111. ITs LARGE REWARD. 1. In immeoi!\te spiritu!\l enjoyment· in the gladness of heart with which the worship of Goll is anticipated (Ps. cxxii. 1); 'in tmi joy of holy fellowship and sacred song; in the happiness of domestic piety. 2. In the continuous spiritual blessedness to which it leads; for a true use of Christian privileges ends in the recl>nci liat ion of the soul to God, and in the possession of bis abiding favour, in the life- long fr iendsbip of Jesus Christ; there is daily,continual "delight in the Lord." 3. In t,h~ r_ealization of_ the kindest promises of. God. ~o Israel was offered the excellency of ' ndrng on the high places of the earth,'· and bemg "fed with the heritage of Jacob." To us, if we truly seek God's face until we find his favour, is offered (1) the guidance of an unerring ~nger and the protection of an alm_ighty arm _along all tho path of life, whether along higher or lower levels; (2) the exercise of a benign and gracious influenctJ ou human hearts-an influence which will live when we are gone; (3) entrance into the bea,·enly kingdom..-C.
"Ver. 2,-:-The offence of merely externa_l religiousn_ess. "And [yet] me they consult daily, and to know my ways they desrre: as a nation that hath done righteous- ness, and bath not forsaken the Law of God, they ask of me judgments of righteous- ness" (Cheyne). "The words point to the incongruous union, possible in the reign of Manasseh, but hardly possible after the exile, of the formal recognition of Jehovah with an apostate life. Every phrase rings in the tone of an incisive irony describing each element of a true devotion which the people did not possess ,I (Dean l'lumptre). External worship is insufficient, a change of heart is needed; God asks what we have, and what we can do, only because through these things hearts can find express ion. I. CEr:EMONIES AND snmoLS ABE GOOD. Within due limits. We cannot conceive the sort of religion that may suit angels or pure spirits. Perhaps it bas no ritual. But our religion must be that of spirits working through human bodies, and therefore it must have form. For man God instituted or recognized sacrifices. For some men be appointed Jndaism. Heart-feeling may be strengthened by expression, but capacity of feeling may be exhausted by expression. 'l'here is a measure of truth in the saying that, for many persons, religious truth needs to be set in the picture- teaching of ceremonial. They are not wise who refuse to see value in organization and ordinances. II. OnimIENCE AND HEART-SEBVlCE A.BE BETTER. Because the thing expressed must be better than the expression. Ceremony can have no morai value apart from the heart and the will (see Ps. :xl 6-8; lL 16, 17; Prov. xv. 8; eh. i. 11, 12-16; !xvi. 3; Jer. vii. ~2, 23; Hos. vi. 6; Amos v. 21-24; Micah vi. 6-8). We should not be able to conceive of Gcd as a moral Being, if we were not sure that he puts obedience first; a father does; a king even does. III. TRUE HEARTS ENDEAVOUR WISELY TO BLEND BOTH. They find out the practical value of well-ordered and well-kept religious habits. Three things occupy serious attention. 1. How to get good religious habits formed. 2. How to keep the forms instiuct with life. 3. How to keep the forms within wise limitations. Every man finds out that the "seen" is constantly endeavouring so to satisfy him that he shall cease to care for the "unseen." IV. JF WE CANNOT RAVE BOTH, WE MUST SACRIFICE THE FORM, NOT THE SPIRIT. There are times when it seems as if one must be sacrificed. The tone of an age may give extraordinary force to ceremonial; e.g. an age of decayed religion, such as the time of Obrist; an msthetic age such as ours is. Now it has become our duty to limit ce;e- monial to the efficient expression of spiritual life and feeling.-R. T. Vera. 3, 4.-Silfishness spoiling religiOU,11 habits. " Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure." That is, you make your religion a mode of pleasing yourselves. You really enjoy your fa.stings. Two points may be illustrated and enforced. As introduc- tory, it may be shown that externali.sm is the special temptation of a people who have been cured of iclolatry. PbariBaic formalism ie the evil that threatens a nation that rebounds from the notion of many gods to the idea of one, spiritual God. "Self" becomes, in a subtle way, the idol of men's worship. L SBLF-PLEABING l8 All END oA.lNED OT RELI01ous DOTIE8. 'fhoae who give them- OH, LVIII. 1-14.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 383