, because, though "they seem foolish rather than
wicked, yet do they lead to this too grave result, that men learn to
rely upon the creature in trifles, and so fail in great things to rely
upon God" (_Ibid._)

This view of false worship is frequent in Scripture itself. The
Chaldeans were idolaters of an elaborate and imposing ritual, but their
true deities were not to be found in temples. They adored what they
really trusted upon, and that was their military prowess--the god of the
modern commander, who said that Providence sided with the big
battalions. The Chaldean is "he whose might is his god," whereas the
sacred warrior has the Lord for his strength and shield and very present
help in battle. Nay, regarding men "as the fishes of the sea," and his
own vast armaments as the fisher's apparatus to sweep them away, the
Chaldean, it is said, "sacrificeth unto his net, and burneth incense
unto his drag; because by them his portion is fat and his meat
plenteous" (Hab. i. 11, 14-16). Multitudes of humbler people practise a
similar idolatry. They say to God "Give us this day our daily bread";
but they really ascribe their maintenance to their profession or their
trade; and so this is the true object of their homage. They, too, burn
incense to their drag.

Others had no thought of a higher blessedness than animal enjoyment.
Their god was their belly. They set the excitement of wine in the place
of the fulness of the Spirit, or preferred some depraved union upon
earth to the honour of being one spirit with the Lord (Phil. iii. 19;
Eph. v. 18; 1 Cor. vi. 16, 17). And some tried to combine the world and
righteousness; not to lose heaven while grasping wealth, and receiving
here not only good things, but the only good things they
acknowledged--_their_ good things (Luke xvi. 25). As the Samaritans
feared the Lord and served graven images, so these were fain to serve
God and mammon (2 Kings xvii. 41; Matt. vi. 24).

Now, these departures from the true Centre of all love and Source of all
light were really a homage to His great rival, "the god of this world."
Whenever men seek to obtain any prize by departing from God, they do
reverence to him who falsely said of all the kingdoms of the earth, and
their glory, "These things are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I
will I give them." They deny Him to Whom indeed all power is committed
in heaven and earth.

What is the remedy, then, for all such formal or virtual apostasies? It