John 18:28-32 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall… I. COMMON. How many religionists are afraid to enter certain places lest they should receive a taint! Papists stand aloof from all Protestant scenes of worship; Protestants from Catholics; Anglicans from Nonconformists; Dissenters from Episcopal. Who are these men of spurious sanctity? Are they lawyers who never take advantage of their clients; merchants who never practise dishonesty on their customers; doctors who never impose on their patients; servants who never cheat their masters; aristocrats who are never haughty and licentious? I trow not. The chances are that they belong to those classes. For no order had Christ a profounder contempt, "Woe unto you," &c. II. IRRATIONAL. It is founded on an absurd idea of — 1. Localities — it presupposes that some places are more holy than others. Is St. Peter's holier than St. Paul's? or St. Paul's than any other sanctuary? Nay, every spot is "holy ground" since God made it, and is prisent with it. True, the purpose for which a certain place has bee set apart may be good or bad, but the place is the same. 2. Human obligation. It supposes that a man is bound to be more holy in one place or time than in another, more holy in church, and on the Sabbath, than elsewhere on any other day — a preposterous fiction. Man, though of complex elements, is but one being and moral in all. "Whatever he does" is bound to be to "the glory of God." 3. Mind. It supposes that the mind is some passive substance that can be defiled by some outward element or agent irrespective of its own choice and effort — a piece of stone you can daub or wash. But it is not so. Nothing outward can effect the mind independently of itself. It can make itself filthy in scenes and services supposed to be the most holy; it can keep itself pure in places the most vile. The body when in a healthy state can appropriate everything that is necessary from nature and to expel what is pernicious. The soul has a power analogous to this. Let us use it as Noah did, who amidst a foul generation "walked with God," and fulfilled a noble destiny; as Paul used it at sceptical Athens or dissolute Corinth, and who proved that "all things work together for good," &c. III. PERNICIOUS. 1. It is a positive injury to its subject. The religionist who moves about the world with the dread of having his soul defiled, is like a man who enters a sick room afraid of inbreathing disease. He is nervous, and loses his brightness and buoyancy. The spurious saint lacks naturalness and elasticity of soul. Afraid of being defiled, he shuns the scenes of innocent recreation, and trembles all over in the presence of schismatics and heretics. 2. It is a calumny on true religion. The religion of Christ is happiness, and these spurious saints are the greatest obstructions to the progress of Christianity. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. |
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