surprises.[3] The remedy for it is earnest, searching, prayerful self-examination, conducted in the light of God's Word.[4] +3. That God describes men according to their essential character.+ He does not take men according to their own estimates of their character and conduct, and ticked them accordingly. His description of man is often precisely the opposite of that which they would give of themselves, and even of what men would give of them. His neighbours as well as himself would doubtless have described the prosperous farmer (Luke xii. 16) as a shrewd and wise man, but God pronounced him to be a fool. So here, these men who prided themselves that they were rulers of Jerusalem, the holy city, were declared to be "rulers of Sodom," the vilest of cities. Are we quite sure that God describes _us_ as we have been accustomed to describe ourselves? II. A SOLEMN SUMMONS. "Hear the _word_ of the Lord; . . . give ear unto the _law_ of our God." What is the law to which attention is thus emphatically called? It is the great truth announced in the following verses (11-15), that +worship offered by ungodly men is not only without value, but is positively hateful in the sight of God.+ The most flaming zeal concerning the externals of religion is often found in men of unholy life.[5] Judas was evidently so zealous in such matters as completely to delude his fellow-disciples: even when Christ announced that there was a traitor in their midst, no suspicion turned towards him; the eleven were more ready to suspect themselves than him (Matt. xxvi. 21). Attention to the externals of religion is in itself a good thing; but unless it be conjoined with integrity and benevolence, it will secure for us at the last not the commendation but the condemnation of the Judge (Matt. xxiii. 23). FOOTNOTES: