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May 4
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One
great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual
Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan's star shines
no longer, and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes
his golden calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in
various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion,
and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them.
Favourite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the
Lord is grieved when He sees us doting upon them above measure; they
will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they
will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire
to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their
dear ones. It
is truly said that "they are no gods," for the objects of
our foolish love are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they
yield us now is dangerous, and the help which they can give us in the
hour of trouble is little indeed. Why, then, are we so bewitched with
vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone, and yet
worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority between a god of
flesh and one of wood? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same
in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because
we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a
false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils,
inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord
purge us all from this grievous iniquity! "The dearest idol I have known, Whate'er that idol be; Help me to tear it from thy throne, And worship only thee." May
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