IDOLATRY.
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.—I. Samuel, xv. 23.
What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?—II. Corinthians, vi. 16.
Covetousness, which is idolatry.—Colossians, iii. 5.
The sparkling flames, that burn in beaten gold,
And, like the stars of heav’n in midst of night,
Black Egypt, as her mirrors doth behold;
Are but the dens where idol snakes delight
Again to cover Satan from their sight:
Yet these are all their gods; with whom they vie,
The crocodile, the cock, the rat, the fly:
Fit gods indeed, for such men to be served by.
Giles Fletcher.
Hear, Father! hear and aid!
If I have loved too well, if I have shed,
In my vain fondness, o’er a mortal head
Gifts, on Thy shrine, my God, more fitly laid;
If I have sought to live
But in one light, and made a mortal eye
The lonely star of my idolatry,
Thou that art Love, oh! pity and forgive!
Mrs. Hemans.
City of idol-temples, and of shrines
Where folly kneels to falsehood—how the pride
Of our humanity is here rebuked!
Man, that aspires to rule the very wind,
And make the sea confess his majesty;
Whose intellect can fill a little scroll
With words that are immortal: who can build
Cities, the mighty and the beautiful:
Yet man,—this glorious creature,—can debase
His spirit down, to worship wood and stone,
And hold the very beasts which bear his yoke,
And tremble at his eye, for sacred things.
With what unutterable humility
We should bow down, thou blessed Cross, to thee,
Seeing our vanity and foolishness,
When, to our own devices left, we frame
A shameful creed of craft and cruelty.
L. E. L.
If, when the Lord of Glory was in sight,
Thou turn thy back upon that fountain clear,
To bow before the “little drop of light”
Which dim-eyed men call praise and glory here:
What dost thou, but adore the sun, and scorn
Him at whose only word both sun and stars were born?
If while around the gales from Eden breathe,
Thou hide thine eyes, to make thy peevish moan
Over some broken reed of earth beneath,
Some darling of blind fancy, dead and gone,
As wisely might’st thou in Jehovah’s fane
Offer thy love and tears to Thammuz slain.
Turn thee from these, or dare not to inquire
Of Him whose name is Jealous, lest in wrath,
He hear and answer thine unblest desire:
Far better we should cross His lightning’s path,
Than be according to our idols heard,
And God should take us at our vain word.
Keble.
Before the idol-monster was the blood
Of man poured out by man. No mother there
Blessed the fair skies which smiled upon her babe,
But hastened rather, with unnatural hand,
To crush the unfolding life, and turn aside
The dark inheritance of woe and pain,
Ere yet the unconscious victim owned its doom.
A. Alexander.
And still from Him we turn away,
And fill our hearts with worthless things;
The fires of avarice melt the clay,
And forth the idol springs!
Ambition’s flame, and passion’s heat,
By wondrous alchemy transmute
Earth’s dross, to raise some gilded brute
To fill Jehovah’s seat.
J. H. Clinch.
Idol-worshippers are we,
Bowing evermore heart and knee
Unto stone and unto stock;
Thus the living God we mock.
Who shall say his heart is free
From this foul idolatry?
Egone.