May 4

Shall a 7nan mike gods unto himself and they are no godsf” Jer. xvi. 20.

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 Thammuz; but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf, and the shrines of pride arc 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. Favorite 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 upon 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 adores 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 Grod he ha:? never known; we commit two evils, inasuucb as w« forsako the living Grod and turn unto idols. May tac ‘or f’ge ui all from tlus grievous iniquity.

“The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’cr that idol be,
Help ine to tear it from thy th<’on«
And worship only Thee.”