The Deadening Effect of Religious Make-Believe
 
    By A. W. Tozer
 
    Let. . .no man put a stumbling block or an
     occasion to fall in his brother's way.
                                             - - Romans 14:13
 
      The deadening effect of religious make-believe on
    the human mind is beyond all describing.
 
       What can the effect be upon the spectators who live
    day after day among the professed Christians who
    habitually ignore the commandments of Christ and live
    after their own private notions of Christianity?
 
       Truth sits forsaken and grieves until her professed
    followers come home for a brief visit, but she sees them
    depart again when the bills become due. They protest
    great and undying love for her but they will not let their
    love cost them anything!
 
       Will not those who watch us from day to day conclude
    that the whole thing is false?
 
       Will they not be forced to believe that the faith of
    Christ is an unreal and visionary thing which they are
    fully justified in rejecting?
 
       Certainly the non-Christian is not too much to be
    blamed if he turns disgustedly away from the invitation
    of the Gospel after he has been exposed for a while to
    the inconsistencies of those of his acquaintances who
    profess to follow Christ.
 
      In that great and terrible day when the deeds of men
    are searched into by the penetrating eyes of the Judge
    of all the earth what will we answer when we are
    charged with inconsistency and moral fraud?
 
     And at whose door will lie the blame for millions of
    lost men who while they lived on earth were sickened
    and revolted by the religious travesty they knew as
    Christianity?

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   Yours in Christ,
    Paul N. F.