Gold Nugget 141 - Sad Facts

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      Some men are found who condemn all worship as superstition, all earnestness as fanaticism, all piety as hypocrisy; the same men speak of atheism under the euphemism of free-thought; with them godlessness is emancipation from spiritual bondage! …

      There are those who call clemency weakness, and oppression vigour; who denounce considerateness as mawkish sentimentality, and honour a brutal selfishness as cleverness and spiritedness; who sneer at conscientiousness as being “priggish,” and talk of roguery as if it reflected honour on its agents. …

      There are too many, especially among the young, who consider dissipation to be another thing for “life,” and who decry purity and self-restraint as dullness and poverty of spirit; they have honourable terms for the vilest and foulest sins, and terms of discredit for the cause of virtue and self-respect.  This is everything misnamed, and not only misnamed but mistaken.  These words are more than mere labels; they represent the thought which is beneath; they stand for false conceptions.

      All things, human and Divine, are seen in false lights, are regarded as other than they are , indeed as the very opposites of what they are; the evil and shameful thing is positively admired as well as praised; the holy and the beautiful thing is actually hated as well as cursed!  These are the sad facts which are before our eyes.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Isaiah p.96, Isaiah 1:20, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 141

Sad Facts