Self or God

“And when you did eat, and when you did drink, did not you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?”

The acceptableness of religious duties must not be taken for granted.

We should ask searching questions about them, for the Lord himself does so. It behooves hearers to be very attentive to close personal inquiries as to their holy things.

During long years, “even those seventy years,” pious observances may have been kept up, and yet there may have been no virtue in them.

This fact makes it wise for us all to question ourselves, for we may have been habitual religionists, and yet may also never have done anything as “unto the Lord.”

Two reflections rise before our mind:—

I. RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES SHOULD BE UNTO THE LORD. “Did you at all fast unto me, even to me?”

1. They should be attended to out of respect to his command. Ceremonies which are not of his ordaining are mere will-worship. We partake of ordinances, not because of custom, or church rule, but “unto the Lord.” Romans 14:6.

2. They should be carried out with a dependence upon God’s grace to make them useful to us, for outward forms are nothing of themselves. Unless the Spirit of God apply them to us, they are empty buckets drawn up from a dry well. John 6:63.

3. They should be fulfilled with such an eye to God as their nature and meaning suggest: as for instance, in fasting there should be sorrow towards God for having grieved him; and in holy feasting the joy must not be carnal, but “joy in the Lord.”

4. They should be accompanied with that spiritual understanding without which they are mere play-acting in the sight of God. There must be the true fasting, which is abstinence from sin; and the true feasting, which is the reception of Christ with joy.

5. They should be attended to with a view to glorifying God in them. For this end come we to baptism, communion, praise, etc.

   • If these things are not done unto the Lord, what are they but the rites of atheism?—or a sort of witchcraft, a repetition of incantations, genuflexions, and the like? Isaiah 66:3.

II. RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES MAY BE UNTO OURSELVES. “Did not you eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?”

They are so most clearly—

1. When the spiritual element is absent. Then even in the Sacred Supper there is nothing more than mere eating and drinking, as in the case of the Corinthian church. How generally have religious festivals become mere excuses for banqueting!

2. When the ordinance is attended to because it brings personal credit. Motives of custom, respectability, or dignity, may lead men even to the table of the Lord. This is eating for ourselves.

3. When the outward observance is used as a means of pacifying the conscience, and taken as a spiritual opiate. Without drawing near to God, the man feels easier because he has performed a bit of pious ritual. This is eating and drinking for ourselves.

4. When outward ritual is practiced in the hope that we shall be saved thereby. The motive is religious selfishness, and the act must be unacceptable.

5. When there is no intent to please God therein: for as the intent is, such is the act; and when there is no intent toward God, the whole matter falls short of acceptance with God.

   • See how vain are the religious performances of unbelievers. Read verses 1 to 3 of this chapter.

Let us come to Jesus, who is the sum and substance of all fasts, and feasts, and all else of right observance.

Let us live as unto the Lord. Romans 14:8.

Striking Paragraphs

If, after you have heard so many masses, matins, and even-songs, and have received holy bread and holy water, and the bishop’s blessing, or the cardinal’s, or the pope’s, you will be more kind to your neighbor, and love him better, and be more obedient to your superiors, more merciful and ready to forgive; if you do more despise the world, and are more athirst for spiritual things, then do such things increase grace. If not, they are a lie.—Tyndale.

A certain king would build a cathedral, and, that the credit of it might be all his own, he forbade anyone to contribute to its erection in the least degree. A tablet was placed in the side of the building, and on it his name was carved as the builder. But one night he saw in a dream an angel, who came down, and erased his name; and the name of a poor widow appeared in its stead. This was three times repeated, when the enraged king summoned the woman before him, and demanded, “What have you been doing, and why have you broken my commandment?” The trembling widow replied, “I loved the Lord, and longed to do something for his name, and for the building up of his church. I was forbidden to touch it in any way, so in my poverty I brought a wisp of hay for the horses that drew the stones.” Then the king saw that he had labored for his own glory, but the widow for the glory of God, and he commanded that her name should be inscribed upon the tablet.—Cyclopædia of Illustrative Anecdotes.

In no part of the great universe is any being fervently devout by accident. Everywhere, even in Heaven, creatures are devout from purpose, design, endeavor. Eminently is this true on earth; no man ever happened to be religious.—Dr. Stoughton, in “Lights of the World.”

*There is an Eastern story of a Sultan who overslept himself, so as not to awaken at the hour of prayer. So the devil came, and waked him, and told him to get up and pray. “Who are you?” said the Sultan. “Oh, no matter!” replied the other; “my act is good, is it not? No matter who does the good action, so long as it is good.” “Yes,” replied the Sultan, “but I think you are Satan. I know your face; you have some bad motive.” “But,” said the other, “I am not so bad as I am painted. I was an angel once, and still keep some of my original goodness.” “That’s all very well,” replied the sagacious and prudent Caliph, “but you are the tempter: that’s your business; and I wish to know why you want me to get up and pray.” “Well,” said the devil, with a flirt of impatience, “if you must know, I will tell you. If you had slept and forgotten your prayers, you would have been sorry for it afterwards, and penitent; but if you go on as now, and do not neglect a single prayer for ten years, you will be so satisfied with yourself that it will be worse for you than if you had missed one sometimes, and repented of it. God loves your fault mixed with penitence more than your virtue seasoned with pride.”

What is all righteousness that men devise,

What—but a sordid bargain for the skies?

But Christ as soon would abdicate his own,

As stoop from Heaven to sell the proud a throne.—Cowper.