Practical Religion: A Daily Life of the Christian Faith (Grapevine Press)

by J.C. Ryle

Look at the history of Israel from the beginning of Exodus to the end of the Acts of the Apostles, and see what has always found favor. Formalism was one main sin against which the Old Testament prophets were continually protesting. Formalism was the great plague which had overcome the Jews, when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Look at the history of the Church of Christ after the days of the apostles. How soon formalism ate out the life and vitality of the primitive Christians! Look at the middle ages, as they are called. Formalism so completely covered the face of Christendom that the Gospel laid there as one does when they are dead. Look, lastly, at the history of Protestant Churches in the last three centuries. How few are the places where religion is a living thing! How many are the countries where Protestantism is nothing more than a form! There is no getting past these things. They speak with a voice of thunder. They all show that formal religion is a popular thing. It has the praise of man.