THE WITHERBLOG

John Angell James

If the man who trembles at death is a coward; he who

trifles with it is a fool! There is a thousand times more
rationality in the trembler—than in the trifler!

There is a phenomenon in the rational world well
worthy of consideration, inquiry, and solution—the
strange and fatal insensibility of men to the grand
fact that they are mortal! Since it is infallibly certain
that they must and will die—and since death is so
solemn an event—how does it happen that so few
ever seriously think of it, or really prepare for it?

One would think that so grand and solemn a fact
as death, especially viewed in connection with the
events which are to immediately follow it—heaven,
hell and eternity—along with the uncertainty how
soon it may be realized—might operate with an
unlimited and altogether overpowering influence
upon men’s minds and hearts!

But men wish to forget death!

They try to forget it—and alas, too often succeed
in accomplishing this fatal oblivion! Yet we can
scarcely wonder at this, when we consider what
is their spiritual condition—and what death is!

It is the commonness of death, which deprives it
of its extreme dreadfulness. If death happened in
our world only once in a century, it would be felt
like the shock of an earthquake; and would hush
the inhabitants of earth into a breathless silence,
while the echoes of the knell of the departed soul
were reverberating around the globe!

Death is . . .
the moment of destiny;
the seal of eternity;
the cessation of probation;
the commencement of retribution and judgment!

The antecedents of death are dreadful—so are
the accompaniments—so are the consequences!

To every sense—death is revolting!

To every social affection—death is crucifying!

To reason—death is perplexing!

To everything but saving faith—death is overwhelming!

This pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking,
and pleasure-inventing age

John Angell James, “HINDRANCES to Christian Progress”

A taste for worldly amusements will inevitably prove,
wherever it is indulged–a powerful obstacle to growth
in grace.

Man is unquestionably made for enjoyment. He has a
capacity for bliss–an instinctive appetite for gratification;
and for this, God has made ample provision of a healthful
and lawful kind. But “a taste for worldly pleasure” means
that this God-given capacity is directed to wrong sources,
or carried to an excess.

Now there are some amusements which in their very
nature are so utterly incompatible with true godliness,
that a liking for them, and a hankering after them, and
especially an indulgence in them–cannot exist with real,
earnest, and serious piety.

The dissolute parties of the glutton and the drunkard;
the fervency for the gambling-table; the pleasures of
the race-course; the performances of the theater–are
all of this kind. A taste for them is utterly uncongenial
with a spirit of godliness! So is a love for the gay and
fashionable entertainments of the ball-room, and the
wanton parties of the upper classes. These are all
unfriendly to true religion, and are usually renounced
by people intent upon the momentous concerns of
eternity.

We would not doom to perdition, all who are at any
time found in this round of worldly pleasure–but we
unhesitatingly say, that a taste for them is entirely
opposed to the whole spirit of Christianity! They are
all included in that “world” which is overcome by faith
and the new birth.

True religion is, though a happy, a very serious
thing–and can no more live and flourish in the
uncongenial atmosphere of those parties, than
could a young tender plant survive, if brought
into a frigid zone!

But in this pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking, and
pleasure-inventing age, there is a great variety of
amusements perpetually rising up, which it would be
impossible to say are sinful, and therefore unlawful.
Yet the ‘supposition of their lawfulness’ viewed in
connection with their abundance, variety, and constant
repetition, is the very thing that makes them dangerous
to the spirit of true religion.

A taste for even lawful worldly amusements, which
leads its possessor to be fond of them, seeking them,
and longing for them–shows a mind that is in a very
doubtful state as to vital piety.

A Christian is not to partake of the pleasures of the
world, merely to prove that his religion does not debar
him from enjoyment. But he is to let it be seen by his
“peace which passes understanding,” and his “joy
unspeakable and full of glory,” that his godliness
gives far more enjoyment than it takes away–that,
in fact, it gives him the truest happiness!

The way to win a worldly person to true religion is not
to go and partake of his amusements; but to prove to
him, that we are happier with our pleasures–than he
is with his; that we bask in full sunshine–while he has
only a smoking candle; that we have found the “river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the
throne of God and the Lamb”–while he is drinking of
the muddy streams which issue from the earth!

“Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.
You have filled my heart with greater joy than
when their grain and new wine abound!” Ps. 4:6-7

After all, it is freely admitted–
1. That true religion is not hostile to anything
which is not hostile to it.
2. That many things which are not strictly pious,
though not opposed to piety–may be lawfully
enjoyed by the Christian.
3. That what he has to do in this matter is not to
practice total abstinence–but “moderation”.
4. Yet the Christian should remember how elastic
a term “moderation” is, and to be vigilant lest his
moderation should continually increase its latitude,
until it has swelled into the imperial tyranny of an
appetite which acknowledges no authority–and
submits to no restraint!

J. A. James, “The Young Man Leaving Home” 1844

True religion is . . .
personal,
experimental,
practical.

It is a thing of the heart—and not merely
external religious forms.

True religion is a living principle in the soul . . .
influencing the mind,
alluring the affections,
guiding the will,
directing and enlightening the conscience.

True religion is a supreme—not a subordinate matter.
It demands and obtains the throne of the soul. It guides
the whole character—and requires the whole man and all
his conduct to be in subordination.

True religion is not an occasional thing—but habitual.
It takes up its abode in the heart—and not merely
visits it at certain times and at particular seasons.

True religion is not a partial thing—but universal.
It does not confine itself to certain times, places,
and occasions—but forms an integral part of the
character—and blends with everything we do.

True religion is noble and lofty—not an abject,
servile, and groveling thing. It communes . . .
with God,
with truth,
with holiness,
with heaven,
with eternity,
with infinity!

True religion is a happy—and not a melancholy thing.
It gives peace that passes understanding, and joy that
is unspeakable, and full of glory!

True religion is a durable—and not a transient thing. It . . .
passes with us through life,
lies down with us on the pillow of death,
rises with us at the last day, and
dwells in our souls in heaven as the very element of eternal life!

Such is true religion—the most sublime thing in the
world—sent down to be our comforter on earth—and our
guide to everlasting life through all this gloomy valley!

(John Angell James, “The Crisis–or, Hope and Fear
Balanced, in Reference to the Present Situation of
the Country” Sunday Morning, Nov. 28, 1819)

“From the day it was built until now, this city has so
aroused My anger and wrath that I must remove it
from My sight!” Jeremiah 32:31

Let us devoutly acknowledge both the source and
the justice of our calamities. The origin of the evils
that afflict us, is often to be found in the sins which
disgrace us.

Sin is the only thing in all the universe which God
hates, and this He abhors wherever He discovers it.

With our limited understanding, and feeble powers of
moral perception, it is impossible for us to form an
adequate idea of the evil of sin, or the light in which
it is contemplated by a God whose understanding
is infinite, and whose purity is immaculate. That law
which men are daily trampling upon, equally without
consideration, without reason, and without penitence,
is most sacred in His eyes, as the emanation and the
transcript of His own holiness. He is also omnipresent
and omniscient. There is not a nook or corner of the
land from which He is excluded. Of every scene of
iniquity He is the constant, though invisible witness.
The whole mass of national guilt, with every the
minutest particular of it, is ever before His eye!

His justice, which consists in giving to all their
due, must incline Him to punish iniquity–and His
power enables Him to do it!

He is the moral governor of the nations, and
concerned to render His providence subservient
to the display of His attributes. And if a people so
highly favored as we are, notwithstanding our
manifold sins, escape without chastisement–will
not some be ready to question the equity, if not
the very exercise of His administration?

His threatenings against the wicked are to be found
in almost every page of holy Scripture. Nor are the
threatenings of the Bible to be viewed in the light
of mere unreal terrors, as clouds and storms which
the poet’s pencil has introduced into the picture; the
creatures of his own imagination, and only intended
to excite the imagination of others.

No! They are solemn realities, intended to operate
by their denunciation as a check upon sin; or if not
so regarded, to be endured in their execution as a
punishment upon our sins! Scripture gives us many
examples in which this has happened. It has preserved
an account of the downfall of nearly all the chief empires,
kingdoms, and cities of antiquity; and that, not as a
mere chronicle of the event, but as a great moral
lesson to the world. Scripture carefully informs us,
that sin was the cause of their ruin!

Volcanoes terrify with their eruptions, and submerge
towns or cities beneath their streams of lava!

Earthquake’s convulsive throes bury a population
beneath the ruins of their own abodes!

Hurricanes carry desolation through a country!

Famine whitens the valleys with the bones of the
thousands who have perished beneath its reign!

Pestilence stalks through a land, hurrying
multitudes to the tomb, and filling all that
remain with unutterable terrors!

Wars have been agents in the unparalleled
scenes of bloodshed and misery!

Scripture proclaims that these are to be regarded
as a fearful exposition of the evil nature of
sin, written by the finger of God upon the tablet
of the earth’s history!

Visit, in imagination, my countrymen, the spots
where many of these cities once stood, and you
shall see nothing but desolation stalking like a
specter across the plain, lifting its eye to heaven,
and exclaiming, amidst the silence that reigns
around, “The kingdom and the nation that will
not serve You, shall utterly perish!” As you stand
amidst the moldering fragments of departed
grandeur, does not every breeze, as it sighs
through the ruins, seem to say, as a voice from
the sepulcher, “See, therefore, and know that it
is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against the Lord!”

Let us devoutly acknowledge both the source and
the justice of our calamities. The origin of the evils
that afflict us, is often to be found in the sins which
disgrace us.

“From the day it was built until now, this city has so
aroused My anger and wrath that I must remove it
from My sight!” Jeremiah 32:31