GOD OR SELF-WHICH? A Sermon DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 9TH, 1862, BY AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves."- Zechariah, vii. 5, 6. AFTER the Jewish people had been thoroughly cured of their idolatrous tendencies by their seventy years of captivity, they fell into another evil; they became superstitiously regardful of ceremonies but they lost the life and spirit of devotion, and neglected the weightier matters of the law. Phariseeism, in the spirit of it, had commenced, in the time of Zechariah. Great attention was paid to the formalities and externals of worship, but the vitality of godliness was unknown. The mint, the anise, the cummin of religion-these were all strictly tithed; but truth, mercy, charity, justice, were trodden under foot. They multiplied ceremonies to themselves, apart from God's Word. They had fasts which Moses never commanded, and feasts of which the tabernacle in the wilderness knew nothing. They had ordained for themselves a certain fast for the burning of the temple by the Chaldees, and a question which seemed to them very important had arisen, as to whether this fast should be observed now that the temple was rebuilt. The Jews in Persia, sent an honourable deputation to Jerusalem upon this important matter. They received no direct answer, for it was nothing to the Lord their God whether they fasted or not, since he had not commanded it, and could not accept their will-worship at their hands. Learn this, then, with regard to all religious ceremonies whatever; if they be not expressly commanded of God it is a small matter how men keep them; in fact, it were vastly better if they left them alone. Some time ago in Convocation, the very wonderful question was discussed, as to whether a child's father and mother might be its godfather and godmother. Is there not a prior question? Does the Lord ordain such offices in his Word? And yet again, has he anywhere commanded infants to be sprinkled? What matters it how the deed is done if the Lord has not ordained it in Holy Scripture? To the law and to the testimony; if ye find it not there, though you keep every rubric of your church, ye have not done it unto God, for he hath not required it at your hands. "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." I would that all our Churches were willing to search for the foundation of all their ceremonies in Scripture. This is the way to promote true Christian unity; not to hide our views, but to speak plainly; not to settle down upon our old rituals, but to examine them and see whether they be of God or not, for let us be sure of this, that if we do anything which is not according to God's Word, in whatever spirit we may do it, or however well we may perform it, it is not a service that God can accept of us. However, though these deputies obtained no answer upon that point, since it was not material whether they did fast or not, yet they had some information upon a much more vital matter. They were informed by the questions asked of them, that all religion must have God for its object, or else it was nothing before him. The question was solemnly asked of them, and upon its answer all depended:"When ye fasted did ye fast unto me? or when you feasted on your solemn feast-days did ye not eat to yourselves and drink to yourselves?" I shall try this morning to work out the great scriptural truth, first showing that in our religious worship our doing it unto God is a main thing; secondly, that in the world our service to God must be done for his own sake, or else it is nothing; and, thirdly, we shall use our text as a test of our condition before God, asking ourselves solemnly whether we have lived unto God, or whether we have been all this while living to ourselves, eating to ourselves, and drinking to ourselves. I. First of all, then, WITH REGARD TO OUR RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. You know, brethren, there are various modes in which the Christian Church attempts to worship God; and we are not about this morning to discuss the acceptableness of these different methods-whether it shall be by book or extemporary; whether it shall be with sound of music or with the joyous voices of men and women; whether the ceremony shall be pompous or simple; whether it shall be under the consecrated dome, or in an ordinary chamber. These are matters of secondary moment, for they concern only the carcase, while we have now to deal with the soul of worship. We are apt to fall into a mistake, and value the services of the Sabbath-day for something which God does not regard. For instance, in the singing of God's praises, it is well to have melody that we may sing with our understanding as well as with our spirit; but after all, if any man shall rest satisfied because his voice has been in tune and time, in singing the words of the Psalm, if he shall think that therefore he has praised God, alas, how mistaken he is! Or in the prayer, if we shall think that a certain fluency, an apparent reverence and propriety of expression are the only needful things, and if we forget that we are worshipping God, alas! what is our prayer? We might as well have been dumb. And if in preaching, our hearers shall regard merely the orthodoxy of the doctrine, or the eloquence, or the fitness of the style, alas! they have not worshipped God, because in all this they forget the question:"Have ye heard as unto God? Have ye sung as unto God? Did ye pray as unto God?" For if not, though the sermon be orthodox and eloquent, though the singing be as the voice of many waters, though the prayer go up to heaven, and seem to be unexceptionable in expression, yet the worship is only vain and worthless, lacking holiness unto the Lord, since it is not done as unto God, and is not really an offering unto him. Take that as the guide this morning, and I think I may speak home to your consciences. How many, who frequent the house of prayer, worship God carelessly? They sing, but with no more heart than if they were singing in their own houses some common ditty. The prayer is offered, and often that is the dullest part of the service, and their eyes are gazing about here and there; or if the eyes of the head be shut, the eyes of their heart are open enough, looking not, however, to God, but to vanity. And when the sermon is delivered they care but little for its precious message, or if they lend some attention, yet what a weariness it is! You see in some congregations nodding heads, and eyes that are given to slumber. They think there is nothing particular in hearing the gospel; they listen to the entreaty of God's ambassador as to a thrice told tale, but that is all. Were it an oration upon politics, they might be a great deal more enthusiastic than they are, and if it were anything which touched their personal estates, they would be forward to catch every word, but as it is only about their souls, only about eternity, only about God, it does not signify. Now, think ye, think ye that your thus coming up to God's house is acceptable in his sight? If ye come thus, ye have not come to him. Ye have not come to worship him; how can he take this at your hands? What think you if a courtier who should pretend to be doing honour to his monarch, should be nodding before the throne, sleeping in the audience-chamber? What think you if some person should have audience of a king, and while the petition is yet in his hand should be gazing about with a vacant stare, or turning his back upon the throne? Surely this were insult, instead of homage, and well might the gates of the palace be barred for ever against the wretch whose conduct should be thus infamous. Let us take care that we are not satisfied with merely sitting in our pews, and maintaining an apparently decorous behaviour in God's house, for "God abhors the sacrifice, Where not the heart is found." A larger number of our attendants miss the mark in another way. They are not altogether careless, but still their worship is not done as unto God, for they are content with the service itself. Provided they have sung-have somewhat joined in the prayer-and to some degree enjoyed the service, they are content, although no dew from heaven rests upon their hearts. They look merely to man, and no further, and if the minister should be in a low frame of mind,—and what mortal can help that at times?-these persons never having learned to seek God in his sanctuary, say that it was no means of grace to their souls. The pitcher was empty, and as they had not learned to draw direct from the well they went home thirsty. They looked to the man, and never thought of his Master; it is no marvel that the opportunity has been a lost one to them. Blessed are they who come up to God's house to use the means but not to rest in them; desiring to find the God of the means in the means! Oh! how glorious it is when the song carries me up to heaven's courts! How blessed when the prayer is offered, if my soul can breathe its desire into the ear of Christ and have fellowship with him. Oh! it is blessed to be in God's house when the Lord himself is in our midst. What if the preacher should miscarry?—yet if all the while I am lifting up my heart to God, desiring that the truth should be blessed to me, I shall profit under him. He may be clownish, but he will not be so to me. His expressions may be out of order, but they will reach my heart; and even if his heart should not be affected, yet mine will be if I am having dealings with God, and not with man. Oh! how many of you come here to hear the man, to gratify your curiosity, to regale your ears, to find matter for conversation, but not to behold the beauty of the Lord, nor to enquire in his temple. Well, we are glad to see you anyhow, for we hope that being in the way God will meet with you, but I would have you savingly converted, and then you will come here to hear God's Word, to talk to God, to speak to God. Is it not true that some of you do not use the day of rest and the house of prayer for their real purpose, which is that man may meet with God? There was a man who professed great love to his friend, and therefore he would spend a day in his company. He rapped at the door, and the servant said the master was not at home. "It does not signify," said he, "I will wait inside and take my ease; I shall do quite as well though the master be not at home if you will bring me abundance to eat and drink." So he entered, and took a chair and made himself very comfortable, and feasted to his heart's content; and he went home boasting that he had enjoyed the visit. Then his companions asked him-"Was the master there?" "Oh no, he was not there." "But I thought you went to see him?" He had pretended a great desire to have converse with his friend but evidently he was false, for if he had gone to see the master, and the master had not been at home, he would have said-"Well, I will even call another day, but I have missed my errand this time." So there are some who go up to the house of God; they think they go there to worship the Lord; they have no enjoyment of his presence, they have no communion with his Son, they have no indwellings of his Spirit, but they enjoy the day for all that, which shows they did not go to worship God at all. When we put the question to them-"Did ye at all fast unto the Lord" their answer must be-"Nay, verily, we only sought self; we did not seek the Master's presence." But others there be, and these are not a few, who think they worship God acceptably when they merely do so as a matter of custom. It is a lamentable fact that in many of the suburban parts of this great city, where new villas are rising up, thousands of the people never attend any place of worship: I will not say because, being in the country, they are withdrawn from the wholesome restraints of society, but because at any rate they do not feel its constraints. They can spend the morning in bed, or the afternoon in the garden, too glad that they are not under the sorrowful necessity of going to a place of worship. But with some of you it is the reverse. You are in such a position that you would hardly be counted respectable if you did not frequent a church or chapel: and so you go. The Sabbath-morning very properly sees you arrayed in your best garments, and you enter the house of God with the multitude; but if you go there only as a matter of custom do not think that God GOD OR SELF-WHICH? A Sermon DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 9TH, 1862, BY AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves."-- Zechariah, vii. 5, 6. AFTER the Jewish people had been thoroughly cured of their idolatrous tendencies by their seventy years of captivity, they fell into another evil; they became superstitiously regardful of ceremonies but they lost the life and spirit of devotion, and neglected the weightier matters of the law. Phariseeism, in the spirit of it, had commenced, in the time of Zechariah. Great attention was paid to the formalities and externals of worship, but the vitality of godliness was unknown. The mint, the anise, the cummin of religion-these were all strictly tithed; but truth, mercy, charity, justice, were trodden under foot. They multiplied ceremonies to themselves, apart from God's Word. They had fasts which Moses never commanded, and feasts of which the tabernacle in the wilderness knew nothing. They had ordained for themselves a certain fast for the burning of the temple by the Chaldees, and a question which seemed to them very important had arisen, as to whether this fast should be observed now that the temple was rebuilt. The Jews in Persia, sent an honourable deputation to Jerusalem upon this important matter. They received no direct answer, for it was nothing to the Lord their God whether they fasted or not, since he had not commanded it, and could not accept their will-worship at their hands. Learn this, then, with regard to all religious ceremonies whatever; if they be not expressly commanded of God it is a small matter how men keep them; in fact, it were vastly better if they left them alone. Some time ago in Convocation, the very wonderful question was discussed, as to whether a child's father and mother might be its godfather and godmother. Is there not a prior question? Does the Lord ordain such offices in his Word? And yet again, has he anywhere commanded infants to be sprinkled? What matters it how the deed is done if the Lord has not ordained it in Holy Scripture? To the law and to the testimony; if ye find it not there, though you keep every rubric of your church, ye h |