Spiritual Idolatry # 2

Spiritual Idolatry # 2

2. Next to these, come the idols of the HOUSE!

Our relatives, next to God, demand and deserve our regard. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters,are not only impelled by instinct, but commanded by God, to love one another. It is the law of nature and of revelation. These dear objects of our affection, and all the tender charities and kind offices which arise out of the ties that bind us to them - are the sources of the purest and most lawful enjoyments upon earth. The poet has beautifully said - "Domestic happiness is the only true bliss that has survived the fall."

But then the love we bear our friends must be subordinate to that we cherish for God. He must have the throne of the heart - and all others must rise no higher than the footstool. If we depend upon these dear relations for happiness, more than upon God's favor; if in calculating our possessions, and adding up the sum total of our enjoyments, we naturally place them first; if infelicitating ourselves upon what we have, we turn to these before God; if we dread most the loss of these; if we feel that nothing could make us happy if these were removed; if we go daily and hourly to these alone for gratification; if they are enjoyed solely by themselves, and for themselves, apart from God; if instead of leading our hearts to God, they hold our hearts from God; if we are more solicitous to avoid what would endanger their continuance, than the continuance of God's favor; if the temporary interruption of their enjoyment affects us more than the loss of the enjoyment of God and holy privileges; if upon their removal we feel forlorn and desolate, as if we have lost our all, or imagine that such would be our state in the event of such a calamity - then is it but too plain, that these are our idols, and that we are worshiping them!

How evident is it to all but themselves, and at times suspected even by them, that many husbands and wives are to each other as God. Their reciprocal smiles are more to them than the light of God's countenance; and their reciprocal love more to them than the loving kindness of their heavenly Father. And how many parents need the simple exhortation of the old writer, "Beware of the little idols in white frocks." I would not have parental affection diminished. Who would abate the vigilance, and tenderness, and ceaseless labors of maternal love? Who could interfere to arrest the care which is necessary to guard, and feed, and train those little helpless beings, who are so dependent on a mother's eye, and arm, and heart? But then I would remind that mother, that she has a God to love, and serve, and please, as well as a child - a God that is in Himself, and ought to be to her, infinitely more than that lovely son. And if all her thoughts, and feelings, and purposes, and aims, flow in one undivided current to that child, is he not her idol? God will not be, ought not to be, forgotten and neglected, even for a husband or a wife, a parent or a child. Nor has He rendered it impossible to love Him supremely, and at the same time our earthly relatives adequately. The two are not incompatible with each other. Multitudes of husbands and wives have loved each other tenderly - and yet have loved God supremely. Multitudes of parents have loved their children judiciously, fondly, laboriously - and yet have loved God supremely. Accept, then, the word of exhortation; beware of allowing your hearts to be too much engrossed by these dear objects of your best earthly affection.

In some cases it is not so much any one object of home, but the whole that steals the heart from God - a comfortable home, made up of relatives, a commodious house, plenty, health; in short, a quiet and agreeable domicile. The pleasures of the domestic circle are some of the sweetest known on earth; and he who has a happy home, has to resist one of the most powerful rivals and competitors with God for his heart. To return from the scene of his daily toll- to a quiet home greeted by the smiles of a devoted wife and affectionate children, with plenty on his table, and ease in his mind, oh! what danger is he in, of feeling that he has little need of God's favor or heaven's glories to make him happy; of saying, or at least feeling, "This is my temple, my God, my heaven!"

In some cases a splendid house and gardens, elegant furniture, and all the appendages of wealth - are the idols in which the heart delights, and the affections luxuriate. How vain is the owner of his beautiful domain - what a pride he takes in it. As he walks about his paradise, his spirit is elated within him; to keep it in order and beauty is the study of his mind, and the happiness of his life. Amidst all his prosperity, God is too little thought of, and less enjoyed. His possessions lead him not, as they should do - to the Giver, but detain his soul from her divine center and rest. It is a paradise, but it is also an earthly one, in which, he rather communes with the visible world, than the invisible God! It is a scene where he looks not at unseen and eternal things - but at things seen and temporal.

Such are the idols of the house.

3. There are also idols of the SHOP. Some religious people are blessed with a prosperous and thriving trade, or lucrative profession; they have, perhaps, acquired a name, an established reputation, an extensive credit; their profits are considerable; their property increases; their respectability rises; their look on, some with envy, others with surprise. How dangerous to the soul is this state of things. Such a business often becomes a too successful competitor with God for the heart. These prosperous tradesmen are apt to embark their whole soul in their business; it is their happiness; their dependence; their one chief solicitude. They admire their success; value themselves on account of it; watch it with a most acute sensibility; tremble if anything looks like a symptom of change; see with distressing jealousy the incipient prosperity of others in the same line; felicitate themselves on the greatness of their returns; exalt themselves on the greatness of their returns; exalt themselves upon the solidity of their credit, and the esteem in which they are held by the world; go to the scene of their success with conscious pride; in short, their soul is bound up in their trade - it is their idol. They in effect say to it, "You are my God - save me." But where is their religion all this while? Did they ever possess any? If so, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." Let such men know, they cannot serve God and mammon. The Spirit of God, like the glory of the Lord departing from the temple of Jerusalem, will retire from such a heart, for it has become the seat of an idol, which has his altar, and his service, and his worshiper there.

~John Angell James~

(continued with # 3)