Gold Nugget 169 - Imitative Creatures
We are such imitative creatures that we are prone to do as our neighbours do, without questioning the propriety of their conduct. Whenever we adopt the ordinary standard of life, without inquiring how it is related to the Divine standard, we are conforming to the worldly spirit. The worldly conduct may be much higher in one age than in another, and in one country than in another; but the essence of worldliness is unquestioning conformity to the standard of our neighbours. …
An individual loses mental as well as moral power, who conforms without question to the worldly customs of his time, and thus sacrifices his manhood. The easy-going, popular individual, who does this, that, and the other, for fear of being thought singular, is found to have very little strength of mind to begin with, and less every day he lives. In fact, nature is constructed upon the principle that the despised talent of manhood is forfeited when not employed, and there is clear descent in the scale of being. …
To bow down to the customs of even the best society or the highest civilization without inquiring how these customs stand toward the Divine Law, is to sacrifice our birthright of manliness for a mess of the rudest pottage.
The Pulpit Commentary, Leviticus p. 278-280, Leviticus 18:1-30, (R. M. Edgar)
Gold Nugget 169
Imitative Creatures
