy and comfort is to \u2018feel\u2019 the\u00a0force of these truths and to become familiar with them till they fill his heart\u00a0with their heavenly music.<\/p>\n

When doctrines are preached with feeling, warmth and passion they will\u00a0be felt in the pew, not by all, but by those who have a soul which thirsts\u00a0after God. Those who blow the gospel-trumpet have the highest privilege on\u00a0earth. It would be good to see congregations everywhere thrilled and excited\u00a0by the Word of God. Such emotion is sanctifying and exhilarating. It is also\u00a0infectious.
\nChrist counted it his joy to save us from sin. We should count it our joy\u00a0to suffer on earth for his sake. Once we come to that point we have recovered\u00a0the romance and may well be close to recovering the blessing also.<\/p>\n

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Of Further Interest<\/h3>\n