St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-14
PRESENT-DAY IDOLATRY.
A Sermon Prompted, Perhaps, by
the Grand Jury investigation.

y
the Grand Jury Investigation.
At the Church of Christ yesterday
morning Rev. w. j. Lhamon preached
from the text:
Little children, keep yourselves
from idols John ", 81.
In most parts of the world Christian
ity has conquered the grOSser idOlatry.
The gods and idols of Greece and Rome
live only in literature and art. Cats and
cattle are no more worshiped in Egypt.
Thor and Wooden are forgotten in the
North. The crOcodiles of the GangeS
are losing their sacred character. The
ancient Pan is dead, and the modern
Pan is dying, even in those lands where
the missionary has only begun his work.
But idolatry dies hard. Not yet all of
us are worshiping the lone true God"
through His Son Jesus Christ. If Christ
is the Son of God we have in Him and
His revelation the absolute, and what
ever worship falls short of Him is either
deficient or false.
There is refined or subjective idol
airy. We may have the idols without
having their affairs and temples. A
God of the Bible calls tobacco ''dIvine
weed" and spends his best eloquence in
ascribing praises to his jug of whisky.
There are men who spend the best part
of their lives in communion with the
smoke pipe or beer mug. Bacchus and
Gambrinus are worshiped through all
our land. and more wOrShipers yearly
sacrifice themselves to these gods than
ever cast themselves under a HindoO
Juggernaut.
| name especially two forms of idol
airy that are antagOniStic to Christian
ity. They are those of dogma and man.
mon, or of the schools and the market
place, or, since the prayer book is the
symbol of dogma and the pocketbook
the symbol of mammon, we will
call these the idolatries of the prayer
book and of the pocketbook. Lord Ba-
con lamented the ''ill-starred day when
the Christian faith became allied with
pagan philosophy" Thence came doc
trines, dogmas, schools of theology,
creeds. confessions, symbols, sects, per-
solutions, divisions, denominations and
denominationalism. Trinities and pur-
gatories, rOsaries and scapulars, immac-
ulate conception, ransubstantiation,
worship of the Virgin, papal infallibfl-
source and their substance in the idola-i
try of schools, with their formulas and
their confessions. We put our prayer
books in stead of prayers. our symbols
in stead of our Saviour,our doctrines in
stead of our Deity and our Phariseeism+
in stead of our Good Samaritanism. Il
As to the nocketbook. Money is the
purchase power of everything material,
and of some things immaterial. if our
recent grand jury investigations signify
anything. 1t is the symbol of worldlf-
ness, and is the only idol that Jesus put
in direct contrast to God, saying, "Ye
cannot worship God and mammon." Men
who feel at ease If only they are rich;
who work for money only, and die get
ting it: who prostitute themselves for
it. taking bribes, lying. for it. stealing
it, embezzling it, defaulting, or even
getting it honestly. but at the cost of
mind, heart, health, hope and happi-
ness-such men are idOlators. and the
warnings of heaven are loud to them.
Christ is better than creeds, and saliva
ton must be put above our denomina-
tions. The pocketbOok is convenient
for little while, but God is an eternal
necessity.