Gold Nugget 212 - Vain Confidence

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      Men are often tempted to rely on religious symbols and appointments, not so much to glorify God therewith as to protect themselves.  It is much easier to shout over these than to break off sins by righteousness.  So the cross has been worn in many an evil enterprise, and carried into many battles, to defend cruel and rapacious men.

      So, also, men shout over their Church, their English Bible, their prayer-book, or their Sabbath, in a vain confidence that their relation to one of them, or to all of them, will secure the Divine favour, or, at all events, Divine defense, though in character and life they be no better than others who boast of none of these things.

      But is all a delusion, and they who go into some hard battle of life with no better security are destined to a thorough defeat. … What a selfish man wants in religion is to have God bound to take his part and fight on his side, instead of his studying to be on God’s side, which is the side of righteousness. …

      Have not many Chyristians similar thoughts of God?  Almost every great act of rapine has been perpetrated, and every war, however unjust, has been waged, with grave appeal to heaven, and gross usurpers and tyrants have had “Te Deum” sung for their infamous victories.  But in vain do unrighteous men claim religious sanctions.  God defends the right, and his face is against the wrong-doer.

The Pulpit Commentary, I Samuel p. 99, I Samuel 4:11, (D. Fraser)

Gold Nugget 212 – Vain Confidence

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