fact was, that
though he worshiped God, he worshiped with only half a heart, and he
sometimes, I suppose, repented of the fact that he worshiped him at all,
and really had a hankering after those old gods which in his earliest days
he had worshiped. And now we find him in Rachel's tent looking for them.

Do not let us, however, be too severely critical of Laban. He is only the
representative of thousands of Christian men and women, who, once having
espoused the worship of God, go back to their idols. When a man professes
faith in Christ on communion-day, with the sacramental cup in his hand, he
swears allegiance to the Lord God Almighty, and says, "Let all my idols
perish!" but how many of us have forsaken our fealty to God, and have gone
back to our old idols!

There are many who sacrifice their soul's interests in the idolatry of
wealth. There was a time when you saw the folly of trying with, money to
satisfy the longing of your soul. You said, when you saw men going down
into the dust and tussle of life, "Whatever god I worship, it won't be a
golden calf." You saw men plunge into the life of a spendthrift, or go down
into the life of a miser, like one of old smothered to death in his own
money-chest, and you thought, "I shall be very careful never to be caught
in these traps in which so many men have fallen, to their souls' eternal
discomfiture."

But you went down into the world; you felt-the force of temptation; you saw
men all around you making money very fast, some of them sacrificing all
their Christian principle; you felt the fascination come upon your own
soul, and before you knew it, you were with Laban going down to hunt in
Rachel's tent for your lost idols.

On one of our pieces of money you find the head of a goddess, a poor
inscription for an American coin; far better the inscription that the old
Jews put upon the shekel, a pot of manna and an almond rod, alluding to the
mercy and deliverance of God in their behalf in other days. But how seldom
it is that money is consecrated to Christ! Instead of the man owning the
money, the money owns the man. It is evident, especially to those with whom
they do business every day, that they have an idol, or that, having once
forsaken the idol, they are now in search of it, far away from the house of
God, in Rachel's tent looking for the lost images.

One of the mighty men of India said to his servants: "Go not near the cave
in such a ravine." The servants talked t