…Dr Lloyd-Jones
believed that, while the truth ought to result in profound emotion, the
cultivation of 'emotionalism' was thoroughly alien to true Christianity. Feeling alone
he saw as not merely valueless, it was positively dangerous. 'Emotionalism is ever the most real, because
the most subtle, enemy of evangelicalism.'
True feeling must be a result of truth believed and understood, and he
frequently gave warning against that type of service where attempts are made to
induce emotion by 'working up' the
meeting with music and choruses, or by the telling of moving stories. 'tears are a poor criterion for faith, being
carried away in a meeting by eloquence or singing or excitement is not the same
as committing oneself to Christ.' To aim
at emotion is the surest way to produce counterfeit Christians.
Thus his belief was
that where feeling could be restrained it ought to be restrained. The power of God was more likely to be known
in a solemn stillness than amid noise and excitement.
