Bible CharactersTalmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Religion
Bible Characters
Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Bible -- Biography
Why, it sprung up into Heaven, and for it Lucifer was cast out; by pride
Nebuchadnezzar lost his throne. As he walked through Babylon he cried:
“Is not this a great Babylon which I have built?” And he was hurled from
his throne.
How many men that have become drunkards, who are all broken up--will
gone, health gone--and yet are just as full of pride as the sun is of
light! It will not let them come to Christ and be saved.
A great many live like this Pharisee--only in the form of religion; they
do not want the wheat--only the husk; they do not want the kernel--only
the shell.
How many men are today just living on empty form! They say their prayers,
but they do not mean any thing.
Why, this Pharisee said plenty of prayers, but how did he pray? He prayed
to himself. He might as well have prayed to a post. He did not pray to
God, who knew his heart a thousand times better than he himself did. He
thought he knew himself; he forgot that he was a sepulcher, full of dead
men’s bones; forgot that his heart was rotten, corrupt and vile; and he
comes and spreads out his hands and looks up to Heaven.
Why, the very angels in Heaven veil their faces before God as they cry:
“Holy, holy, holy!”
But this Pharisee comes into the Temple and spreads out his hands, and
says:
“Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. I fast twice a week.”
He set before God what he had done in comparison with other men, and was
striking a balance and making out God to be his debtor, as thousands are
doing today; and then he says: “I give one-tenth of all I possess.”
I suppose if he was living in Chicago now, and we had gone to him and
asked him for a donation to help put up this Tabernacle, he would have
said:
“Well, I think it will do good; yes, I think it will. It may reach the
vagabonds and outcasts--I do not need it, of course--but if it will reach
that class it will do good. I will give $50, especially if you can get it
in the morning papers--if you can have it announced: ‘John Jones gave $50
to build the Tabernacle.’”
That is the way some of the people give donations to God’s cause; they
give in a patronizing way. But in this manner God will not accept it. If
your heart does not go with your gift, God will not accept it.
This Pharisee says: “I give one-tenth of all that I have; I keep up the
services in the Temple; I fast twice a week.”
He fasted twice a week, although once was only called for, and he thought
because of this he was far above other men. A great many people nowadays
think because they do not eat meat on Fridays, but only fish, they
deserve great credit, although they go on sinning all the week.
Look at this prayer! There is no confession there. He had got so bad, and
the devil had so covered up his sins, that he was above confession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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