SERMON VIII. THE PRINCIPLE OF OFFERINGS TO GOD. II. SAMUEL, XXIV., 24. “Neither will I offer . . . unto the LORD my GOD of that which doth cost me nothing.” IT was a thrice enforced precept of the law that none should appear before GOD empty; that when men drew near to Him to celebrate His past mercies and deliverances, to ask for blessings, to deprecate wrath, to render thanks, to acknowledge dependence on His providence, they should at the same time present unto Him some offering of their substance. And this, be it observed, was not a mere temporary ordinance. It was not, like the sacrifices of bulls and goats, a ceremonious shadowing forth and pleading of the one sacrifice by which alone GOD could be approached and propitiated. It was a free-will offering, an acknowledgment that all things come of GOD, and that all things, though intrusted to them, belonged still to GOD. It was a confession of His Lordship, an act of homage, an exhibition of gratitude, a pledge of readiness to yield all that He might require. As such, it was to be offered whenever man perceived GOD to be operating upon, or for him, or whenever he would have GOD to be thus operating; it was to be presented at prescribed places, and under prescribed circumstances, which rendered pains and exertion necessary in the offerer; and it was to be of a kind and in a measure which should make it a real sacrifice—the giving up of something valuable and valued. “Every man shall give as he is able,” says Moses. “I will not offer unto the LORD my GOD,” exclaims David, “of that which doth cost me nothing.”