CURRENT
CONDITIONS: SHALLOWNESS; SPIRITUAL DEPTH

Why do the majority of present day Christians prefer shallow religious fiction? Or uninspired Bible talks that never get beyond the “first principles”?…

First, present day evangelical Christianity is not producing saints. The whole concept of religious experience has shifted from the transcendental to the utilitarian. God is valued as being useful and Christ appreciated because of the predicaments He gets us out of. He can deliver us from the consequences of our past, relax our nerves, give us peace of mind and make our business a success. The all-consuming love that burns in the writings of an Augustine, a Bernard or a Rolle is foreign to the modern religious spirit.…

To come to our devotions straight from carnal or worldly interests is to make it impossible to relish the deep, sweet thoughts found in the great books we are discussing here. We must know their heart-language, must vibrate in harmony with them, must share their inward experiences or they will mean nothing to us. Because we are too often strangers to their spiritual mood, we are unable to profit by them and are forced to turn to one or another form of religious entertainment to make our Christianity palatable enough to endure.

Psalm 73:25; 1 Corinthians 2:12–16; Philippians 3:6–8; Hebrews 5:12–14

The Size of the Soul, 38, 39.