THE CHRISTIAN IN SOCIETY
‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’
Our present topic is the Christian in society. The words of the text were spoken to those whose social surroundings were far less favourable than ours. We may indeed be thankful that for us the world around us is not so vile a world as it was then.
I. The Christian’s mission.—The Christian has a definite mission for society. He is to become its salt, to preserve it from corruption. Whether men will hear or whether they will forbear is a question outside our account. Our responsibility ceases with the witness-bearing. But let us be persuaded of this, that the influence of a thoroughly consistent holy soul upon others around it cannot be measured.
II. Attitude to amusements.—As one who has pledged himself to a high and sacred cause, you will bring to the debatable ground of amusements a sensitive, and at the same time an enlightened conscience—a strong sense of the fitting, and a wholesome dread of causing avoidable offence to fellow-believers. You will feel that a brother’s or a sister’s moral and religious well-being, committed in a measure to you as their ‘keeper,’ is too precious a trust to be jeopardised for the sake of some paltry, transitory gratification. You will decline to take the low ground of the worldling revealed in the common question, ‘Where is the harm?’ It is just on this territory that the lines of demarcation run between the Church and the world, and the interests of religion can hardly be served by our making these lines as faint as possible.
III. In, but not of, the world.—It is possible that some here, dependent entirely on the wishes and the direction of others, have been caught in the vortex of what is generally accepted as fashionable life. It may not be easy for you to be in the world and yet not to be of it. But your heart and its issues are at least your own. Your real self lies at your own disposal. That is free. If in God’s Providence you are placed in a position of peculiar temptation, in circumstances exceptionally unfavourable for the growth of personal piety, be assured that you may claim special grace to keep you steadfast.
—Bishop Alfred Pearson.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Silence often checks evil as effectually as a spoken reproof. We know of one who, when at school, would rise and leave the room if a profane or impure word escaped the lips of any of his schoolfellows. As he was captain of his school eleven, this firmness did much. Another we well know whose personal influence at Oxford was so strong, that his presence in his college boat was sufficient to check all unhallowed speech.’
(2) ‘The Christian is neither a Stoic, nor a Cynic; yet he finds daily cause for watchfulness and restraint. A believer will not often be tempted to gross crimes. Our greatest snares are usually found in things lawful in themselves, but hurtful to us through their abuse, engrossing too much of our time, or of our hearts, or somehow indisposing us for communion with God.’