+II. Violently opposes the representatives of genuine piety.+--"How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it" (ver. 13). Animated by extravagant zeal for the religion of his forefathers, the bigoted Pharisee became the deadliest enemy of the Church of Christ in its infant days. Indifferent to personal peril or to the feelings of the oppressed, he prosecuted his work of destruction with savage energy. He was a type of the Jewish fanatics who afterwards thirsted and plotted for his life, and the forerunner of the cruel zealots of the Inquisition and the Star Chamber in later times. The curse of ritualism is excessive intolerance. Blinded and puffed up with its unwarrantable assumptions, it loses sight of the essential elements of true religion. It sees nothing good in any other system but its own, and employs all methods that it dare, to compel universal conformity. It admits no rival. It alone is right; everything else is wrong, and all kinds of means are justifiable in crushing the heresy that presumes to deny its supreme claims. "Christ and Ritualism," says Horatius Bonar, "are opposed to each other, as light is to darkness. The cross and the crucifix cannot agree. Either ritualism will banish Christ or Christ will banish ritualism." +III. Is distinguished by his ardent study and defence of traditional religionism.+--"And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers" (ver. 14). The apostle had studied the Mosaic law under the ablest tutors of his day. He knew Judaism by heart and won a distinguished reputation for learning and for his strict adherence to the minutest details of traditional legalism. He was one of the ablest champions of the Mosaic system. The zealous ritualist spends his days and nights in studying, not the Word of God, but the sayings of men and the rules of the Church handed down by the traditions of past generations. Divine revelation is ignored, and human authority unduly exalted. His studies are misdirected, and his zeal misspent. He is wasting his energy in defending a lifeless organism. No man can honestly and prayerfully study God's Word and catch its meaning, and remain a mere ritualist. +Lessons.+--1. _Ritualism is the worship of external forms._ 2. _It breeds a spirit of intolerance and persecution._ 3. _It supplants true religion._ _GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._ Vers. 13, 14. _Mistaken Zeal--_ +I. May create a reputation for religious devotion.+--"Ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion" (ver. 13). +II. Breeds the spirit of violent persecution.+--"How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it" (ver. 13). +III. Makes one ambitious for superiority.+--"Profited . . . above many my equals, . . . being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers" (ver. 14). +IV. Is neither good nor wise.+