Warning #5 to the Church All Kinds of Strange Teachings

                                  Preface

For more than a century, J. C. Ryle was the leader of the evangelical 

party in the Church of England.  His policy was to encourage the 

conservative men to remain in the church rather than to abandon ship and 

leave the liberals to pursue their program unhindered. 

J. C. Ryle is best known for his plain and lively writings on practical 

and spiritual themes.  His great aim in all his ministry, was to 

encourage strong and serious Christian living.  But Ryle was not naive in 

his understanding of how this should be done.  He recognized that, as a 

pastor of the flock of God, he had a responsibility to guard Christ's 

sheep and to warn them whenever he saw approaching dangers.  His 

penetrating comments are as wise and relevant today as they were when he 

first wrote them.  His sermons and other writings have been consistently 

recognized, and their usefulness and impact have continued to the present 

day, even in the outdated English of the author's own day.  

 

Why then should expositions already so successful and of such stature and 

proven usefulness require adaptation, revision, rewrite or even editing?

The answer is obvious.  To increase its usefulness to today's reader, the 

language in which it was originally written needs updating.

Though his sermons have served other generations well, just as they came 

from the pen of the author in the nineteenth century, they still could be 

lost to present and future generations, simply because, to them, the 

language is neither readily nor fully understandable.

My goal, however, has not been to reduce the original writing to the 

vernacular of our day.  It is designed primarily for you who desire to 

read and study comfortably and at ease in the language of our time.  Only 

obviously archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not 

totally familiar in our day have been revised.  However, neither Ryle's 

meaning nor intent have been tampered with.

                                                  Tony Capoccia

All Scripture references are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL 

VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of 

Zondervan Bible Publishers.  

                        Warning #5 to the Church

                     All Kinds of Strange Teachings

                                   by

                               J. C. Ryle

                               (1816-1900)

       "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. 

         It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, 

         not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those 

                      who eat them" (Hebrews 13:9)

The text which heads this paper is an apostolic caution against false 

doctrine.  It forms part of a warning which Paul addressed to Hebrew 

Christians.  It is a caution just as much needed now as it was eighteen 

hundred years ago.  Never, I think, was it so important for Christian 

ministers to cry aloud continually, "Do not be carried away."

That old enemy of mankind, the devil, has no more subtle instrument for 

ruining souls than that of spreading false doctrine.  "A murderer and a 

liar from the beginning. . . .your enemy the devil prowls around like a 

roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  Outside the Church he is 

ever persuading men to maintain outrageous customs and destructive 

superstitions.  Human sacrifice to idols, gross revolting, cruel, 

disgusting worship of abominable false deities, persecution, slavery, 

cannibalism, child murder, devastating religious wars--all these are a 

part of Satan's handiwork, and the fruit of his suggestions.  Like a 

pirate, his object is to "sink, burn, and destroy."  Inside the Church he 

is ever laboring to sow heresies, to propagate errors, to foster 

departures from the faith.  If he cannot prevent the waters flowing from 

the Fountain of Life, he tries hard to poison them.  If he cannot destroy 

the remedy of the Gospel, he strives to adulterate and corrupt it.  No 

wonder that he is called "Apollyon, the destroyer."

The Divine Comforter of the Church, the Holy Spirit, has always employed 

one great agent to oppose Satan's plans.  That agent is the Word of God.  

The Word expounded and unfolded, the Word explained and opened up, the 

Word made clear to the head and applied to the heart.  The Word is the 

chosen weapon by which the devil must be confronted and confounded.  The 

Word was the sword which the Lord Jesus wielded in the temptation.  To 

every assault of the Tempter, He replied, "It is written."  The Word is 

the sword which His ministers must use in the present day, if they would 

successfully resist the devil.  The Bible, faithfully and freely 

expounded, is the safeguard of Christ's Church.

I desire to remember this lesson, and to invite attention to the text 

which stands at the head of this paper.  We live in an age when men 

profess to dislike dogmas and creeds, and are filled with a morbid 

dislike to controversial theology.  He who dares to say of one doctrine 

that "it is true," and of another that "it is false," must expect to be 

called narrow-minded and uncharitable, and to lose the praise of men.  

Nevertheless, the Scripture was not written in vain.  Let us examine the 

mighty lessons contained in Paul's words to the Hebrews.  They are 

lessons for us as well as for them.

I. First, we have here a broad warning: "Do not be carried away by all 

kinds of strange teachings."

II. Secondly, we have here a valuable prescription: "It is good for our 

hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods."

III. Lastly, we have here an instructive fact: "Ceremonial foods are of 

no value to those who eat them."

On each of these points I have something to say.  If we patiently plow up 

this field of truth, we shall find that there is precious treasure hidden 

in it.

1. First comes the broad warning.  "Do not be not carried away by all 

kinds of strange teachings."

The meaning of these words is not a hard thing to understand.  "Be not 

tossed back and forth," the Apostle seems to say, "by every blast of 

false teaching, like ships without compass or rudder.  False doctrines 

will arise as long as the world lasts, in many numbers, with varying 

minor details, in one point alone always the same--strange, new, foreign, 

and departing from the Gospel of Christ.  They do exist now.  They will 

always be found within the visible Church.  Remember this, and do not be 

carried away."  Such is Paul's warning.

The Apostle's warning does not stand alone.  Even in the midst of the 

Sermon on the Mount there fell from the loving lips of our Savior a 

solemn caution: "Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in 

sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves" (Matthew 7:15).  

Even in Paul's last address to the Ephesian elders, he finds time to warn 

his friends against false doctrine: "Even from your own number men will 

arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them" 

(Acts 20:30).  

Note what the Second Epistle to the Corinthians says: "I am afraid that 

just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow 

be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ" 

(2 Corinthians 11:3).  Note what the Epistle to the Galatians says: "I am 

astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by 

the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."  "Who has 

bewitched you?"  "After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to 

attain your goal by human effort?"  "How is it that you are turning back 

to those weak and miserable principles?"  "You are observing special days 

and months and seasons and years!"  "I fear for you."  "Stand firm, then, 

and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." 

(Galatians 1:6; 3:1, 3; 4:9, 10, 11; 5:1).   

Note what the Epistle to the Ephesians says: "No longer be infants, 

tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every 

wind of teaching" (Ephesians 4:14).  Note what the Epistle to the 

Colossians says: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow 

and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic 

principles of this world rather than on Christ" (Colossians 2:8).  Note 

what the First Epistle to Timothy says: "The Spirit clearly says that in 

later times some will abandon the faith" (1 Timothy 4:1).  Note what the 

Second Epistle of Peter says: "There will be false teachers among you. 

They will secretly introduce destructive heresies" (2 Peter 2:1).  Note 

what the First Epistle of John says: "Do not believe every spirit.  Many 

false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).  Note what the 

Epistle of Jude says: "Contend for the faith that was once for all 

entrusted to the saints.  For certain men have secretly slipped in among 

you" (Jude 1:3, 4).  These things were written for our learning.

What shall we say about these texts?  How they may strike others I cannot 

say.  I only know how they strike me.  To tell us, as some do, in the 

face of these texts, that the early Churches were a model of perfection 

and purity, is absurd even in Apostolic days, its appears, there were 

abundant errors both in doctrine and practice.  To tell us, as others do, 

that pastors ought never to handle controversial subjects, and never to 

warn their people against erroneous views, is senseless and unreasonable.  

If we did this then we would have to ignore most of the New Testament.  

Surely the dumb dog and the sleeping shepherd are the best allies of the 

wolf, the thief, and the robber.  It is not for nothing that Paul says, 

"If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good 

minister of Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 4:6).

A plain warning against false doctrine is especially needed in the 

present day.  The school of the Pharisees, and the school of the 

Sadducees, those ancient mothers of all mischief, were never more active 

than they are now.  

--Between men adding to the truth on one side, and men taking away from 

it on the other.  

--Between those who bury truth under additions, and those who mutilate it 

by subtractions. 

--Between superstition and infidelity. 

--Between Roman Catholicism and neology [New Theology].

--Between Ritualism and Rationalism.

Between these upper and lower millstones the Gospel is near being crushed 

to death!  Strange views are continually propounded by pastors about 

subjects of the deepest importance.  About the atonement, the divinity of 

Christ, the inspiration of the Bible, the reality of miracles, the 

eternity of future punishment, about the Church, the ministerial office, 

the Lord's Supper, Baptism, the confessional, the honor due to the 

Virgin, prayers for the dead.  About all these things there is nothing 

too outrageous to be taught by some ministers in these latter days.  By 

the pen and by the tongue, by the press and by the pulpit, the country is 

incessantly deluged with a flood of erroneous opinions.  To ignore the 

fact is mere blindness.  Others see it, even if we pretend to be ignorant 

of it.  The danger is real, great, and unmistakable.  Never was it so 

needful to say, "Do not be carried away."

Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine 

peculiarly dangerous.  There is an undeniable zeal in some of the 

teachers of error: their "earnestness" makes many think they must be 

right.  There is a great appearance of learning and theological 

knowledge: many fancy that such clever and intellectual men must surely 

be safe guides.  There is a general tendency to free thought and free 

inquiry in these latter days: many like to prove their independence of 

judgment, by believing novelties.  There is a wide-spread desire to 

appear charitable and liberal-minded: many seem half ashamed of saying 

that anybody can be in the wrong.  There is a quantity of half-truth 

taught by the modern false teachers: they are incessantly using 

Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense.  There is a morbid 

craving in the public mind for a more sensuous, ceremonial, sensational, 

showy worship: men are impatient of inward, invisible heart-work.  There 

is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks 

cleverly, lovingly, and earnestly, and a determination to forget that 

Satan often masquerades himself "as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 

11:14).  There is a wide-spread "gullibility" among professing 

Christians: every heretic who tells his story plausibly is sure to be 

believed, and everybody who doubts him is called a persecutor and a 

narrow-minded man.  All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times.  

I defy any observing person to deny them.  They tend to make the assaults 

of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous.  They make it more 

than ever needful to cry aloud, "Do not be carried away!"

If any one should ask me, What is the best safeguard against false 

doctrine?--I answer in one word, "The Bible: the Bible regularly read, 

regularly prayed over, regularly studied."  We must go back to the old 

prescription of our Master: "Diligently study the Scriptures" (John 

5:39).  If we want a weapon to wield against the plans of Satan, there is 

nothing like "the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God."  But to wield it 

successfully, we must read it habitually, diligently, intelligently, and 

prayerfully.  This is a point on which, I fear, many fail.  In an age of 

hurry and activity, few read their Bibles as much as they should.  More 

books perhaps are read than ever, but less of the one Book which makes 

man wise to salvation.  The Roman Catholic Church and new theology could 

never have made such havoc in the Church in the last fifty years, if 

there had not been a most superficial knowledge of the Scriptures 

throughout the land.  A Bible-reading congregation is the strength of a 

Church.

"Diligently study the Scriptures."  Mark how the Lord Jesus Christ and 

His Apostles continually refer to the Old Testament, as a document just 

as authoritative as the New.  Mark how they quote texts from the Old 

Testament, as the voice of God, as if every word was given by 

inspiration.  Mark how the greatest miracles in the Old Testament are all 

referred to in the New, as unquestioned and unquestionable facts.  Mark 

how all the leading events in the Pentateuch are incessantly named as 

historical events, whose reality admits of no dispute.  Mark how the 

atonement, and substitution, and sacrifice, run through the whole Bible 

from first to last, as essential doctrines of revelation.  Mark how the 

resurrection of Christ, the greatest of all miracles, is proved by such 

an overwhelming mass of evidence, that he who disbelieves it may as well 

say he will believe no evidence at all.  Mark all these things, and you 

will find it very hard to be a Rationalist!  Great are the difficulties 

of unbelief: it requires more faith to be an unbeliever than a Christian.  

But greater still are the difficulties of Rationalism.  Free handling of 

Scripture--results of modern criticism--broad and liberal theology--all 

these are fine, swelling, high-sounding phrases, which please some minds, 

and look very grand at a distance.  But the man who looks below the 

surface of things will soon find that there is no sure standing-ground 

between ultra-Rationalism and Atheism.

"Diligently study the Scriptures."  Mark what a conspicuous absence there 

is in the New Testament of what may be called the Sacramental system, and 

the whole circle of Ritualistic theology.  Mark how extremely little 

there is said about the effects of Baptism.  Mark how very seldom the 

Lord's Supper is mentioned in the Epistles.  Find, if you can, a single 

text in which New Testament ministers are called sacrificing priests, or 

the Lord's Supper is called a sacrifice, or private confession to 

ministers is recommended and practiced.  Turn, if you can, to one single 

verse in which sacrificial vestments are named as desirable, or in which 

lighted candles, and pots of flowers on the Lord's Table, or processions, 

and incense, and flags, and banners, and turning to the east, and bowing 

down to the bread and wine, or prayer to the Virgin Mary and the angels, 

are sanctioned.  Mark these things well, and you will find it very hard 

to be a Ritualist!  You may find your authority for Ritualism in garbled 

quotations from the Fathers, in long extracts from monkish, mystical, or 

from Popes; but you certainly will not find it in the Bible.  Between the 

plain Bible, honestly and fairly interpreted, and extreme Ritualism there 

is gulf which cannot be passed.

"If we would not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings," we 

must remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: "Diligently study the 

Scriptures."  Ignorance of the Bible is the root of all error.  Knowledge 

of the Bible is the best antidote against modern heresies.

II. I now proceed to examine Paul's valuable prescription: "It is good 

for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods." 

There are two words in this prescription which require a little 

explanation.  A right understanding of them is absolutely essential to a 

proper use of the Apostle's advice.  One of these words is "foods," and 

the other is "grace."

To see the full force of the word "foods" we must remember the immense 

importance attached by many Jewish Christians to the distinctions of the 

ceremonial law about food.  The flesh of some animals and birds, 

according to Leviticus, might be eaten, and that of others might not be 

eaten.  Some foods were, consequently, called "clean," and others were 

called "unclean."  To eat certain kinds of flesh made a Jew ceremonially 

unholy before God, and no strict Jew would touch and eat such food on any 

account.  Now were these distinctions still to be kept up after Christ 

ascended into heaven, or were they done away by the Gospel?  Were heathen 

converts under any obligation to attend to the ceremonial of the 

Levitical law about food?  Were Jewish Christians obliged to be as strict 

about the foods they ate as they were before Christ died, and the veil of 

the temple was torn in two?  Was the ceremonial law about foods entirely 

done away, or was it not?  Was the conscience of a believer in the Lord 

Jesus to be troubled with fear lest his food should defile him?

Questions like these appear to have formed one of the great subjects of 

controversy in the Apostolic times.  As is often the case, they assumed a 

place entirely out of proportion to their real importance.  The Apostle 

Paul found it needful to handle the subject in no less than three of his 

Epistles to the Churches.  "Food," he says, "does not bring us near to 

God."  "The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking."  "Do 

not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink." (1 Corinthians 8:8; 

Romans 14:17; Colossians 2:16).  Nothing shows the fallen nature of man 

so clearly as the readiness of morbid and scrupulous consciences to turn 

trifles into serious things.  At last the controversy seems to have 

spread so far and obtained such dimensions, that "foods" became an 

expression to denote anything ceremonial added to the Gospel as a thing 

of primary importance, any Ritual trifle thrust out of its lawful place 

and magnified into an essential of religion.  In this sense, I believe, 

the word must be taken in the text now before us.  By "foods" Paul means 

ceremonial observances, either wholly invented by man, or else built on 

Mosaic precepts which have been abrogated and superseded by the Gospel.  

It is an expression which was well understood in the Apostolic days.

The word "grace," on the other hand, seems to be employed as a 

comprehensive description of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Of that 

glorious Gospel, grace is the main feature, grace in the original scheme, 

grace in the execution, grace in the application to man's soul.  Grace is 

the fountain of life from which our salvation flows.  Grace is the agency 

through which our spiritual life is kept up.  

Are we justified?        It is by grace.  

Are we called?           It is by grace.  

Have we forgiveness?     It is through the riches of grace.  

Have we good hope?       It is through grace. 

Do we believe?           It is through grace. 

Are we elect?            It is by the election of grace. 

Are we saved?            It is by grace. 

Why should I say more?  The time would fail me to exhibit fully the part 

that grace does in the whole work of redemption.  No wonder that Paul 

says to the Romans, "We are not under the law, but under grace;" and 

tells Titus, "The grace of God that brings salvation has 

appeared to all men." (Romans 3:24; Galatians 1:15; Ephesians 1:7; 

2Thessalonians 2:16; Acts 18:27; Romans 1:15; Ephesians 2:5; Romans 6:15; 

Titus 2:11).

Such are the two great principles which Paul puts in strong contrast 

in the prescription we are now considering.  He places opposite to one 

another "foods" and "grace" --Ceremonialism and the Gospel--Ritualism and 

the free love of God in Christ Jesus.  And then he lays down the great 

principle that it is by "grace," and "not foods," that the heart is 

strengthened.

Now "strengthening of the heart" is one of the great wants of many 

professing Christians.  Especially is it longed after by those whose 

knowledge is imperfect, and whose conscience is half enlightened.  Such 

persons often feel in themselves much indwelling sin, and at the same 

time see very indistinctly God's remedy and Christ's fullness.  Their 

faith is feeble, their hope dim, and their consolations small.  They want 

to realize more tangible comfort.  They fancy they ought to feel more and 

see more.  They are not at ease.  They cannot attain to joy and peace in 

believing.  Where shall they turn?  What shall set their consciences at 

rest?  Then comes the enemy of souls, and suggests some shortcut road to 

establishment.  He hints at the value of some addition to the simple plan 

of the Gospel, some man-made gimmick, some exaggeration of a truth, some 

flesh-satisfying invention, some improvement on the old path, and 

whispers, "Only use this, and you shall be strengthened."  Plausible 

offers flow in at the same time from every quarter, like quack medicines.  

Each has its own patrons and advocates.  On every side the poor unstable 

soul hears invitations to move in some particular direction, and then 

shall come perfect strength.

"Come to us," says the Roman Catholic.  "Join the Catholic Church, the 

Church on the Rock, the one, true, holy Church; the Church that cannot 

err.  Come to her bosom, and rest your soul in her protection.  Come to 

us, and you will find strength."

"Come to us," says the extreme Ritualist.  "You need higher and fuller 

views of the priesthood and the Sacraments, of the Real Presence in the 

Lord's Supper, of the soothing influence of daily service, daily masses, 

confession to priests, and priestly absolution.  Come and take up sound 

Church views, and you will find strength."

"Come to us," says the violent Liberationist.  "Cast off the traditions 

and rules of established Churches.  Enjoy religious liberty.  Throw away 

forms and Prayer-books.  Join our party.  Cast in your lot with us, and 

you will soon

be strengthened."

"Come to us," say the Plymouth Brethren.  "Shake off all the bondage of 

creeds and Churches and systems.  We will soon show you higher, deeper, 

more exalting, more enlightened views of truth.  Join the brethren, and 

you will soon be strengthened."

"Come to us," says the Rationalist.  "Lay aside the old worn-out clothes 

of unfruitful schemes of Christianity.  Give your reason free scope and 

play.  Begin a freer mode of handling Scripture.  Be no more a slave to 

an ancient old world book.  Break your chains and you shall be 

strengthened."

Every experienced Christian knows well that such appeals are constantly 

made to unsettled minds in the present day?  Who has not seen that, when 

boldly and confidently made, they produce a painful effect on some 

people?  Who has not observed that they often beguile unstable souls, and 

lead them into misery for years?

"What does the Scripture say?"  This is the only sure guide.  Hear what 

Paul says.  Heart strength is not to be obtained by joining this party or 

that.  It comes "by grace, and not by foods."  Other things have a "show 

of wisdom" perhaps, and give a temporary satisfaction "to the flesh." 

(Colossians 2:23).  But they have no healing power about them in reality, 

and leave the unhappy man who trusts them nothing bettered, but rather 

worse.

A clearer knowledge of the Divine scheme of grace, its eternal purposes, 

its application to man by Christ's redeeming work, a firmer grasp of the 

doctrine of grace, of God's free love in Christ, of Christ's full and 

complete satisfaction for sin, of justification by simple faith, a more 

intimate acquaintance with Christ the Giver and Fountain of grace, His 

offices, His sympathy, His power, a more thorough experience of the 

inward work of grace in the heart, this, this, this is the grand secret 

of heart strength.  This is the old path of peace.  This is the true 

panacea for restless consciences.  It may seem at first too simple, too 

easy, too cheap, too commonplace, too plain.  But all the wisdom of man 

will never show the heavy-laden a better road to heart-rest.  Secret 

pride and self-righteousness, I fear, are too often the reason why this 

good old road is not used.

I believe there never was a time when it was more needful to uphold the 

old Apostolic prescription than it is in the present day.  Never were 

there so many weak and worried Christians wandering about, and tossed to 

and fro, from want of knowledge.  Never was it so important for faithful 

ministers to set the trumpet to their mouths and proclaim everywhere, 

"Grace, grace, grace, not foods, establishes the heart."

From the days of the Apostles there have never been a lack of quack 

spiritual doctors, who have professed to heal the wounds of conscience 

with man-made remedies.  In our own beloved Church there have always been 

some who have in heart turned back to Egypt, and, not content with the 

simplicity of our worship, have hankered after the ceremonial fleshpots 

of the Catholic Church of Rome.  To hear the Sacraments incessantly 

exalted, and preaching played down, to see the Lord's Supper turned into 

an idol under the pretext of making it more honorable, to find plain 

worship overlaid with so many newfangled ornaments and ceremonies that 

its essentials are quite buried, how common is all this!  These things 

were once a pestilence that walked in darkness.  They are now a 

destruction that wastes in noonday.  They are the joy of our enemies, the 

sorrow of the Church's best children, the damage of English Christianity, 

the plague of our times.  And to what may they all be traced?  The 

neglect and the forgetfulness of Paul's simple prescription: "Grace, and 

not foods, strengthens the heart."

Let us take heed that in our own personal religion, grace is all.  Let us 

have clear systematic views of the Gospel of the grace of God.  Nothing 

else will do good in the hour of sickness, in the day of trial, on the 

bed of death, and in the swellings of Jordan.  Christ dwelling in our 

hearts by faith, Christ's free grace the only foundation under the soles 

of our feet--this alone will give peace.  Once let in self, and forms, 

and man's inventions, as a necessary part of our religion, and we are on 

a quicksand.  We may be amused, excited, or kept quiet for a time, like 

children with toys, by a religion of "foods."  Such a religion has "a 

show of wisdom."  But unless our religion be one in which "grace" is all, 

we shall never feel strengthened.

III. In the last place, I proceed to examine the instructive fact which 

Paul records.  He says, "Ceremonial foods are of no value to those who 

eat them."

We have no means of knowing whether the Apostle, in using this language, 

referred to any particular Churches or individuals.  Of course it is 

possible that he had in view the Judaizing Christians of Antioch and 

Galatia, or the Ephesians of whom he speaks to Timothy in his pastoral 

Epistle, or the Colossians who caused him so much inward conflict, or the 

Hebrew believers in every Church, without exception.  It seems to me far 

more probable, however, that he had no particular Church or Churches in 

view.  I rather think that he makes a broad, general, sweeping statement 

about all who in any place had exalted ceremonial at the expense of the 

doctrines of "grace."  And he makes a wide declaration about them all.  

They have got no good from their favorite notions.  They have not been 

more inwardly happy, more outwardly holy, or more generally useful.  

Their religion has been most unprofitable to them.  Man-made alterations 

of God's precious medicine for sinners, man-made additions to Christ's 

glorious Gospel, however superficially defended and plausibly supported, 

do no real good to those that adopt them.  They confer no increased 

inward comfort; they bring no growth of real holiness: they give no 

enlarged usefulness to the Church and the world.  Calmly, quietly, and 

mildly, but firmly, decidedly, and unflinchingly, the assertion is made, 

"Ceremonial foods are of no value to those who eat them."

The whole stream of Church history abundantly confirms the truth of the 

Apostle's position.  Who has not heard of the hermits and ascetics of the 

early centuries?  Who has not heard of the monks and nuns and recluses of 

the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages?  Who has not heard of the 

burning zeal, the devoted self-denial of Romanists like Xavier, and 

Ignatius Loyola?  The earnestness, the fervor, the self-sacrifice of all 

these classes, are matters beyond dispute.  But none who read carefully 

and intelligently the records of their lives, yes, some of the best of 

them, can fail to see that they had no solid peace or inward rest of 

soul.  Their very feverish restlessness is enough to show that their 

conscience; were not at ease.  None can fail to see that, with all their 

furious zeal and self-denial, they never did much good to the world.  

They gathered round themselves admiring partisans.  They left a high 

reputation for self-denial and sincerity.  They made men wonder at them 

while they lived, and sometimes canonize them when they died.  But they 

did nothing to convert souls.  And what is the reason of this?  They 

attached an overweening importance to man-made ritual and ceremonial, and 

made less than they ought to have done of the Gospel of the grace of God.  

Their principle was to make much of "ceremony," and little of "grace."  

Hence they verified the words of Paul, "Ceremonial foods are of no value 

to those who eat them."

               

The very history of our own times bears a striking testimony to the truth 

of Paul's assertion.  In the last twenty-five years some scores of 

clergymen have seceded from the Church of England, and joined the Church 

of Rome.  They wanted more of what they called Catholic doctrine and 

Catholic ceremonial.  They honestly acted up to their principles, and 

went over to Rome.  They were not all weak, and illiterate, and second-

rate, and inferior men; several of them were men of commanding talents, 

whose gifts would have won for them a high position in any profession.  

Yet what have they gained by the step they have taken?  What profit have 

they found in leaving "grace" for "ceremonies," in exchanging 

Protestantism for Catholicism?  Have they attained a higher standard of 

holiness?  Have they procured for themselves a greater degree of 

usefulness?  Let one of themselves supply an answer.  Mr. Ffoulkes, a 

leading man in the party, within the last few years has openly declared 

that the preaching of some of his fellow "Perverts" is not so powerful as 

it was when they were English Churchmen, and that the highest degree of 

holy living he has ever seen is not within the pale of Rome, but in the 

quiet parsonages and unpretending family-life of godly English clergymen! 

Intentionally or not intentionally, wittingly or unwittingly, meaning it 

or not meaning it, nothing can be more striking than the testimony Mr. 

Ffoulkes bears to the truth of the Apostle's assertion: "Ceremonial foods 

do not profit" even those who make much ado about them.  The religious 

system which exalts ceremonial and man-made ritual does no real good to 

its adherents, compared to the simple old Gospel of the grace of God.

Let us turn now, for a few moments, to the other side of the picture, and 

see what "grace" has done.  Let us hear how profitable the doctrines of 

the Gospel have proved to those who have clung firmly to them, and have 

not tried to mend and improve and patch them up by adding, as essentials, 

the "foods" of man-made ceremonies.

It was "grace, and not foods," that made Martin Luther do the work that 

he did in the world.  The key to all his success was his constant 

declaration of justification by faith, without the deeds of the law.  

This was the truth which enabled him to break the chains of Rome, and let 

light into Europe.

It was "grace, and not ceremonial foods," that made our English martyrs, 

Latimer and Hooper, exercise so mighty an influence in life, and shine so 

brightly in death.  They saw clearly, and taught plainly, the true 

priesthood of Christ, and salvation only by grace.  They honored God's 

grace, and God put honor on them.

It was "grace, and not ceremonial foods," that made Romaine and Venn, and 

their companions, turn the world upside down in England, one hundred 

years ago.  In themselves they were not men of extraordinary learning or 

intellectual power.  But they revived and brought out again the real pure 

doctrines of grace.

It was "grace, and not ceremonial foods," that made Simeon and Daniel 

Wilson and Bickersteth such striking instruments of usefulness in the 

first half of the present century.  God's free grace was the great truth 

on which they relied, and continually brought forward.  For so doing God 

put honor on them.  They made much of God's grace, and the God of grace 

made much of them.

The list of ministerial biographies tells a striking tale.  Who are those 

who have shaken the world, and left their mark on their generation, and 

aroused consciences, and converted sinners, and edified saints?  Not 

those who have made asceticism, and ceremonials, and sacraments, and 

services, and ordinances the main thing; but those who have made most of 

God's free grace!  In a day of strife, and controversy, and doubt, and 

perplexity, men forget this.  Facts are stubborn things.  Let us look 

calmly at them, and be not moved by those who tell us that daily 

services, processions, incense, bowings, crossings, confessions, 

absolutions, and the like, are the secret of a prosperous Christianity.  

Let us look at plain facts.  Facts in old history, and facts in modern 

days, facts in every part of England, support the assertion of Paul.  The 

religion of "ceremonial foods" does "not profit those that are occupied 

therein."  It is the religion of grace that brings inward peace, outward 

holiness, and general usefulness.

Let me wind up this paper with a few words of practical application.  We 

are living in an age of peculiar religious danger.  I am quite sure that 

the advice I am going to offer deserves serious attention.

(1) In the first place, let us not be surprised at the rise and progress 

of false doctrine.  It is a thing as old as the old Apostles.  It began 

before they died.  They predicted that there would be plenty of it before 

the end of the world.  It is wisely ordered of God for the testing of our 

grace, and to prove who has real faith.  If there were no such thing as 

false doctrine or heresy upon earth, I should begin to think the Bible 

was not true.

(2) In the next place, let us make up our minds to resist false doctrine, 

and not to be carried away by fashion and bad example.  Let us not 

flinch, because all around us, high and low, rich and poor, are swept 

away, like geese in a flood, before a torrent of Catholicism.  Let us be 

firm and stand our ground.

Let us resist false doctrine, and contend earnestly for the faith once 

delivered to the saints.  Let us not be ashamed of showing our colors and 

standing out for New Testament truth.  Let us not be stopped by the 

cuckoo cry of "controversy."  The thief likes dogs that do not bark, and 

watchmen that give no alarm.  The devil is a thief and a robber.  If we 

hold our peace, and do not resist false doctrine, we please him and 

displease God.

(3) In the next place, let us try to preserve the old Protestant 

principles of the Church, and to hand them down uninjured to our 

children's children.  Let us not listen to those faint-hearted Churchmen 

who would have us forsake the ship, and desert the Church in her time of 

need.

(4) In the last place, let us make sure work of our own personal 

salvation.  Let us seek to know and feel that we ourselves are "saved."

The day of controversy is always a day of spiritual peril.  Men are apt 

to confound orthodoxy with conversion, and to fancy that they must go to 

heaven if they know how to answer Catholic Priests.  Yet mere earnestness 

without knowledge, and mere head-knowledge of Protestantism, alike save 

none.  Let us never forget this.

Let us not rest till we feel the blood of Christ sprinkled on our 

consciences, and have the witness of the Spirit within us that we are 

born again.  This is reality.  This is true religion.  This will last.  

This will never fail us.  It is the possession of grace in the heart, and 

not the intellectual knowledge of it, that profits and saves the soul.

Transcribed by Tony Capoccia of

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