Spurgeon had his share of thrill-based churches in his day. He writes as if he attended some modern churches, only more than a century ago:
People go to their place of worship and sit down comfortably, and think they must be Christians, when all that their religion consists in, is listening to an orator, having their ears tickled with music, and perhaps their eyes amused with graceful action and fashionable manners; the whole being no better than what they hear and see at an opera – not so good, perhaps, in point of aesthetic beauty, and not an atom more spiritual. Thousands are congratulating themselves, and even blessing God that they are devout worshippers, when at the same time they are living in an unregenerate Christless state, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students
