But what is most observable is the tone of triumph and victory that the inscriptions seem to breathe. On the porch of a house is written, " If God be for us, who can be against us ? " and a sepulchral monument records the triumphant sentence, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." Even an obscure painter who, while engaged in decorating a tomb, tried, it would seem, his chisel on the wall of rock, as he rudely traced a mono- gram of Christ, in his enthusiasm as a liberated Christian, carved in the stone to remain for ages, " This conquers." ^
^ " I do not know," Mazzini says, " speaking historically, a single great conquest of the human spirit, a single important step for the perfecting of human society, which has not had its roots in a strong religious faith." ^
' C. II. Sj.nrgcon. ^ J. de Koven. ^ Bolton King, Mazzini, 223,
The Peril of Idolatry.
Literature.
Aked (C. F.), Old Events and Modem Meanings, 119, 135, 151, 167.
Colenso (J. W.), Natal Sermons, ii. 329.
Cornaby (W. A.), In Touch with Reality, 1 1,
Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 23.
Dykes (J. 0.), The Law of the Ten Words, 53.
Farrar (F. W.), Sermons and Addresses in America, 164.
Figgis (J. B.), The Anointing, 79.
Goodwin (H.), University/ Sermons, ii. 32.
Gray (W. H.), The Children's Friend, 111.
Gwatkin (H. M.), Tlie Eye for Spiritual Things, 89.
Hare (A. W.), Sermons, ii. 327.
„ ,, The Alton Sermons, 487.
Henson (H. H.), Ad Rem, 121. Hughes (H. P.), The Philanthropy of God, 223. Hxuit (A. N.), Sermons for the Christian Year, ii, 10. Jerdan (C), Gospel Milk and Honey, 326. Maclaren (A.), Triumphant Certainties, 31. Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, ii. 300. Stanley (A. P.), Sermons for Children, 10, Wilmot-Buston (H. J.), Mission Sermons for a Year, 381, Christian World Pulpit, Ixvi. 401 (Henson) ; Ixix. 232, 259, 325, 403
(Aked). Church of England Pulpit, Ixiii. (1908) 483 (Bernard).
The Peril of Idolatry.
My little children, guard yourselves from idols.— i John v. 21.
These would seem to be the last words of Scripture that were written, the last charge of the last Apostle, the last solemn warning in which the Holy Spirit sums up the Gospel for all generations. Yet they sound strange. Surely we have no idols. What need have we of such a charge as this ?
Not much, if wood and stone are needed to make an idol ; but if we are putting anything whatever in God's place, we are not so clear. Some calling themselves Christians have worshipped saints on every high hill and under every green tree ; some have made the Church an idol, and some the Bible ; some have made money their god, others have worshipped success, and others have sold them- selves for pleasure.^
^ It may well be that the Spirit had brought before St. John's mind the danger arising from the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, was spoken of to them as a man like themselves ; a fact that might lead them from the Deity of the man Christ Jesus to deifying other creatures, and investing these with Divine attri- butes, and attributing to them Divine power, and approaching them with prayer and praise, which, though fitting worship in the case of Jesus Christ, would be idolatry addressed to other creatures. And so St. John adds these words to the end of his Epistle, lest the doctrine he had just insisted on should be misused and per- verted, as indeed we know from Church history it has been.^
I.
Tendencies to Idolatry.
1. Man everywhere has some appreciation of the spiritual. We may describe it as we will, but everywhere man is conscious of it,
' H. M. Gwatkin, The Eye for Spiritual Things, 91. ' W. E. Jelf, A Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, 82. 407
4o8 THE PERIL OF IDOLATRY
in some form or fashion. If we take the lowest form of that conception of which we know anything, that which is called " fetish worship," what is the root idea ? It is a recognition of the spiritual, it is an expression of fear. A fetish worshipper, if he be unaccompanied by his fetish, will refuse to trade with you, will refuse to have any dealings with you. Why ? Because he thinks that the carrying of his particular fetish keeps away evil spirits. His conception of the supernatural is the conception of antagonistic forces, and he endeavours to charm them away. All charms, all necromancy, all attempts to avert some catastrophe by this kind of thing, are of the same nature. They are a recognition of that which is beyond. And it is not only a recognition of the spiritual as beyond the material ; it is also a recognition of relation- ship of some kind. Idolatry is always born out of this recognition, and out of a consciousness of need. The need is an anxiety. It may simply be a need of protection, or it may be a need of communion ; but whether this or that, every idol is a demonstration of the Divine origin of man. As St. Augustine said long ago, God has made the human heart so that it can never find rest save in Him- self, After that rest humanity everywhere is seeking, and all idolatry is a demonstration of the search.