Wafer thin religion

The spirit of the world around us has blighted our appetite for communion with God and for the pursuit of inward holiness. Men crave ‘success’ in every walk of life. Progress is defined not in terms of character but of measurable and material growth. Even the moral outrages which are occurring with increasing frequency at every level of our society are incapable of proving to men that the true gold standard is not the dollar or the pound but the spiritual condition of the human heart. Experience teaches that the average Christian today, and the average church in which he is a member, is fashioned into conformity to the world far more than is realised. For every one book which is published on repentance and mortification there are a hundred which attempt to promote ‘church growth’ or else point the believer along the road to ‘success’. If the progress cannot be measured in quantitative terms it is judged unworthy of notice. As a direct consequence, the religion of the day is almost everywhere wafer thin and paper thin. Maturity is not to be found because it is not encouraged. Depths of soul or of mind are not met with because believers have no time left to cultivate the hidden man of the heart. Every spare minute must be devoted to rotating the treadmill of outward activity.

From Our Good Opinion of Ourselves by Maurice Roberts