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Paul had been commanded to slay utterly all the Amalekites and their
cattle. Instead of doing so, he preserved the
king, and suffered his
people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to
account for this, he declared
that he did it with a view of offering
sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that
sacrifices
were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence
before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to
be hung
up
before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very
fond of
the fineries of will-worship,
but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be
it
ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your
Saviour's
command is better than any outward form of religion; and to
hearken to His precept with an attentive ear is better than
to bring
the
fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon His altar. If
you are
failing to keep the least
of Christ's commands to His disciples, I
pray
you be disobedient no longer.
All the pretensions you make of attachment to your Master, and all the
devout actions which you may perform, are no
recompense for
disobedience.
"To obey," even in the slightest and smallest thing,
"is better than
sacrifice,"
however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants,
sumptuous
robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires
of His
child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be
burned, and
all your goods to feed the poor,
yet if you do not hearken to the
Lord's
precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a
blessed
thing
to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed
thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it
out to the
letter.
How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse to
obey the word of the Lord!
My soul, come not thou into their secret.
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