The fear of the Lord is glory and exultation
And gladness and a crown of rejoicing.
The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart,
And shall give gladness and joy and length of days (E. I11, 12; cp. Pr. 210, 316).
CHAPTER XIX
Faith
Ben Sirach has a wise passage in recognition of the transcendent majesty of God. He has been seeking to describe the marvels of the universe, and words have failed him; how much more then if he should strive to declare the glory of the Creator! Wonderful as the visible world may be, Many things are hidden greater than these, and we have seen but a few of His works.... The Lord is terrible and exceeding great, and marvellous is His power. When ye glorify the Lord praise him as much as ye can, for even then will He surpass. When ye exalt him, put forth your full strength; be not weary; for ye will never attain (E. 4329-32). These words give the reason why expressions of belief in God so often appear to the unbelieving mere platitudes. Before the thought of the living God, men of intense and sensitive faith are either silent, or at the most will speak in simple language, being conscious that we may say many things, yet shall we not attain; and the sum of our words is “He is all” (E. 4927).
The Jewish proverbs recognise that God makes one fundamental demand from men, namely Honesty of purpose—the very quality or attitude of soul which, as we have just seen, is so essential to the growth of moral character:
All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes,
But God weigheth the heart (Pr. 212).
He that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering is made in mockery; and the mockeries of wicked men are not well-pleasing (E. 3418).
Ben Sirach says of a sinner, confident in his wrong-doing because no man seeth him—But he knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and looking into secret places (E. 2319).
And again he writes of the hypocritically pious:
The Most High hath no pleasure in the offerings of the ungodly, neither is He pacified for sins by the multitude of sacrifices (E. 3419; cp. Pr. 2127).
It does not seem probable that the Almighty will be any the better impressed, should the wicked offer up hymns instead of sacrifices. Motive is still the criterion of worship: take heed how ye praise or pray, lest your words be no more than the sound of a voice; take heed how ye hear, lest, judging a sermon, you fail to hear God’s judgment of you; and above all remember that the chief act of worship, without which all else is in vain, must be rendered at home and in the city’s streets, for—said a Wise-man on whom the spirit of the prophets had descended—to do justice and equity is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice (Pr. 213). A plain commandment, but there is none greater: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”