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Outward Services

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 27, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 38, No. 2.

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Outward Services.

By George Ide Butler

In religious duty, as set forth in the Bible, there are two classes of service which are obligatory upon all who acknowledge its authority. Let us consider their relation to each other, and the relative importance of each, and the object to be accomplished by them respectively.
One of these classes I designate outward services, the other is the effort to attain that condition of character which is acceptable to God and in harmony with his law. In the former we include, under the old dispensation, the sacrificial system and all those positive institutions contained in the law of Moses, and the outward acts of worship; and in the new dispensation, those ordinances pointing back to Christ, such as the Lord’s supper and baptism, attending and taking part in religious meetings, and the outward performance of devotion, and other things. In the latter is comprehended the heart service which results in love to God and man, and the development of the principles of justice, mercy, and truth, in our souls. It is perhaps needless to say that the latter is that which is acceptable to God, and the object of the former in God’s economy is merely as a means to the attainment of the latter, and that when this is lacking, the former is utterly worthless and even an abomination in the sight of Heaven. This may seem strong language, but it is fully warranted by the Scriptures. “Wherewith 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. “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.” Hosea 6: 6. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear [margin, to be seen] before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; 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 when ye spread forth your hands [evidently to pray], I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear.” Why does the Lord thus express himself to the house of Israel? Every one of these things he here speaks of were specially commanded by him in the law, and at times the Lord complains that this very kind of service was not rendered by them. Why then did the Lord complain when these services were so freely rendered? Why was he not willing to hear their prayers? Does not God desire his people to pray? Let the prophet answer: “Your hands are filled with blood. Wash ye, 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.” Isa. 1: 11–17. The first class of services were abhorrent to God unless the great principles of mercy, justice, and truth, were found in the heart.
Our Saviour says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Matt. 23: 23.
Both were obligatory, and the neglect of paying tithes is even declared by the prophet Malachi to be robbing God. Yet these outward services are not acceptable without the great principles of righteousness and mercy are in the heart. Nay, they are utterly useless, and even serve as a blind to those who are inquiring the way to God, by leading them to think this is sufficient when it is not.
I have been thus particular in giving these plain testimonies of Scripture because there is such a disposition in the human heart to accept this service as being all that is required. Satan tries to hinder us first from making any effort to serve God at all. If he fails in this, then his effort is to misdirect the mind to those things which are wholly insufficient to bring us to a condition to be saved. What multitudes has he deceived in this manner!
The pagans who have forgotten the true God have faculties that lead them to worship something. The gods they worship represent their standard of excellence; and it is of such a character as we should suppose Satan would be pleased to have man aim at, many times combining murder, adultery, and kindred abominations. Attached to their worship are seen many ceremonies of a gorgeous character to entice the popular mind, and very many painful, sanguinary rites. It is wonderful what zeal is manifested in their worship in contrast with the apathy of many in the service of a holy God. Men make the most painful pilgrimages, sometimes rolling over the ground doubled like a hoop, at other times stretching themselves on the earth repeatedly measuring hundreds of miles in this manner, at others holding the arm in some painful position for such a length of time that it grows fast and cannot be changed, and perhaps destroying themselves at last by being crushed beneath the idol car or burned upon the funeral pile. What zeal the devil inspires in the hearts of his votaries. But it will be noticed that his worship never leads to such graces as humility, meekness, mercy, and purity. Those fruits never grow on that tree.
When we come to those systems of religion which have apostatized from the Christian, we see the same principle. In the Catholic and Greek churches what an endless round of ceremonies! Ordinances are thought to possess a saving power. Every one familiar with church history knows to what an extent bodily mortifications and the observance of rites have been carried. Outward worship of the most pompous and dazzling character is ever seen; but when we inquire for meekness, love, mercy, and justice, we are answered by the cries of martyrs stretched upon racks, and the crackling flames of the stake, consuming the confessors of Jesus. The national, established churches called Protestant, are fast following in the steps of the “mother church.” The movement of the ritualists of the Episcopal church is but an evidence of the truth on this point. They are trying to ingraft upon their former practice all the rites of the Catholic church. And is it not a fact that in the great mass of Protestant churches to-day the service of God is principally seen in attending meeting, listening to preaching, and such forms and ceremonies as are thought to be obligatory upon Christians. And to bring the matter closer to us, I fear the same principle is seen manifested to an alarming extent among us. How many there are who seem to be satisfied with the mere form of outward service, and comparatively little of that. The truth is, there is a strong disposition of heart in humanity to be satisfied with this kind of service—an alarming danger on our part of resting easy while going the round of outward forms. If we have been baptized, if we have partaken regularly of the Lord’s supper, if we have attended meeting and outwardly kept the Sabbath, if we make our morning and evening prayer, if we have adopted the health reform, we then are pretty certain to consider ourselves Christians, all prepared for translation. On the contrary, those things in themselves never will make us Christians at all. To be a Christian, is to be a follower of Christ, to be actuated by the same principles, to possess the same traits of character, to love the same things he loved. He says, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” The will of God he was ever ready to do, whether pleasant for the time being or otherwise. He was not mainly intent on caring for his own interests, but felt specially interested for others. If we are his followers, we shall do as he did. The character of Christ was just such a one as the law of God, carried out, would perfect in us. “He was the end [object aimed at] of the law,” a living exemplification of its principles. These principles must be wrought in our hearts in indelible characters. Without this work is going on, all outward service is worthless, utterly worthless. But the very object of these outward services is to aid us to accomplish this work. Baptism and the Lord’s supper point vividly back to those great events in the life of our divine Example upon which our salvation turns. He died for us, was buried, and rose again. How important for us to realize and keep in memory these facts, if we are going to imitate his life. Attending meeting is a great assistance in the attainment of the principles of holiness referred to, as the importance of them and the objects to be gained by their attainment are there impressed upon the mind. Without prayer we never could gain strength to carry out these principles.
By wrong habits of living we may bring our bodies and minds into such a condition that we should find great difficulty in perceiving or appreciating the truth, or carrying it out if we did perceive it. The health reform may be a mighty help to us in many ways in that transformation of character required of us in the Scriptures. But eating and drinking, and in and of themselves alone considered, will never commend us to God. It is a character fitted for Heaven that will be admitted into Heaven. That transformation must be wrought in this world. Justice, mercy, and humbly walking with God, love for others, a meek and quiet spirit, a faithfulness in all the little acts of life, reverence for God, submission to his will, love of obedience, strict integrity of character as though we saw God’s eye upon us every moment, these, and such as these are the principles in which God will be well pleased, and without them all the outward services in the world are utterly valueless.
GEO. I. BUTLER.
Knoxville, Iowa, May 29, 1871.