I. Their past religious experience was one of blessedness.
1. Blessedness is one of the earliest notes of religious life. Christ’s first miracle was at Cana: amongst His first words were the beatitudes. The earliest religious experience is that known as “first love.”
2. There is a danger of this being lost through the truth on which it is based losing its freshness. The vision of Christ crucified had faded, and the Galatians were now seeking perfection in another way than that by which they had attained blessedness.
3. Blessedness can only be maintained by the constant realization of Christ as Saviour.
II. Their present example is one of religious instability.
1. They were of a fickle and changeable temperament.
2. Religion had entered them chiefly through the emotions. They had not fairly grasped the doctrines of Christianity. Hence they became an easy prey to false teachers.
3. They regarded the teacher rather than the truth he taught.
4. Influences were at work calculated to draw them away from their faith.
(1) Learned teachers whom it was hard to refute.
(2) Gorgeous ceremonial for which they had a predilection.
(3) Old worldliness and heathenism so recently renounced.
III. The remedy.
1. Recognize the evil.
2. Return to Christ. (S. Pearson,M. A.)
A missing treasure
1. Nothing is easier than to show that blessedness is the privilege of every Christian.
2. But where is it in many an average Christian life?
3. If it be amissing, something must be wrong.
4. Its sole source is God, but it is dispensed at sundry places and by sundry channels.
I. The Cross of Christ. By this
(1) a curse is removed;
(2) a blessing conferred.
II. The throne of grace.
1. A reconciled God
2. A sympathetic High Priest.
III. The wells of salvation.
1. The Bible.
2. The Lord’s Supper.
IV. The ways of Christian good-doing (Act_20:35).
V. Mount Pisgah, with its views of the promised land. When all is gloomy elsewhere, all is bright there (Joh_14:1-3; Rom_8:18-21; Heb_12:22-24; Rev_22:1-5). In conclusion, where is this blessedness?
1. How strange not to have it!
2. Stranger still to have had it and lost it. (Norman Macleod,D. D.)
Happiness and duty
I. To make happiness the chief end of life is a mistake as well as a sin, for it must meet with failure.
II. The end of our being is holiness: and when this is attained, happiness is the certain result.
III. The blessedness of religion is the outward and visible sign of the inward and invisible grace, just as good health is a token that our physical employments are conducive to our well being,
1. Those forms of religion which induce melancholy bear no stamp of Divine origin.
2. Man’s greatest miseries have been produced by such a religion.
3. Happiness shows the worth of true religion, for “the fruit of the Spirit is joy.” (S. Pearson,M. A.)
Blessedness
is not the foundation or warrant of Christian life, but its crown and glory, like the tuft of green that adorns the palm tree: like the rich capital that wreathes the Corinthian column; like the crown that sparkles on the brow of a king. Without it the Christian is like a king without a crown, a column without a capital, a palm tree with a headless stem, (N.Macleod,D. D.)
Mere feeling: its worthlessness
Feeling, even when directed to heavenly objects, may be in its substance partly physical; and there is no necessary connection between feeling so originating and moral earnestness or right morality. Nay, it is very possible for those who feel warmly to imagine, mistakenly enough, that warm feeling is the same thing as, or an adequate substitute for, acting rightly. He who said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” implied that there are forms of religious passion which may co-exist with disobedience, and may even appear to compensate for it. The Galatians had not been less willing to “pluck out their own eyes” out of devotion to St. Paul, at thetime of their conversion, because they afterwards looked on him as a personal enemy for telling them the truth about the Judaizers. The apostle was not insincere who protested, “Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee;” albeit a few hours later, at the crisis of danger, he could exclaim, “I know not the man.” Feeling is not necessarily moral purpose; and its possible deficiencies show that we cannot regard it as alone forming the material of Christian life. (CanonLiddon.)
Feeling: its place and power in religion
Feeling is of as much use in religion as steam is in an engine--if it drives the engine it is good; but if it does not it is no good for anything but to fizz and hiss and buzz. (J. Parker,D. D.)
Lost blessedness
At the Governor’s banquet in California State, where wine was flowing freely, one of the speakers, while making an excited speech, said: “If there is any one present who was ever happier in his life than he is here to-night, I call upon him at once to arise and say so.” A young man sprang to his feet and said: “I was very much happier in one of Mr. Hammond’s meetings than I am here.” it produced a profound impression upon that gay audience.
The backslider’s misery
A number of persons were once relating their misfortunes to each other. One told of his whole substance entrusted to one vessel, having perished in the ocean; another of an only and beloved daughter recently ]aid in the grave; another of a son breaking loose from restraint, and plunging like the prodigal into the wickedness of a great city. It was agreed thatthese were sore afflictions, and it was wondered whether any could produce sorer. One who had hitherto been silent now spoke. “Yes,” said he, “I can tell of something sadder than all these, a believing heart has gone from me.” There followed deep silence at thess words, and when the little group spoke again it was agreed that the last was the heaviest sorrow; that there was no calamity like it. (British Messenger.)
