nguished
from its outward form. They never undervalued the letter of the law,
since that too was of divine appointment; but they taught men that true
obedience must rise above the letter to its spirit. When Saul excused
himself to Samuel for disobeying God's command on the ground that the
people had spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the
Lord, the prophet indignantly answered: "Hath the Lord as great delight
in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
rams." 1 Sam. 15:22. "Bring no more vain oblations," says God to the
Jews whose hands were full of oppression and blood; "incense is an
abomination unto me: the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of
assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a
trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them." And his direction is: "Wash
you, make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Isaiah 1:13-17.
"I hate," says God to the covenant people through Amos, "I despise your
feast-days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye
offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept
them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take
thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody
of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as
a mighty stream." Amos 5:21-24. "Wherewith," says Micah, "shall I come
before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before
him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be
pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:6-8. Under the Old Testament,
outward forms of divine service were required, and they are necessary,
to a certain extent, under the New also. But if any man puts his trust
for salvation in these, to the neglect of inward faith, love, and
obedience, he stands condemned at the bar of Moses and the