Romans 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias said, Lord, who has believed our report? The grossest form of indifference is cynicism. When one hears certain men talk of Christ and His religion with a half-patronising tone, or reads their writings in which His character and works are subjected to a criticism that is simply insolent, one is appalled by such flagrant indecency. This is an indifference that is not common, however, but yet its infection may quickly spread if ever the poison of a profane irreverence has prepared any section of society for its reception. The indifference that is fashionable is formalist. There are thousands to whom religion is merely the adaptation of a certain conventional habit of respectable observance. They are Christians because they live in Christendom; Protestants because they live in England; Church people because their parents were so. In church there is an indifference about the service, the prayers, the sermon. It is a ceremony performed, not for God's glory, but for custom's sake, as "the right thing to do," not because it is a privilege and a joy. And from one Sunday to the next, unless there is a custom of family prayers, the question of religion simply never once strikes them as forming any part of every-day life. The service, the preacher, the doctrine, the style, may be occasionally discussed in intervals between other topics of the day — politics, amusements, the weather — but that is all. About the things of Christ and of God there is the most supreme indifference. Across the smooth surface of that mental and spiritual unconcern not a ripple is ever stirred by any breath of life from above, or any blast of terror from beneath. (R. F. L. Blunt.) Parallel Verses KJV: But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?WEB: But they didn't all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" |
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