Spurgeon Meditations

 

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.

Sa1 0 22

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 evenin 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 Hischild is obedience; and though you should give your body to beburned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do nothearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shallprofit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as alittle child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one hasbeen taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter. How manyadorn their temples and decorate their priests, but refuse toobey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not thou into theirsecret.% 10/19/PM God my Maker who giveth songs in the night." --Job 35:10 Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow--the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by--who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well I can weave songs fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert where no green thing grows and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear and this body full of health and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue lay me upon the bed of languishing and how shall I then chant God's high praises unless He Himself give me the song? No it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song which Habakkuk sang when in the night he said Although the fig-tree shall notblossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of theolive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flockshall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd inthe stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in theGod of my salvation. Then since our Maker gives songs in the night let us wait upon Him for the music. O Thou chief musician let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us but tune Thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.


First page | Prev | Next | Last page |