“Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of
our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of
rams, and the fat of fed beasts: and I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more
vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and
Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity,
even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my
soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And
when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; yea, when
ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before
mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. . . . How is the
faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness
lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine
mixed with water; thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves;
every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the
fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel,
Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.” . . .
Again, I say, my friends, listen to it, and take it solemnly to heart!
That is God’s opinion of religion, even the truest and soundest in
worship and doctrine, when it is without godliness, without holiness;
when it goes in hand with injustice, and covetousness, and falsehood, and
cheating, and oppression, and neglect of the poor, and keeping company
with the wicked, because it is profitable; in short, when it is like too
much of the religion which we see around us in the world at this day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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