that must necessarily arise. Down with the trees altogether, because false gods have been worshipped there. You are a good deal too harsh, some will reply; well, I dare say I am, but I am not any more harsh than God’s Word. If I am, whatever is not according to God’s Word, reject; but you will not find me beginning to conform just yet, I assure you. While I know a thing to be true, I am not the man to stammer in speaking it. What I would not do myself I would not have others do who are Christian men, and who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
12. Now, I must lift up the axe against another evil — books. There are many books that are to be so esteemed by the Christian man, that they must be cut down like the groves of trees, not because they are bad in themselves, note, but because false gods are worshipped there. Novel reading is the rage of the present day. I go to a railway bookstall, and I cannot see a book that I can read. I get one, and it is all trash. I search to find something that would be really valuable but I am told, “It would not sell here.” The fact is, nothing will sell except what is light, and frothy, and frivolous; so every traveller is compelled to consume such food as that, unless he carries something better with him. Do I, therefore, say, that the Christian man must condemn all reading of fiction and novels? No, I do not, but I do say, that the mass of popular books published under the name of Light Literature is to be avoided and cut down, for the simple reason that the moral of it is not that of piety and goodness; the tendency of the reading is not to bring the Christian towards heaven, but rather to retard and impede him in his good course. I lift up my axe against many a work that I cannot condemn, if I look at it abstractly in itself, but which must come down, because I remember how much of my own precious time I wasted in such vapid reading, and how many years in which I might have had fellowship with Christ have been cast away, while I have been foolishly indulging a vicious taste for the romantic and the frivolous. No, there are many things which are not wrong in themselves, but which nevertheless must be given up by the true Christian, because they have had, and do have association with things positively wrong. Just as these groves must be cut down — not because there can be a sin in trees, but because the trees have been associated with the worship of idols. You remember John Knox’s memorable saying, when he turned the Romanists out, he immediately went to pull down their chapels. He gathered the mob together, and began to destroy all their places of worship. Why should John Knox meddle with them? “I will pull the nests down,” he said, “then I shall be sure that the birds will never come back.” So I would do today. I would not only drive away the birds — the sin, the evil; but I would pull down the nest, so that there will be no temptation to you to come back again to the sin. “Come out from among them, and be separate, and do not touch the unclean thing, and I will be a father to you.” Come out from the world, you children of Christ. Have nothing to do with their enjoyments, nor with their devices. Follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Do not go fornicating after these iniquities, but drink waters out of your own cistern, and be always ravished with his love who is your Lord, your husband, your hope, your joy, your all.
13. III. Moreover, they not only broke the images, and cut down the groves, but they THREW DOWN THE HIGH PLACES, AND THE ALTERS OUT OF ALL JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. This was, perhaps, the least necessary work, but it showed the thoroughness of their desire to serve the Lord. These altars were built for the service of the true God, but they were built against his express command. God had said that he would have only one altar, namely, at Jerusalem. These people, to avoid inconvenience and trouble, thought they would build altars, wherever they lived, and there celebrate their worship; I can conceive that they worshipped Jehovah with all their hearts, and that he might graciously accept even such worship as that through Christ Jesus, overlooking their ignorance and casting their sin behind his back! But now as their zeal was kindled, their consciences became scrupulous, so they resolved not only to avoid the things that are positively sinful but they would have nothing to do with anything that is not positively right. So they began to cast down the altars of God, because they were not built according to God’s law. This then is a third reformation, which ought to result from the ministry, and the assembling of the people together when we have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. There should be a casting down of everything in connection with the true worship, that is not according to the law of God and the word of God. As it was with the worship of Israel of old, so it is now with that of the Christian church. The pure becomes alloyed with the base, what is genuine with what is spurious, divine revelation with human tradition, and the inspired decrees of heaven with the inventions and devices of the children of men. Some fallacies are perpetuated from generation to generation, until the deep hue of antiquity tinges them over, makes them look venerable and speciously invites a reverence and regard to which they never had any legitimate claim. We have in this country, seven or eight different forms of the Christian religion. Some of these are at complete variance and contradiction with others. Some indeed, I truly think, are contradictory in themselves. We are all, I do trust, building on a sure foundation for eternity, if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and abide by the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, notwithstanding our many grievous discrepancies, which must involve error. Evangelical Christians are to be found in every sect and denomination, bearing the name of our one common Lord; yes, there are some who as yet have never taken upon them his name by public profession, who devoutly follow him in secret. But, note this, if the grace of God is once more restored to the church in all its fulness and the Spirit of God is poured out from on high, in all his sanctifying energy there will come such a shaking as has never been seen in our days. We want such a one as Martin Luther to rise from his tomb. If Martin Luther were now to visit our so called reformed churches, he would say with all his holy boldness “I was not half a reformer when I was alive before, now I will make thorough work of it.” How he would adjure you to cast away your superstitions, to abolish all the rites and forms and ceremonies that are not by divine appointment, and once more in the integrity of simple faith, to worship the Lord God alone, in that way alone, which the Lord God himself has ordained. Let all these, like those altars of Judaism, be cast down to the ground and utterly put away. I desire not only to be a Christian, but to be fully a Christian, walking in all the ways of my blessed Master, with a perfect heart; and I desire for all my brothers and sisters in Christ here, not only that they may have grace enough to save their souls, but grace enough to purify them from all the devices of men, from every false doctrine, from every false practice, and every evil thing. Do you speak of doctrine now? Are there not two kinds of doctrines professed among Christians, the one Arminian, and the other Calvinistic? We cannot be both right; it is impossible. The Arminian says, “God loves all men alike.” “Not so,” says the Calvinist. “He has proven to many of us by his free and distinguishing grace that he has given us more than others, not for the merit of our deservings, but according to the riches of his mercy, and the counsel of his own will.” The Arminian supposes, that Christ has bought all men with his blood, and yet that multitudes of these redeemed ones perish. The Calvinist holds, that no one can perish for whom Jesus died — that his blood was never shed in vain and that of all those whom he has redeemed, none shall ever perish. The Arminian teaches that though a man should be regenerated and become a child of God today, he may tomorrow be cast out of the covenant, and be as much a child of the devil as if no spiritual change had been worked in him. “Not so,” says the Calvinist, “Salvation is from God alone, and where once he begins he never quits, until he has finished the good work.” How obvious it is that we both cannot be right in matters about which we so widely differ. I exhort you, therefore, my brothers and sisters, after you have broken your images and cut down your groves, go a step further, and break down the false altars. I can only say for myself, “If I am wrong, I desire to be set right”; and for you I am solemnly concerned. “If you are wrong, may God help you to a correct understanding, and bring you to see the truth, embrace it, and earnestly and valiantly maintain it.” I like you to be charitable to others; but do not be too charitable to yourselves. Let others follow their own conscientious convictions, but do remember, it is not your conscience that is to be your guide, but God’s Word; and if your conscience is wrong, you are to bring it to God’s Word that it may be reproved and “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is for you to do what God tells you, as God tells you, when God tells you, and how God tells you.
14. Pardon me for a moment, if I should risk the displeasure of some I love
