Th fight against Mechanical Christianity..

Here’s an interesting quote from 1878 regarding the danger of falling into ‘artificial’ worship by becoming dependent on the mechanical nature of the church.

“There is in human nature a tendency to permit
religion itself to become mechanical :
priests, temples, sacraments, the performing
of services, organs, choirs, all go
towards the making up of a machine which
may do our worship for us, and leave us all
our time to think about bread and cheese
and the latest fashions. As cranks, pistons,
valves, and cylinders take the place of bone
and muscle on board ship, so millinery,
bellows and ritual take the place of
hearts and spirits in the place of worship.
Certain outward appliances may be well
enough in their place, but they too easily
become substitutes for real heart-work
and spiritual devotion, and then they are
mischievous to the last degree. The
preacher may use notes if he needs them,
but his manuscript may steal from him
that which is the very essence and soul of
preaching, and yet his elaborate paper and
his elegant reading may conceal from him
the nakedness of the land. Praise may be
rendered with musical instruments, if you
will ; but the danger is lest the grateful
adoration should evaporate, and nothing
should remain but the sweet sounds. The
organ can do no more than help us in
noise – making, and it is a mere idol,
if we imagine that it increases the
acceptance of our praises before the Lord.”

Charles Spurgeon (1878)