The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-01-31
THE LESSON FOR TO-DAY.
continued from hrst page

| though full of the Holy Ghost. Let us
have Gods church instead of mans.
II. The cnraged clergy are this day
dunbfounticl by the mighty works of
God in the holiness movement, which
they cannot gainsay.
10, 10. o how satan'S preachers are
puzzled this day. They hold many Il eau.
Gus to determine what to do with Gods
preachers, who preach with the Holy
Spirit sent down from heaven.
NO man can serve two masters: Yc cannot
serve Gud and Mammon Matt. vi -, COM
pare Jud Ses, chapters xvii. al d xviii.
The remarkable incidents of these two
chapters illustrate with great vividness
the principles of our text These chapters
contain the story OF Micah, and are Il
medley of sin and crime that not only
condemn with the bitter irony of truth
the follirs and sins OF the dark ages of the
Judges. but apply with caustic severity
AMI awful truthfulness to the social and
religious abuses of our own times.
l. We have IL picture of dishonesty.
Micah, young man of Mount Eph-
rain, steals from his mother eleven nun
dred sheckels Of silver, and for IL time
conceals his ill gotten gain. AT length,
alarmed by her angry curses, he comes
and repents and restores the money.
Here we see IL very common picture:
dishonesty and crime commencing in the
home circle, in the first penny stolen in
secret from mothers drawer, and leading
to Il life Of lawleSsness and crime.
Absolute righteousness in the minutest
particular is essential TO all religious
characters We lind lack of righteous.
ness to day in the constitution of society,
and the singular corruption of conscience
about right and wrong. There are
men and women who can speak of deep
religious experiences and extraordinary
services, who, yet, seem to be unable to
appreciate the absolute necessity of strict
integrity and uprightness il the mat
ter of property, of debu and OF business
! transactions between man and man.
il. We have here n picture OF passion,
i'll the story of Micnh's mother. When
she found her 500 were lost, she was very
angry, and she cursed so loud and so
long that it seems TO he the only thing
remembered about the transaction /
made such an impression on Micah that
he never got over IL until he restored the
money; hut the moment she saw her
sheckels again she forgot all about her
passion. AMI even about the crime of her
boy, and she fell into another passion of
delight ana blessed him as eXtr;tvagnnt-
! ~ us She had cursed him before BLESS.
| cd by thou of the Lord, my son - The
old lady had Il little streak of religion
running through it all, aud. probably.
Thought that she was IL very good sort of
woman. 1t never occurred to her to
| sit down and tell her hey about his wick
edness and lead him to true reprn tnnce
| All she could think OF was that she mad
| got the sheckels back.
How like many mother, alternating
between the passionate love and the pas.
sionate anger, which are both alike natu.
| raj, animal and dcvilsh.
/. nil .,,f,
! felt conservation.
Il had wholly dedicated the silvarunto
| the Lord from my hand for my scn to
make craven image and u molten
image What strange medley of re.
ligion and idolatry, Micah's mother had
! plenty of religion, but it was not any
good because it was mixed. The need of
the world is not religion all people have
religion ann the lses n man has of God
| the more he has OF religion, as Il rule.
The ptgan of -tfrich the heather of
China, have far more religion than we
have. hey sacrifice and give, and do
| far more in the service Of their IDOLS than
| We do tor Christ, but it is the devils re-.
| ligion. Back OF III. their idolatry, they
| too, like Micah's mother, have II dim idea
| of the Lord aud will tell You that these
! images and fetiches arc but forms and
\ stepping stones through which they rise
And, so, in our religious ceremonial
ism, we may have much piety in building
our charclS and erecting our affairs and
| contributing To the costly machinery OF
| our splendid rituals and keeping our
| fnsts and our Lenten services but it is
1dolatry all the same. Oh what IL sur.
| prise Will await many II devoted wor-
| shipper when he finds in the last day TINT
| God has accepted none of his foolish sac
rifices, and all this expenditure of money
and time and bodily exercise has been us
VAIN as the grossest idolatry of heather.
ism and the liccntious orgies of Baal wor-
ship.
But notice in this old lady's consecrn.
tion how she hetrilys herself by i'm act of
real insincerity in the midst of her pre-
tended sacrifice. - had wholly dedica-
ted the silver unto the Lord" she saws,
ana yet, when 1t GENES, to business she
only took two hundred out of the eleven
hundred shckels and kept the rest She
was the grandmother of Ananias ana
Sapphira. She was not even honest in the
little religion she had.
w e see the sane spirit in henthenism
to-day Fhe Chinaman will try to cheat
| his god as openly as the Christian wor
| shipper who puts bad penny i'm tn. plate
! If he can do it unnoticed. 1t is the custom
| of the Chinese TO offer clothing and arti-
clcs OF furniture ut the graves of their
ancestors. They are made OF tissue
paper ana set on fire, that they NAV 20
up in smoke and reach the dead for their
hahiiiments in the land of spirits. but
| noticed that the Chinaman ALWAYS made
half garment, one side OF n p.ir or pants
or jacket. THE reason given was, the
gods would not notice it and he would
save the other half.