Life and Death: Being Reports of Addresses Delivered in London

In consenting to publish the following addresses I have acceded to very earnest solicitation on the part of numerous hearers and friends, who wish for some more direct and pointed truth on the subject of personal salvation. I deeply regret the imperfect manner in which topics so momentous are handled, but time and strength fail for a more complete revision; so I commit them to Grod, praying that the great end, both in their delivery and publication, may be accomplished, even the salvation of those who read.

London, November, 1883.

Acts xviii. 17. — “And Gallio cared for none of these things.”

When riding in the train a little while ago, I overheard a conversation between two gentlemen — a young man on one seat, and an elderly man opposite to him on the other. They were conversing about some person recently dead, and I heard the young man say to the other, 6 Oh, he had no more religion than I have.5 I thought to myself, There is a state of confessed indifference on the subject of religion! I winder whether that young man is an infidel; T will try to get an opportunity of speaking to him before the journey ends. And so I did; and I found that he professed to believe in God, and the. Bible, and heaven and hell, as much as I did, and yet he had betrayed in that conversation that he had no religion, and that it was a matter of indifference to him, and I thought, Now this is the state of tens of thousands in this so-called “Gospel land; 55 they, like Gallio, “care for none of these things.55

These words with respect to Gallio were not spoken directly of his spiritual state, but with respect to matters that affected him more as a magistrate and a ruler; nevertheless, they convey an idea to us of his indifference on great spiritual questions, which concerned him really as much as they concerned Paul, only that he did not see it. If it had been, as he supposed, a question of mere names and Jewish

4 / ieli (j Ions hidijfertnce.

ceremonies, his indifference would have been justifiable, but he was mistaken here; his premises were wrong, and therefore his conclusions were wrong. The question as to how God ought to be worshipped and served, as to whether the Bible were a Divine revelation, as to whether Jesus Christ were really the Son of God, were questions quite as important to Gallio as they were to Paul, if he had only seen their importance. His indifference sprang out of his mistake. He was mistaken about the whole question, and therefore was indifferent, and he drove them away, as having no responsibility in the matter.

This is just the position of tens of thousands round about us to-day. They have heard about religion; but they have a notion that it is a system of absurdities, and contradictions, and cant, fit only for half-imbecile minds, that it is no question of theirs, and so dismiss it from their minds — they “care for none of these things.”

Now, I want to-night to talk about this state of religious indifference. I want just to enquire into it for a little. In passing, we might say — Who knows what Gallio lost by his indifference? If he had just taken the trouble to enquire into these matters, about which Paul had been dragged before his judgment-seat, who knows what the issue might have been both to Gallio and the Church of that time? For anything we know, we might have had an Epistle of Gallio to the Churches! He might have helped to roll along the rising tide of Salvation, and been instrumental in the conversion of hundreds of souls; but all this was lost for the want of a bit of trouble! Oh! what a great many blessings, how much light, how much instruction, and how much influence for good, many professing Christians lose for lack of a bit of trouble! And how many sinners will lose their souls from the same cause! No soul was ever saved yet who was TOO IDLE TO SEEK!

But I want to distinguish, in the first place, between indifference and indecision, which is quite another state of mind. Indecision always pre-supposes controversy going on in the mind — a state of unrest. A person may be undecided who is not indifferent. He may be wide awake, anxious, deliberating, and arguing the question as to whether he shall give his heart to God or not — that is not indifference.

Neither is it infidelity. Infidelity is not indifference. Infidels are rarely at ease; they wish they were. They would give anything to be at ease. I have met and talked with many, and God has used me to the saving of a few; but, with one or two exceptions, I never met with an infidel who, on close conversation, made it manifest that he was satisfied with his condition.

He is in the position of the man who had been to a lecture, the object of which was to prove there was no God, and, as he was coming out, another man said, ‘Well, hasn’t it been good?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘ I am ‘ almost satisfied. I intend to send the lecturer a sack ‘ of corn; but, if he had quite satisfied me, I would ‘ have sent him two.’

And there are many in that condition; they are not quite satisfied. This is a state of unrest, not of indifference.

Indifference is often a state of mind of people who intellectually believe in God, and in Divine revelation. How wonderful it is that any being with a mind, a fi Religious Indifference.

conscience, and a soul, can remain indifferent after he has once heard, or once professed to believe, that there is a Grod, an eternity, a heaven, and a hell, and that he is a candidate for one or the other! Nothing can explain this mystery, except that “the god of this world hath blinded” his “mind*”

If people were to be told half as much with respect io their bodily danger as they often hear in one sermon about their souls, you would never be able to make them indifferent any more, until they had adopted the means recommended for the improvement of their temporal condition. You convince a man that he is out of health, show him the importance of seeing a physician and getting a remedy, and, if he is a sane man, he will never rest again till he has put himself under the means which he thinks most likely to cure him.

But it is not so with people’s souls. How can this be, when the interests at stake are so much greater? How can you account for it? You get them to a service, and a little bit aroused; but the first great anxiety of the Devil is to get them to sleep again. He says, 6 1 must not let that man hear such truth any more; ’ and he finds something to attract his attention as soon as he gets outside. The seed is sown, but the birds — evil spirits — come and snatch it away before it has time to take root. „ The great effort of the Devil is to keep people indifferent, and nothing does he dread so much as awakening and arousing preaching, or other instrumentalities calculated to awaken and alarm them.

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